Understanding your result
The headline is the days from start to finish, with the work hours and any curing time beneath it. The stats give the work hours, the working days and the waits; the table lists installation, prep and removal in crew-days, the working time for your crew, the waits, and the total.
Crew-days are the time a two-person professional crew needs for each part: installing at the material’s daily output, slowed by the pattern; prep by its level; and removal at about 600 sq ft a day. Working time for your crew scales that to the people you have and their pace: two professionals is the baseline, one person halves it, and a first-timer halves it again. Working days divide the hours by your working day.
Waits are the times that cannot be shortened: thinset curing before grouting, grout before traffic, leveler before flooring, adhesive before furniture. They are added to the working days for the start-to-finish figure. For a schedule with dates across several rooms, use the flooring project schedule; for what the time costs, the installer labour calculator; and to weigh the hours against a quote, the DIY vs pro calculator.
How we calculate this
Daily outputs are installer rules of thumb for a two-person crew in an empty room, the same figures as the labour calculator. Curing times are typical product data: thinset and grout about 24 hours each, self-leveler about 24 hours before most floors, adhesives about a day before heavy furniture. The installer charges guide explains crew rates, the self-leveling guide covers leveler curing, and the refinishing guide covers the drying time for site-finished wood.
The assumptions behind the numbers
| Assumption | Default | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Daily output, two-person crew | click plank 650, engineered 450, nailed hardwood 350, tile 150, carpet 900 sq ft | Installer rules of thumb |
| Pattern | diagonal ×1.15, herringbone ×1.4 | Installer practice |
| Removal | 600 sq ft per crew-day | Average of easy and hard floors |
| First-time DIY | half a professional’s pace | A judgement |
| Waits | thinset 24 h, grout 24 h, leveler 24 h, adhesive 24 h | Typical product data sheets |
Assumptions last reviewed October 8, 2026.
The calculator assumes an empty room. Moving furniture, working around appliances, many small rooms, stairs and doors that need trimming add time. It does not include acclimation before the job, which wood needs, or the sanding and finishing of site-finished wood, which the acclimation planner and the sanding calculator cover.
Two worked examples
900 sq ft of laminate replacing carpet
Professional crew of two, sound subfloor.
- Installing: 900 ÷ 650 = 1.38 crew-days
- Removal: 900 ÷ 600 = 1.5 crew-days
- Working time: 2.9 days, about 23 hours; 3 days start to finish, no waits
Removal takes longer than laying here. A floating floor is walkable as soon as the last plank is in, so the room is back in use the evening of the third day.
180 sq ft of diagonal tile, DIY alone, over leveler
- Installing: 180 ÷ 150 × 1.15 = 1.38 crew-days; prep 0.45; removal 0.3
- Working time at a quarter of a crew’s pace: 8.5 days, about 68 hours
- Waits: leveler, thinset and grout, 72 hours
- Total: 12 days start to finish
The same kitchen takes a professional crew about four or five days. The waits are the same for both; the difference is all in the working time.
Where to find your inputs
Floor, pattern and area. From your plan.
Prep and removal. What the subfloor needs and whether an old floor is coming out.
People and pace. Who is working; tick first-time DIY if it applies.
Hours per day. A professional day is about 8 hours; weekend DIY is often less.
Common mistakes
- Counting only the laying. Removal and prep often take as long.
- Ignoring the waits. Tile and leveler cure on their own schedule.
- Planning a DIY floor in one weekend. A first-timer takes four times a crew’s hours.
- Furniture in the room. Moving it in and out adds hours.
- No acclimation time for wood. Plan the days before the job too.
- Walking on grout too soon. Wait the full cure.
Questions people ask
- How long does it take to install 1,000 square feet of flooring?
- For click vinyl plank or laminate, a two-person crew lays about 650 sq ft a day, so about a day and a half, plus removal and prep. For nailed hardwood about three days; for tile about seven days of setting, plus a day for grout and curing.
- How long does tile take to install?
- A two-person crew sets about 100 to 200 sq ft a day including cuts, then grouts the next day once the thinset has cured, and the grout needs about a day before light traffic. A 180 sq ft kitchen on the diagonal is about two days of work and four or five days start to finish.
- How long does it take to remove an old floor?
- About 600 sq ft a day for a crew on an average floor, faster for carpet, much slower for tile in mortar. The removal calculator gives the time by material.
- Can extra people speed up a floor?
- The laying, yes, roughly in proportion up to the point people get in each other's way. The curing waits, no: thinset, grout, leveler and finish coats cure on their own schedule.
- How long before I can walk on a new floor?
- Floating floors at once. Glued floors usually after the adhesive's open time, often a few hours, with heavy furniture after a day. Tile after the grout has cured, about a day for light traffic. Site-finished wood after the last coat, two or three days.
- How much longer does a DIY floor take?
- A first-timer working alone takes about four times as long as a professional crew of two, because there is one person instead of two and each works at about half the pace.