Engineered Timber Flooring Cost in Melbourne 2026

Most Melbourne homes land between $110 and $250 per m² supplied and installed for engineered timber flooring in 2026.

Breaking that down: entry level around $110 to $150, mid range around $150 to $190, and premium wide plank European Oak around $190 to $250 or higher.

That figure covers the boards, the underlay or adhesive, and the labour to lay it. It does not usually cover subfloor levelling, removing your old floor, skirting, or stairs, which is where most of the surprise costs come from.

For a rough budget, take your floor area, add 10 percent for wastage, and multiply by $170 per m². A typical 100m² Melbourne home comes out around $17,000 to $19,000 all in, and a 60m² living and dining area around $10,000 to $12,000.

If a quote comes in dramatically below that, it’s usually one of three things: a very thin wear layer, prep excluded, or a floating install where you were expecting direct stick. All three are legitimate choices, they just need to be visible in the quote so you know what you’re comparing.

We offer high-quality Hardwood Flooring Melbourne for every style and budget.

 

Full Price Table: Supply Only, Install Only, Supplied and Installed

Entry Level

$110 to $150 per m² installed. Typically a 12mm to 14mm board with a 2mm wear layer, or sometimes an HDF core with a thin veneer. Usually floated over a foam underlay, usually a narrower plank around 150mm to 190mm, and a smaller colour range.

Right for: rentals, investment properties, budget renovations, or anyone who plans to be in the house under 10 years. It’s real timber and it looks good. It just isn’t a floor you restore, it’s a floor you eventually replace.

 

Mid Range

$150 to $190 per m² installed. A 14mm to 15mm board with a 3mm to 4mm wear layer, plywood core, 180mm to 220mm wide, prefinished with a decent multi coat matt finish. Direct stick or floated, your choice.

This is where most Melbourne owner occupiers land, and it’s genuinely the best value point in the market. You get a floor you can sand two or three times, in a width that looks current, without paying premium prices.

 

Premium European Oak

$190 to $270 per m² installed, sometimes more. A 20mm to 21mm board with a 5mm to 6mm wear layer, wide plank at 220mm to 300mm, long lengths up to 2.4m, brushed and oiled or a high grade UV coating, and a much broader colour and grade selection.

You’re paying for the format as much as the timber. Wide long boards need thicker construction to stay flat, and they need a flatter subfloor to lay on. The result is a floor that reads as one continuous surface, which is exactly what a large open plan space wants.

Discover our top product categories: 

• European Oak Flooring Melbourne

•  Australian Hardwood Flooring Melbourne

•  Parquet Flooring Melbourne

•  Hybrid Flooring Melbourne

•  Laminate Flooring Melbourne

 

 

Floating vs Direct Stick: How the Method Changes the Price

Two ways to attach an engineered floor, and it moves your price meaningfully.

The extra $15 to $30 per m² for direct stick buys you a noticeably better floor to walk on. On a 100m² job that’s $1,500 to $3,000, and it’s usually the upgrade that changes how the finished floor feels more than any other line item.

Two situations where it isn’t a choice: apartments and strata almost always require a floating install over an acoustic underlay to meet body corporate noise ratings, and underfloor heating works far better with direct stick because glue transfers heat much better than an air gap.

 

What’s Included in a Proper Quote and What Isn’t

Normally included:

• The flooring itself, at the quoted m² rate
• Underlay or adhesive
• Installation labour
• Standard trims where floors meet other surfaces
• Basic clean up and removal of packaging
• Expansion gaps set out correctly at walls

Normally NOT included, and quoted separately:

• Subfloor levelling and preparation
• Moisture testing on a concrete slab
• Removing and disposing of your existing floor
• Skirting boards, or scotia to cover expansion gaps
• Stairs
• Door trimming
• Moving furniture
• Acoustic underlay upgrades for strata

None of that is a trick. It’s excluded because none of it can be priced accurately without seeing your house. A quote that includes everything sight unseen is either padded or will change later.

The right move is to get a quote after a site measure, not over the phone from a floor plan.

 

 

Costs Quoted Separately

Subfloor Levelling and Preparation

$10 to $80 per m², occasionally more.

This is the biggest variable in any timber flooring job, and the one that catches people out. Australian Standard AS 1884 requires the subfloor to be within about 4mm over a 2 metre span for a timber floor. A lot of Melbourne slabs, especially older ones and anything with a bathroom rebuild in it, aren’t close.

• Light grinding of high spots: $10 to $25 per m²
• Self levelling compound over part of the area: $25 to $45 per m²
• Full level of a badly out slab: $50 to $80 plus per m²

Insist on a site inspection before you accept any quote. A supplier who prices this properly upfront is doing you a favour, not upselling you.

 

 

Old Floor Removal and Disposal

$10 to $30 per m².

Carpet and underlay is cheap to pull up, around $8 to $15 per m². Tiles glued to a slab are the expensive end, $25 to $40 per m², because they need to be jackhammered and the residual adhesive ground off. Skip bin hire adds $300 to $700 depending on volume.

Sometimes you can lay straight over existing tiles, which saves the whole line item. It does raise your floor height by around 15mm to 20mm, so check door clearances and any step downs first.

Skirting, Scotia and Stairs

Timber floors need an expansion gap at every wall, and something has to cover it.

• Scotia or quad, the small moulding against your existing skirting: $12 to $25 per lineal metre supplied and installed
• New skirting, removing the old and fitting new: $35 to $70 per lineal metre
• Stairs: $90 to $180 per tread including the nosing, and more for a curved or open staircase

Stairs are always the highest cost per square metre of any part of a job. They’re slow, they’re fiddly, and the nosings have to be perfect. A 14 step staircase can easily add $1,500 to $2,500.

 

Wastage Allowance

5 to 15 percent depending on the layout and grade.

