Flooring contract template — subfloor, moisture and acclimation
Most flooring failures trace to the subfloor or to moisture, and most flooring disputes trace to a contract that never mentioned either.
This is a checklist of what a flooring contract has to settle — not a ready-to-sign legal document, and not legal advice. Most states regulate home improvement contracts: required disclosures, cancellation windows, deposit limits and licence display all vary, and some trades carry extra rules. Adapt this, then have a lawyer in your state review it before you put it in front of a customer.
Download as a spreadsheet to work through, or print it to sit alongside your own agreement.
What a flooring contract has to settle
A flooring contract has to address what is underneath and what is in the air. Subfloor condition cannot be fully known until the old floor is up, so it needs an allowance with unit rates. Moisture is the one that voids manufacturer warranties: on slab, a moisture test belongs in the contract as a precondition, with a stated course of action if it fails. Acclimation time is a manufacturer requirement, not a preference, and skipping it to hit a date shifts liability squarely onto whoever agreed to skip it.
Clauses it needs
- Parties, licence number, and the rooms and square footage in scope
- Product by name, thickness and wear layer, with lot recording
- Waste factor, stated as a percentage and explained
- Subfloor allowance with unit rates for levelling, patching and board replacement
- Moisture testing on slab, the passing threshold, and the action if it fails
- Acclimation period required by the manufacturer, shown in the schedule
- Furniture moving and appliance disconnection: whose responsibility
- Removal and disposal of the existing floor
- Transitions, thresholds and trim, itemised
- Warranty, and the conditions that void the manufacturer's
What flooring contracts actually get argued over
- Movement or cupping after acclimation was skipped to hit a date
- Subfloor repair discovered mid-job with no allowance agreed
- A slab moisture failure with no clause saying what happens next
- Waste factor billed as material without ever having been explained
The estimate this contract is built on
A contract can only be as clear as the scope it references. BidWand drafts the itemised estimate — labour, materials, exclusions and assumptions — that the scope and exclusions clauses point at.
Draft the flooring estimate this contract references
This generates the estimate, not the contract — describe the job and you get the itemised scope to attach. No email needed to see the first one.
What you get — see the format first
A complete estimate you can send to the customer, built from the rate you enter:
| Description | Qty | Unit | Unit price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor — itemized by task | hrs | hour | your rate | — |
| Materials — with your markup applied | qty | ea / sq ft | cost + markup | — |
| Permits, disposal, access | — | — | — | — |
Plus a plain-English scope summary, assumptions (what had to be guessed), exclusions (what you are not doing — the section that prevents most change-order arguments), and a validity period. Printable, or send the link.
Every figure comes from the rate and markup you supply. We never fill in a market price for you.
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How to estimate
How to write a contractor estimate · Estimate vs quote vs bid — and which one you should send · What to include in a contractor estimate · How to price a job as a contractor · Should you charge for estimates? · How to follow up on an estimate · How to handle change orders · Estimate vs invoice: what's the difference? · How to raise your prices as a contractor