How to Get Paid for Flooring Work: Deposit, Subfloor, Final
Short answer: To get paid for flooring work, tie the deposit to the material order, not to a percentage: the boxes are ordered against one dye lot and priced by the square foot with 7 to 10 percent waste, so that money is gone the day it ships. Then draw at tear-out and prep, draw when the material is delivered and acclimated, and collect the balance the day transitions and base go in.
Flooring has a cash flow shape almost no other trade has. A large share of the contract leaves your account before a single plank is cut, the material cannot be returned once a box is opened, and the one thing that decides whether the job runs clean — the condition of the subfloor — is invisible until the old floor is out. Money that is not structured around those three facts ends up funding somebody else’s remodel. What belongs on the paperwork itself is in what to include on an invoice.
Why does the money have to move before the material does?
Because ordering is the irreversible step. Boxes are cut against a dye lot, priced by the square foot, and shipped against a specific takeoff. Once the wrap comes off, restocking is at best partial and usually gone. The customer’s flooring is not stock you can sell to the next job.
The second reason is that the labor line is not one number. It changes with the material, and a single per-square-foot price across everything is how bids go wrong.
| Material | What the labor line has to carry separately |
|---|---|
| LVP, click system | Underlayment where it is not pre-attached, transitions, quarter round, and a strict flatness tolerance |
| Laminate | The same, plus expansion gaps at every vertical and a hard stop on run length without a break |
| Engineered wood | Float, glue-down, or staple — three different labor rates — plus a slab moisture test before any of them |
| Solid nail-down | Nail-down labor, then sand and finish as its own scope with cure days and a house nobody walks in |
| Ceramic and porcelain tile | Substrate prep, membrane, thinset, layout, grout, then a grout cure day before traffic |
| Carpet | Tack strip, pad, seams, and stretching, with waste driven by roll width rather than by a waste percentage |
Stairs never belong in the square foot number. Price them per tread and riser, with nosings and returns called out separately, because a fourteen-step run can carry more labor than the bedroom above it.
What should the flooring deposit actually cover?
The material order and nothing else. Show it as a list rather than a percentage, because a list is arithmetic and a percentage is a negotiation.
Take the field square footage, add waste, and price it: 7 to 10 percent is the ordinary allowance for a straight lay, and a diagonal, herringbone, or chevron layout runs materially higher because every cut is angled and offcuts stop being reusable. Rooms full of closets, jogs, and short runs push it up again. Then add the items that never make it into a mental estimate: underlayment, adhesive or thinset and grout, transitions and reducers, thresholds, stair nosings, and base or shoe molding priced by the linear foot.
Three rules keep it defensible. The deposit does not cover your labor, because unperformed labor is the customer’s leverage and taking it invites the fight you are avoiding. The deposit does cover anything special-ordered or non-returnable, since that money is spent the moment the order is placed. And several states cap residential deposits by percentage or dollar amount, so check your contractor board before printing a figure on a form.
Customer-supplied flooring needs no deposit and needs a paragraph instead: short material is their problem, damaged or off-lot boxes are their claim, and the return mobilization is billed. Count the boxes on delivery day with them present and photograph the lot numbers.
Who pays when the subfloor is not flat?
Whoever wrote the contract badly. Floor leveling is the single most-skipped line in flooring bids and the most expensive surprise in the trade, and it becomes a payment problem the moment it appears as an unpriced demand halfway through a job.
Fix it before demo with a conditional unit-price allowance. Write the manufacturer’s flatness tolerance into the contract as the standard, since the warranty depends on meeting it, then state a unit price for patch by the square foot, self-leveling underlayment by the bag installed, and primer, with a stated quantity included in the base price. Anything past that quantity is billed at the stated unit price with a photo and a measurement. The customer has already agreed to the number, so the conversation on day two is arithmetic instead of an argument.
Do the same for moisture on a slab. Test before installation, state the threshold in the contract, and price the mitigation coating as a conditional line. A failed slab stops the install either way; the only question is whether the stop costs you a change order fight.
