The Best Cheap Flooring for Flipping a House

On a flip, the floor does two jobs. It has to look good in the listing photos and survive until closing without cutting into your profits. That’s a different goal than flooring your own home. You’re not buying a floor to live on for twenty years. You’re buying the floor that helps the house sell at the lowest cost per sq ft.

Here’s how you can hit that on a budget with real products that we have in stock.

Start with the number that matters

Flippers win or lose on cost per sq ft, and floors cover a lot of ground. If you have 1,500 sq ft to cover, even a dollar per sq ft is $1,500.

The move isn’t going with the cheapest floor you can find. It’s finding the cheapest floor that still photographs well, holds up on showings, and won’t fall apart in a few years.

Go too cheap and buyers can often tell before they ever walk through the front door.  Overspend and you give away margin a buyer won’t pay you back for.

What you want is the right balance between price and quality.

The Budget Floor: Waterproof LVP from $1.31 - $1.99 per sq ft

For many quick flips, luxury vinyl plank is the answer. It clicks together and floats over almost any subfloor, so it goes down fast. Keep in mind it won’t forgive an uneven, beat-up subfloor. You need to make sure the subfloor is level.

Modern LVP is waterproof through the wear layer and core, so kitchen spills and bathroom leaks won’t wreck it. And it can photograph nicely.

Our LVP starts at $1.31 a sq ft. It’s the same type of product other stores mark up. We bought the closeout and overstock runs from name-brand manufacturers. Here’s a few in-stock options we recommend across a whole flip:

Luxury Vinyl Plank - Warm Oats

A warmer brown and beige tone for lighter and brighter rooms.

Want a thicker plank underfoot? Astor and Lauren run $2.79/sq ft and give you a more padded feel.

LVP comes in both click-lock floating and glue-down. For a flip, click-lock floating is the fastest to install. In wet areas, basements, or entryways that get traffic, glue-down holds better.

Browse the full vinyl selection. Our inventory is always changing. And once a product sells out, it's gone for good.

For kitchens, baths, and basements, go waterproof tile

For rooms where water is a part of normal life, or for a below-grade basement, waterproof vinyl tile gives you a tile look without the grout, the crack risk, or the install cost.

Both of these products are $1.99 a square foot at 12" x 24":

Luxury Vinyl Tile - Coastal Bay

A cooler gray for baths and laundry rooms.

The nicer flip: real wood where buyers look

On a higher-value flip, real wood in the main rooms earns its cost back. It reads as quality the second a buyer walks in, and appraisers notice it. You don't have to floor the whole house in it.

Put wood in the living room and entry and LVP everywhere else.

Then let the photos do the work.

Cabin grade is your secret weapon for beautiful floors at cheap prices.

Real wood under $3.50 per sq ft:

Engineered Brazilian Pecan – Cocoa

A rich, warm brown that works with almost any paint color.

Engineered wood matters on slab and basement flips because it handles humidity and subfloor conditions that solid wood can't. If you want a classic that every buyer recognizes and every future owner can refinish, solid red oak is the safe bet. Especially with the increase in price of white oak.

Solid Red Oak Wire-Brushed – Weatherly

The wire-brushed texture is trending, and it hides scuffs.

Don't skip the stuff under the floor

The fastest way to turn a nice floor you bought cheap into a callback after closing is to skip what goes under it.

Two items are worth the small spend:

Underlayment for quiet and comfort.

Blue Shield 3030 covers 500 square feet for $34.09, so it's cheap insurance against a hollow, loud floor.

For an upstairs unit where sound travels, step up to Soundcheck acoustical underlayment.

See all of our flooring supplies.

Buy cheap but don’t be cheap

Four things separate a smart budget from saving money now but losing it long-term:

1. Buying the flimsiest big-box laminate. It swells if someone mops it and looks plasticky in photos. Waterproof LVP at $1.99 beats it on every count.
2. Ordering exactly your square footage. Order 10 to 15% over for cuts and waste. All sales are final, so you want the overage on hand, not a second shipping charge mid-job.
3. Skipping the moisture barrier on slab. It's the cheapest line item and the most expensive one to fix.
4. Guessing on color. Order a sample before you commit a whole flip to a shade you see on the screen. Better to spend five dollars than to re-floor a room.

Make every square foot count

The right flip floor is the one that looks like money without the high cost. That's why we stock closeout and overstock flooring from trusted manufacturers at prices built for investors, landlords, and homeowners.Everything above is in stock and ships fast.

If you're local, you can see it in person at our Columbus showroom at 1105 Dublin Rd. We have over 40 years experience in flooring, so if you're not sure what fits a specific house, call and ask before you order.

Real floors, honest prices means more profit left in your flip.

Browse the full catalog.