Best-Rated Flooring

Compare flooring retailers in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. Harrisons Carpet & Flooring, Carpet Court, Bunnings and Flooring Xtra were compared on Overall Satisfaction, Customer Service, Durability of Flooring, Ease of Installation of Flooring, Range of Products & Styles Available and Value for Money.

See our Ratings Methodology.

Most Satisfied Customers | Harrisons Carpet & Flooring

Harrisons Carpet & Flooring is the No.1 choice underfoot for Kiwi consumers, earning the best ratings of any retailer in our research and winning Canstar Blue’s 2023 Award for Most Satisfied Customers | Flooring.

 

 

How we rate flooring

Our review compares flooring retailers on customer satisfaction, so you can discover what other Kiwis think about our compared flooring stores before you go ahead and make a purchase. Think of it like asking hundreds of your closest mates which flooring store they think is best!


Canstar Blue surveyed 337 Kiwis who had purchased and installed new flooring from a flooring retailer in the past three years and asked for their feedback on their purchases.

  • The outcomes reported in these ratings are measured via accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics.

Respondents rate their satisfaction with their flooring retailers from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction was rated by respondents on the following criteria:

  • Overall Satisfaction: measures consumer satisfaction with a flooring retailer as an individual score NOT a combined total of all criteria.
  • Customer Service: the flooring retailer’s customer care team was helpful, knowledgeable, and able to handle queries effectively.
  • Durability of Flooring: the durability and quality of the installed flooring are able to withstand years of daily use.
  • Ease of Installation of Flooring: the flooring’s installation was carried out smoothly and with minimum inconvenience.
  • Range of Products & Styles Available: the floorings retailer stocks a wide range of different products and styles at different price points.
  • Value for Money: the price of the flooring was reasonable given the quality of the products and materials used.

The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall Satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall Satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.

  • Overall Satisfaction is asked as a specific question and represents an individual measure, not a combined total of all criteria.
  • When we cannot determine a clear winner from the criteria for the Overall Satisfaction rating, we will then look at the other criteria measured in the rating.
    • The brand with the highest number of five-star ratings within the supporting criteria will become the five-star recipient in overall satisfaction, and thus win the award. If a clear leader still cannot be determined from the supporting criteria, joint winners will be declared.

Retail brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.

  • Harrisons Carpet & Flooring
  • Carpet Court
  • Bunnings
  • Flooring Xtra


Find more information on our Most Satisfied Customer methodology.

Best flooring retailers in New Zealand

  1. Harrisons Carpet & Flooring
  2. Carpet Court
  3. Bunnings
  4. Flooring Xtra

Harrisons Carpet & Flooring

Ratings Results

A previous winner of Canstar Blue’s Flooring Award, Harrisons Carpet & Flooring once again takes out our top award by earning strong praise from its customers. In this year’s award ratings, it’s the only flooring retailer to earn a 5-Star rating for overall satisfaction. It’s a top score that the flooring retailer achieves in four out of the six categories in our ratings, and means that Harrisons Carpet & Flooring earns more 5-Star ratings than the other three retailers in this year’s award rankings combined.

Editor’s Notes

From a single carpet store in Whangarei, Harrisons has grown into a countrywide business. It has 26 mobile showrooms that cover the whole country, selling flooring, curtains and blinds plus kitchens (Auckland only) and solar power.

Buying flooring from Harrisons Carpet & Flooring is a simple process, one that begins with a visit from one of its local flooring experts. They will come direct to your home, with a full range of samples. The unique service ensures you can make an informed choice, in your home’s unique light, surrounded by your own furnishings.

Harrisons Carpet & Flooring stocks a wide range of carpet, vinyl, wood, laminate and hybrid flooring options, from quality brands.

It’s also worth noting that this year, Harrisons Curtains & Blinds is the winner of Canstar Blue’s Award for Most Satisfied Customers | Home Furnishings, making Harrisons the No.1 choice for the home.

Carpet Court

Ratings Results

In this year’s award ratings, second-place Carpet Court achieves an impressive set of 4-Star ratings, plus a top 5-Star score for Range of Products & Styles Available, which reflects the huge range of flooring options available from the trusted flooring retailer.

Editor’s Notes

No matter where you live in New Zealand, there’s sure to be a Carpet Court close by, as the flooring retailer boast 65 stores nationwide. Carpet Court offers free quotes and consultations, and a full range of flooring options:

  • Carpets, including for the garage and carpet tiles
  • Laminate, a lower-cost and hard-wearing option
  • Wood and bamboo
  • Vinyl, from planks to tiles and sheeting in many styles
  • Bathroom and kitchen tiles
  • Stone- and wood-look hybrid flooring
  • Rugs

bunnings logo

Bunnings

Ratings Results

Bunnings earns two 4-Star ratings for Overall Satisfaction and Value for Money, plus 3-Star ratings across all other categories. The lowers marks in these categories reflect the fact that the big barn DIY retailer is not a specialist flooring store, and customers are responsible for the installation of their own flooring purchases.

Editor’s Notes

Bunning stocks a range of tiles, laminate planks and vinyl flooring products, as well as a choice of carpet tiles and utility carpet products. It also stocks all the tools and accessories needed to install your flooring purchases. The Bunnings website features expert advice and video tutorials to help you with your DIY flooring projects.


