Hardwood Flooring Install Questions

9 years ago

Greetings everyone,

Just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with asthma. Unfortunately, I had already purchased a home with carpets. Now, I need to get rid of the carpets and replace them with hardwood floors. I called a contractor, and he gave me an estimate of over $6,000 for labor only. He's charging about $8 for each square foot, and by his calculation, I have over 1300 sq. feet that will need flooring.

My questions to the forum are: Is this a fair quote? I cannot afford to pay for materials and labor at this rate. Also, are there any other options? Should I go with Lowe's? They have a special for the next two weeks of 0.99 per square feet for install.

Thanks!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

gregmills_gw
9 years ago
Prices range from region to region. So its hard to say if that particular price is "fair". Is the quote including tear up of carpet and subfloor prep?

Be vary wary of lowes. They sub out contractors and generally dont have the best guys doing it. Just do your homework and look into reviews of lowes installations.
abrown007
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the quick response, gregmills! No, the quote does not include removing the carpets and prepping the sub-floor. The contractor is, also, estimating another $4,000 for materials (he's recommending buying it himself from Lumber Liquidators and getting the type you click in place).
Related Professionals
Cincinnati Flooring Contractors · Cornelius Flooring Contractors · Cottage Lake Flooring Contractors · Golden Glades Flooring Contractors · Lansdale Flooring Contractors · Norwood Flooring Contractors · Woodbury Flooring Contractors · Rancho Cordova Tile and Stone Contractors · Augusta General Contractors · Clive General Contractors · Mountain View General Contractors · Pico Rivera General Contractors · River Forest General Contractors · Woodmere General Contractors · Security-Widefield General Contractors
User
9 years ago
How handy are you?

I did my own hardwood install and it was tedious but not difficult. Tools cost a few hundred, but I can resell them when I'm done, or use them on other projects.

Pay to have the carpet and padding removed and the place thoroughly vacuumed, because the dust will be horrendous ... then paint the subfloors with a good porch paint for dust control and from there, work at your own speed.
gregmills_gw
9 years ago
The click together type is a floating system. This type of system REQUIRES a FLAT subfloor. So if its on slab of plywood there needs to be someone who goes over ever single inch and measure and remove and humps or fill in any depessions. Thats to do it correctly and thats going to cost some money if you hire someone to do it.

If you dont do the prepwork you can potentially end up with very squeeky floors and even break the locking system between planks.

With the amount of footage it sounds like you need and sounds like you care about the quality of the finish product i would advise Against LL too. Their products are junk and the horror stories you can read just by googling it. Its amazing their still in business.

The fact that your quote doesnt include prep work and removal of carpet seems to be a tad high but then again it could be cheap for youre area. Best thing i would suggest is to get a few more quotes and then compare.
abrown007
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the quick responses lazygardens and gregmills!

lazygardens, I can do basic work, but nothing that requires sawing and other power tools. Usually, it takes me a while of head scratching to figure things out, and that may involve a lot of rework.

gregmills, I agree.The quote does seem high for only labor charges. I will call some other companies and see what they offer.

I'll keep you all updated . . .