Tear-out has its own trap in older homes. Pulling base and disturbing painted surfaces in a pre-1978 house brings the work under EPA’s lead renovation, repair and painting program, which requires a certified firm and lead-safe work practices. That is a real cost, and it is also a stop-work risk. Price it up front rather than discovering it with the floor half out.
How should a whole-house job be split into draws?
Break it at moments that can be photographed or verified, so no draw depends on how the customer feels that morning.
| Milestone | What proves it | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| Signing | Material, underlayment, adhesive, transitions, and base purchased | Material at cost, itemized, not a round percentage |
| Tear-out and disposal complete, subfloor prepped | Photos of the bare, patched, leveled substrate | A share of the labor |
| Material delivered and acclimating in the house | Delivery ticket and box count, photographed | A share of the labor |
| Field installed, before transitions and base | Walk the field with the customer | The largest labor share |
| Transitions, base or shoe, and final walkthrough | Signed punch list | Remainder, collected on site |
Treat those as a shape and not a rule. The right split follows your own cash position — how much material you float, what terms your supplier gives you, how many days of payroll sit between draws — and your state may govern residential schedules above a dollar threshold. Two habits matter more than the percentages: the draw invoice goes out the day the milestone is hit, and the next stage does not start until the previous draw clears.
Which flooring complaints stop a check, and how do I disarm them first?
Each of these is predictable, which means each one can be answered in writing before it is raised.
- The gap at the wall. It is an expansion gap required by the manufacturer, and base or shoe covers it. Quote the requirement in the contract so it reads as specification rather than sloppiness.
- Color and grain variation. Natural material varies by plank and by lot. Dry-lay a mock row or hand over a signed sample board before installation, photograph the approval, and the conversation is over before it starts.
- A hollow sound underfoot. On a floating floor this traces straight back to substrate flatness, which is exactly why the leveling clause exists.
- Lippage and hollow tile. Set an allowable tolerance in the contract by reference to the industry standard for the installation method, so “it is not perfectly flat” has a definition.
- Squeaks in a nail-down floor. Over a subfloor you did not build, this is a pre-existing condition. Note it, photograph it, and price the screw-down remediation as an option before you start.
- Furniture, appliances, and paint. State who moves the furniture, that appliance disconnection is not yours, and that painting and drywall touch-up are excluded. A disconnected refrigerator water line is not a flooring problem you want to own.
How do I collect the day the last transition goes down?
Run the walkthrough as a payment event, not as a courtesy visit. Do it with the customer present, with the lights on, at a time of day when the floor is actually lit. Write the punch list yourself, date it, get it signed or texted back, and hand over the invoice standing in the room.
Never leave transitions, thresholds, or shoe molding for “next week.” That leftover is retainage the customer invented for themselves, and it will hold the entire balance. Finish the trim, then ask.
Take payment on the spot by card, tap, or the QR payment link printed on the invoice, and hand over a receipt the moment the balance clears — see what is a receipt for what has to be on it. On a large residential balance, tell the customer a week ahead what the final figure will be and how you take it, so the money is moved before you are standing there.
How do builders, property managers, and insurance jobs pay?
On systems, and each system has a specific way of costing you time.
Builders and general contractors run pay applications with lien waivers attached: conditional waivers on progress payments, unconditional on final. Sign the unconditional one only after the money has actually cleared. Expect retainage held to closing, and read the pay-when-paid clause before you price the work, because it decides how long you are financing the job.
Property managers pay per work order. Put the work order number, unit number, and address on every invoice, invoice each unit separately, and get any not-to-exceed limit in writing before you start. The mechanics of billing an organization instead of a homeowner are covered in how to invoice a company for freelance work.
Insurance and restoration work is slower and more literal. Extras need adjuster approval before they are performed, the scope is measured against the carrier’s line items, and the check frequently carries the mortgage company’s name and cannot be endorsed until the lender signs. Your contract is with the homeowner regardless of who reimburses them, and the schedule should say so in a sentence.