Flooring Xtra

Ratings Results

While Flooring Xtra scores the lowest Overall Satisfaction rating, it achieves the highest rating in this year’s award for Customer Service: 5 Stars. Notably, Customer Service is ranked as the most important feature of the retail experience when buying flooring, so Flooring Xtra truly excels in this field. It also scores highly for Ease of Installation of Flooring, Durability of Flooring and Range of Products & Styles Available. But it also earns the lowest score in our ratings for Value for Money: 3 Stars.

Editor’s Notes

Flooring Xtra is one of the most recognisable (and largest) names in flooring in the country, with over 60 stores nationwide. It stocks a wide range of floorings, including: carpet, tiles, laminate, vinyl, wood and hybrid options, as well as mats, rugs and cleaning products.

Plus, the Flooring Xtra website offers plenty of advice and guides to help you keep up to date with the latest trends. It even features a flooring calculator, enabling you to work out a rough guide to the price of your chosen flooring options.

Once you’ve got an idea of what you like and your budget, just chat to a Flooring Xtra expert and arrange a free in-home consultation.

Other flooring retailers

Not all home furnishing retailers in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here are more brands to check out before making a purchase decision.

  • Carpet Mill
  • Mitre 10

Carpet Mill

Editor’s Notes

As its name suggests, Carpet Mill is best-known for its carpets, all of which are made here in New Zealand. The flooring retailer has a long history in carpet manufacturing, and its products come with guarantees of up to 15 years, on selected products, so you know you’re buying quality.


Mitre 10

Editor’s Notes

Mitre 10 is another great choice for flooring DIYers on a budget. Like Bunnings, Mitre 10 doesn’t offer an installation service. Instead, it offers all the products, tools and advice to enable a DIY job well done. Mitre 10 sells a wide range of tiles, carpet tiles, mats, rugs, and vinyl and laminate flooring products.

Choosing the Right Flooring Retailer for You

Installing new flooring in a home is both expensive and invasive. Therefore it’s not surprising that Ease of Installation and Durability are second and third, respectively, when it comes to the most important factors for Kiwi flooring consumers. You want your new floor to go in with the minimum of fuss and disruption, and you want it to endure years of daily wear and tear.

However, the often overlooked factor is the one that tops our list: a third of flooring customers cite Customer Service as the top factor influencing their satisfaction with their choice of flooring retailer.

This is because it directly affects all other concerns. Choosing the right flooring for your home can be daunting; make the wrong choice of colour or style and you’ll be looking at it for years.

Chose the wrong material for a room and the use it gets, and you could be looking at a costly replacement just a few years down the line.

However, getting the right expert advice from your choice of retailer ensures that when you choose your new flooring, you make the right decision. And great customer service ensures you’ll be all set for a speedy and smooth installation.

Overall, here’s how the consumers in our survey rank the main things they consider when rating their choice of flooring retailer:

  • Customer Service: 33%
  • Ease of Installation of Flooring: 28%
  • Durability of Flooring: 21%
  • Value for Money: 17%
  • Range of Products & Styles Available: 1%

COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT FLOORING & WARMTH

Does wooden flooring retain heat?

Despite the common perception that wooden flooring is cold, certain types can actually help conduct heat throughout your home. If you’re a lover of wooden features and warm, cosy spaces, you need not rule out wooden floors.

Here are some ways to keep rooms warm with wooden flooring:

  • In terms of wood, solid hardwood floors are your best choice, as they are wonderful at conducting heat.
  • Rugs not only spruce up a room and add an extra layer of heat insulation, they also provide good noise insulation, meaning less reverberated sound.
  • The downside of wooden flooring is that it can fade in strong sunlight, plus it’s more prone to scratches, dings and damage.
  • Keep your wooden flooring up to scratch with polishing. A strong polyurethane finish adds an extra layer to protect from the elements.

Does laminate or vinyl flooring retain heat?

No, laminate or vinyl flooring doesn’t retain heat, as it’s so thin. But it’s commonly partnered with an insulating underlay, to stop heat escaping downwards. Similar to wooden floors, however, laminate and vinyl both conduct heat. Laminate and vinyl are also cheaper and easier to maintain than wooden flooring, and are tougher and more water-resistant.

Does carpet help insulate your home?

Yes, carpet can help with insulation, but it isn’t a replacement for proper underfloor insulation. When partnered with thick underlay, carpet is a great insulator between a floor’s cold foundation, and it can also stop under-door draughts.

About the editor of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.

More Information

Key statistics

Prefer carpet in bedrooms for warmth: 73%

Always remove shoes when entering someone’s home: 59%

Think flooring is the most important feature of a room: 31%

Prefer eco-friendly flooring: 24%

Prefer hard flooring to carpet: 22%

Prefer cheaper flooring alternatives to expensive ones: 17%
Have underfloor heating: 14%

Main flooring consideration

Durability: 27%

Price: 25%

Colour: 14%

Practicality: 12%

Texture: 11%

Availability: 8%

Flooring installed

Carpet: 49%

Vinyl: 25%

Laminate: 18%

Wood: 12%

Tiles: 18%

Canstar Blue surveyed 5080 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from respondents who had purchased and installed new flooring from a flooring retailer in the past three years. In this case, 337 New Zealanders. Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criterion.

The past winners from Canstar Blue’s Home Furnishings ratings:

  • 2021: Flooring Xtra
  • 2020: Harrisons Carpet & Flooring

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