Websites for flooring installers

Flooring is bought by the room but priced by the square metre, and the gap between the two is where customers get confused. A floor of hybrid planks or carpet can look cheap per metre and then add removal, underlay, skirting and moving furniture. A good flooring site shows the finished room first, then explains the price in plain words.

Customers also want to see what the floor will look like in a house like theirs, in the light they have. Show your own jobs rather than catalogue shots, and sort them by type: hybrid, timber, carpet, vinyl. Say whether you bring samples to the house or ask people to visit a showroom, and what the first visit involves.

What the site carries

• Finished floors photographed in a real room, with the product type and the area covered named under each.
• Hybrid, timber, laminate, carpet and vinyl on separate pages, each with an honest note on where it suits.
• What a price per square metre covers: underlay, removal of the old floor, skirting, doorway trims and waste.
• Whether you bring samples to the house, and how that visit works.
• How you measure, and why the measure can differ from the area customers think they have.
• Subfloor preparation and levelling, explained as part of the job.
• What you do with furniture, and what the customer needs to clear beforehand.
• A form that takes a rough floor plan, photos and the rooms involved.
• Whether you supply, install or both, and what you charge for installation alone.
• Your installation warranty set apart from the manufacturer's warranty on the product.
• Photos of your own crew, your van and the tools in use, so the installer is a face before the visit.

The work your customers look for

• hybrid flooring
• floating timber floors
• solid timber floors
• floor sanding and polishing
• carpet
• vinyl planks
• laminate flooring
• bamboo flooring
• stair flooring
• subfloor levelling
• floor removal and replacement

What they type

• "flooring installers"
• "hybrid flooring"
• "timber floor sanding"
• "carpet laying"
• "vinyl plank flooring"
• "laminate flooring"
• "floor installers near me"
• "floor removal and replacement"

If you show a price, the total including compulsory charges has to be at least as prominent as any part price, so a per square metre figure shouldn't be the only number on the page.

Terms like waterproof, scratch-proof or lifetime set an expectation Australian Consumer Law can hold you to, so use the manufacturer's actual wording and conditions.

Photos of finished floors should be your own jobs, as catalogue pictures presented as yours are misleading under Australian Consumer Law.

A was and now price has to be a real reduction from a price you actually charged, since made-up discounts are treated as misleading.

A review on the site should be a genuine customer's own words.

Rules change. Have your licence and wording checked against your regulator before the site goes live.

• Catalogue photos of floors laid in rooms that aren't yours.
• A price per square metre with no word on removal, underlay or skirting.
• Every flooring type on one page, so hybrid and timber look interchangeable.
• No mention of the subfloor, which is where the cost and the trouble usually hide.
• A showroom address with no opening hours or appointment line.
• Product pages with only names and codes and no sense of how the floor looks in a house.