What do I do when a flooring invoice goes past due?
Work a fixed ladder on a calendar so it is not a mood.
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| 0 | Final invoice handed over at the walkthrough, payment requested in person |
| 3 | Text with the payment link and the signed punch list attached |
| 10 | Call, offer to take the card immediately |
| 15 | Written notice that any workmanship warranty is suspended while the balance is open |
| 20 | Preliminary lien notice if your state requires one and the clock is still live |
| 30 | Decide: lien filing, small claims, or write it off |
Flooring contractors have mechanics lien rights in every state, and those rights expire on deadlines that vary enormously, several of which start at first delivery of material rather than at completion. Look your state’s deadlines up once, then calendar them the day the material ships. The rest of the escalation sequence is in how to get clients to pay.
What records keep a flooring job collectible?
Six: the signed estimate with its conditional leveling and moisture lines, the approved sample or mock-row photo, the delivery ticket with the lot numbers, dated photos of the bare and prepped substrate, the signed punch list, and a sequentially numbered invoice with the supply tickets behind the material figure.
Keel keeps all of that on the phone — no account, no bank connection, no cloud, no login, and an App Store privacy label that reads Data Not Collected. The draw invoice goes out from the job the same hour the milestone is hit, with your own numbering, your logo and brand color, and the payment link printed as a QR code. The distributor ticket behind a deposit line gets photographed at the counter and read on device by Apple Intelligence, so the material figure has paper attached instead of a memory. Freeboard shows cash minus the tax reserve, minus the invoices you have already committed, minus a buffer, which is the number that tells you whether you can float the next whole-house order. The ledger is append-only and hash-chained, so what was billed and when does not quietly change. Free covers unlimited invoices, receipts, and mileage; Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.
Frequently asked questions
How much deposit should a flooring contractor take?
Size it to the material order rather than to a percentage: field square footage plus the waste allowance, priced out, plus underlayment, adhesive or thinset and grout, transitions, stair nosings, and base by the linear foot. Show it as an itemized list on the contract. Several states cap residential deposits, so confirm your state’s limit before printing a number.
Who pays for floor leveling if the subfloor is out of tolerance?
The customer does, if you priced it as a conditional line before demo. Write the manufacturer’s flatness tolerance into the contract as the standard, state a unit price for patch by the square foot and self-leveling underlayment by the bag, include a stated quantity in the base price, and bill anything beyond it with a photo and a measurement.
When should the final flooring payment be collected?
At the walkthrough, on site, after transitions and base are installed. Leaving trim for a later visit hands the customer a reason to hold the entire balance over a small remainder. Do the walkthrough with lights on, write and date the punch list yourself, get it signed or texted back, and present the invoice while you are still standing in the room.
What do I do when the customer says the planks do not match?
Point at the approval they already gave. Natural material varies by plank and by dye lot, which is why a signed sample board or a photographed dry-laid mock row before installation is worth more than any explanation afterward. Without that approval on file the conversation has no anchor, and it usually ends in a discount.
Can I put a lien on a flooring job that has not been paid?
In every state, in principle, but only if the deadlines were met. Several states require a preliminary notice within weeks of first furnishing labor or material, which can be long before anyone is late, and missing it forfeits the right. Look up your state once and calendar the notice date the day the material ships rather than the day the invoice ages.
Should I install customer-supplied flooring?
You can, with the risks written down first: short material, damaged or off-lot boxes, missing transitions, and the extra mobilization when the order is incomplete are all theirs, billed at your rate. Count the boxes with the customer present on delivery day and photograph the lot numbers, because that count is the only defense against a shortage blamed on installation waste.
This article is general information, not professional or tax advice.
What do I keep?
When the money is late
Keel tracks what is owed and what has landed.
Every invoice sits in a private, append-only ledger on your phone, so what is outstanding is a fact you can see rather than a spreadsheet you maintain.
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