• Simple rectangular rooms, straight lay: 5 to 7 percent
• Multiple rooms, hallways, angles: 8 to 10 percent
• Rustic grade or heavy character: 10 to 12 percent
• Herringbone or chevron: 10 to 15 percent

Always order the full allowance. Ordering short means a second batch from a different production run, which can be a visibly different shade, and you’ll have no spare boards for repairs later.

 

Real Melbourne Project Examples

60m² Open Plan Living

Mid range 15mm engineered European Oak, 190mm wide, 3mm wear layer, direct stick to a concrete slab, existing carpet removed.

 

120m² Whole House Renovation

Premium 20mm European Oak, 220mm wide plank, 6mm wear layer, direct stick to slab, tiles removed, new skirting, no stairs.

Look at the gap between the two effective rates. Same category of product, wildly different total, and almost all of the difference is prep, removal and skirting rather than the floor itself. That’s why a per m² number quoted over the phone is close to meaningless.

Handpicked floor designs to match all styles and interiors: 

• Tassie Oak Flooring Melbourne

•  Engineered Blackbutt Flooring Melbourne

•  Jarrah Hardwood Melbourne

•  Spotted Gum Flooring Melbourne 

•  Herringbone Timber Flooring Melbourne

•  Chevron Timber Floors Melbourne

 

What Makes Your Price Go Up or Down

Pushes it up:

• Wide planks over 220mm, which need thicker boards and a flatter subfloor
• Herringbone or chevron, which add 30 to 50 percent to labour
• Removing tiles rather than carpet
• An out of level slab
• Stairs
• Multiple small rooms rather than one large space, since cutting and set out time goes up
• Rustic grades, through wastage
• Tight access, upper floors with no lift, or a narrow driveway
• Working around a fixed trade schedule on a build

Brings it down:

• Laying over an existing sound, level floor instead of removing it
• Choosing 190mm rather than 260mm wide
• Floating rather than direct stick, where the situation allows
• One large open space rather than many small rooms
• Booking outside the spring and pre Christmas rush
• Clearing furniture and old floor coverings yourself
• Doing the whole house at once rather than in stages, since mobilisation is charged once

 

How to Compare Two Quotes Fairly

Two quotes are almost never comparing the same thing. Run through this list before you decide.

1. Wear layer in mm, not just total board thickness. A 15mm board can have 4mm or 0.6mm on top.
2. Core material. Plywood or HDF. Plywood is more stable and more repairable.
3. Install method. Floating or direct stick, and which underlay or adhesive.
4. Wastage percentage, and whether it’s included in the m² rate or added later.
5. Subfloor prep. Included, excluded, or “to be assessed.” The last one means it’s coming.
6. Removal and disposal of the existing floor, and skip costs.
7. Scotia, new skirting, or nothing.
8. Stairs, quoted per tread.
9. Warranty, structural and surface, and what voids it.
10. Who actually does the install. Employed teams or subcontracted, and whether the person quoting will be on site.

If one quote is $3,000 cheaper, work down that list until you find where the $3,000 went. It’s always in there somewhere.

 

Get a Fixed Price Quote for Your Home

A per m² range is useful for budgeting and useless for deciding. The only number that matters is the one for your house, your slab and your layout.

At Flooring Expert we measure on site, check your subfloor before quoting rather than after, and give you a fixed price with the prep already accounted for. We run our own install teams instead of subcontracting, which is why we can commit to a number and hold it.

Our range covers all three tiers above: engineered European Oak from 14mm to 21mm in more than 200 colours including wide plank, engineered Australian hardwood in Blackbutt, Spotted Gum, Jarrah and Tasmanian Oak, plus herringbone and chevron parquetry, hybrid and laminate if timber isn’t the right answer for your space.

• Book a free measure and quote and we’ll price the prep properly, so there are no mid job surprises
• Bring us another quote and we’ll go through it line by line so you can see what’s actually being compared
• Visit the Balwyn North showroom on Doncaster Road to see full boards rather than small samples

We service all Melbourne suburbs, including Balwyn, Kew, Doncaster, Glen Waverley, Brighton, Blackburn, Mitcham, Croydon and Knox.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How much does engineered timber flooring cost installed in Melbourne?

$110 to $250 per m² supplied and installed in 2026, depending on the board spec and install method. Most owner occupiers land around $150 to $190.

 

Is engineered timber cheaper than solid timber?

Yes, usually by $50 to $80 per m² installed, mainly because solid timber has to be sanded and coated on site.

 

How much should I budget for a 100m² house?

Roughly $17,000 to $19,000 for a mid range floor supplied and installed, plus prep. Add $2,000 to $5,000 if you’re removing tiles or levelling a slab.

 

Why do quotes vary so much for the same square metreage?

Almost always the wear layer, the install method, or whether subfloor prep is included. Those three explain the majority of the gap.

 

Do I pay for wastage?

Yes. You buy the material, so you pay for the 5 to 15 percent extra that gets cut off. Keep the leftovers, they’re your repair stock.

 

Can I supply the flooring myself and just pay for install?

Most installers will do it, at $45 to $90 per m². Be aware that if the product is faulty or the wrong spec, the warranty conversation is then entirely yours to have with the supplier.

 

How long does installation take?

Two to three days for a typical 80m² to 100m² home. Add a day for direct stick cure time and another for prep or removal.

 

Is there a minimum job size?

Most installers have a minimum call out, often equivalent to 15m² to 20m². Very small jobs cost more per m² because setup time is the same.

 

Does the price include moving my furniture?

Usually not. Clearing rooms yourself is the easiest way to save a few hundred dollars.

 

When is the cheapest time to book?

Winter and early in the year are quieter than spring and the run into Christmas. Lead times are shorter and there’s more scheduling flexibility.