Price for installing hardwood floors-eastern NC

Price for installing hardwood floors-eastern NC · 01-18-2006, 08:01 PM

I have a friend who lives around the coast who needs hardwood floors installed. What would be a reasonable price and what is the formula for arriving at that number? Also, what should they look for when talking to contractors?

Mountaincraft · 01-18-2006, 09:39 PM

That depends on the type of flooring. Is it angle nailed tongue & groove? Free floating glued together (pergo type)? Is it mechanical interlock free floating? Many more types if custom made.

Count on about 30 cents per square foot (not too many custom cuts) for mechanical interlock (armstrong type). A little more for pergo. Angle nailed tongue & groove should cost 70 cents to $1.00 per foot (mostly having the right equipment cost).

This doesn't include finish cost for unfinished flooring.

The installer should have a good miter saw (pre finished flooring destroys blades, so the owner should buy about 1 good one for every 2000 sq ft for the installer to save costs), an on site table saw (ditto on blade, but not as many), a variable speed jig saw, and assorted hand tools for shaping. This is for free floating floor systems.

If it is a tongue and groove nailed floor, include a good flooring nailer and compressor. A 1.5" 18 gauge STAPLER will also work, but it takes an experienced user to set the staples right. Don't trust someone who shoots it with a finish nailer, unless they are truly masters. Then only with a 16 gauge nailer. 18 is too small, 15 splits way too much.

Other custom made flooring may be glued (not recommended unless there isn't a significant cross grain problem), or face nailed. They do make glue flexable enough (more flexable than liquid nails) for spot gluing. Lexel works fine, and they make special adhesives for this. On the last flooring job of this type that I did, the owner bought a massive amount of 3/4 red oak scrap and asked me to turn it into flooring onsite (oh no!). I trued it as much a possible, put buttons of lexel every half foot or so, and faced nailed it with an 18. He wanted it squeaky (thank you Lord!), so I didn't have to do anything in between boards. After sanding with 150 grit, I mixed the sawdust with Minwax Stain/Finish and spread it around with a squeegy. I sanded it again and re stained. Worked suprisingly well. Varethane on top.

Finishing cost vary widely, depending on the type. If a suitable pre finished flooring is available, push this on the owners. It is much more durable (for scratching), and the total cost will be significantly less.

If it is not pre finished, I implore you to suggest oil based stuff made specificly for floors. It will kill the bugs, as well.

I wish that I still had a cartoon that showed doomed people given a choice between eternity in **** and living in their house while it was being renovated. Every body was in the line for ****.

Oh, a price for finishing. Between 70 cents and $2.00 per sq ft, depending on finish.

helmswatch · 01-18-2006, 10:11 PM

We live in a 30 something doubled-wide trailer that has been bricked and of course the wafer board flooring is real bad and getting worse. I believe it's a 900 sq ft one and all the floors need to be replaced. Being a disabled Vet I can't do it myself so I will have to contract it out. Cost, of course is an issue, being on a fixed income, and I don't have a clue what to expect as far as labor and material. We probably are looking at just getting it re framed where needed and new plywood being put down. Any ideas about the cost for just doing that?

Duke

Ps...sure glad we bought this place for the view and the ability to have our boats right off our backyard!!!! And never believe a Veteran's Home Inspector!!!!

Mountaincraft · 01-18-2006, 10:19 PM

Go with a home center on the cheapest floor, all you get is warrenty

cskipper · 01-18-2006, 10:44 PM

MC - thanks for the response. It was really informative.

DaveD · 01-28-2006, 07:41 PM

My experience says...........
Don't buy just on price alone.
Get somebody that has been at least 10 years in the business full time.
You can probably install your own prefinished floor (not that I would go prefinished myself).
The hardwood has to be acclimated to your house for a few weeks befopre nailing it down.
Be sure to see some recent jobs and a couple that are 4 or 5 years old.
Lots of 'jack legs' buy a sander after a years experience and think they are a flooring contractor (which they are not).
Sanding will make or break the quality of the job.
Commercial varnishes/polys beat anything the borgs sell.
You can buy cheap oak and expensive oak and shorts vs longer pieces.
Bamboo makes a beautiful floor if done right.
Flooring nailed down wrong can get big gaps or swell so it will bump up 3"
Beware of people/estimators that send the illegals to do the work instead of do it themselves.
Don't hire 'staush' that gets sanding dust all over the house.

I have a friend that has been doing floors full time for probably 30 years and gets top dollar for his jobs (don't know what he charges). He picks and chooses his clients now. Mostly high end resand/refinish jobs.

Matt · 03-05-2006, 08:12 PM

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but what options are available if you are on a slab? I have heard you need to put down a sub floor if going 100% hardwood or go with one of the manufactured floors. Anyone have any insight?

NCPete · 03-05-2006, 08:17 PM

There are a few (or were a few) options for installing a 'hardwood' floor over a slab. I did it a few times when working as an installer with the manufacturers blessings. At issue would be that the slab not be 'below grade', as there will be more moisture issues at work. (been 8 years since I did this kind of work, YMMV)

Check the manufacturers website for information, but there are a couple engineered hardwood applications using an actual hardwood wear layer that are appropriate for glue-down application over a slab.

good luck. Hope this helps at least a bit?

Matt · 03-06-2006, 12:26 AM

That helps, thanks. I thought that I would need to get an engineered floor, apply some leveling compound, possibly a moisture barrier, and glue it down. Sounds like that is what you are telling me.

NCPete · 03-06-2006, 12:36 AM

yeah, there are few lightweight catalyzed self-leveling concrete's that could do the trick to level your floor, just remember to **** it up properly. I don't recall using any moisture barrier product. plastic sheeting would significantly reduce the ability of the adhesive to stick to the subflooring materials.

Mountaincraft · 03-06-2006, 07:03 PM

Not only do you have to be sure that the slab is "above grade", but you have to make sure that you have a perfect moisture barrier. Concrete will wick up moisture from the ground. The most common interior moisture barrier is to put 6 mil polyethelene on the ground below the slab. In addition to this, you should use a basement sealer such as UGL on top before using floor leveler.

Never glue wood flooring to concrete, this will eventually invite disaster. I have never seen a parkay floor last more than 7 years, perfectly installed, on concrete. They always buckle. These were recommended as the only type floor to glue to concrete because of the supposed movement tolerance. Slat floors are worse.

I suggest the free floating systems like Pergo and Armstrong Interlock. If floor height isn't a problem, you may want to attach 1by nailers to the slab and attach a subfloor to them. This allows for you to put down 3/4 foam in between the nailers for some insulation. You can then attach any floor to the subfloor (watch nail length).

Thats about it...

william

Inflatable Screen Door · 03-15-2006, 10:56 AM

I have a fiished basement with a concrete floor below grade and I installed engineered hardwood flooring. It's like plywood with a think layer of real oak on one side. It's a floating system. First you put down a moisture barrier / foam cushion layer that absorbes the hollow sound floating floors make. Then you just lay down the planks. They are toung and groove with glue pre applied to the edges. When you tap the pieces together the glue is activated. It looks great, easy to laydown and the finish is super durable. Only complaint is any dips and mounds in the concrete make hollow spaces under the floor. I probably should have spent more time making the concrete super flat before laying down the flooring.

I got the stuff (Harris Tarket brand) at the borg for arround 4.00 - 5.00 a SF plus the foam cushion stuff. It's slightly more than pergo but looks better because it's real wood and will hold up to water better. We had a pipe leak and water go under the floor. It buckeled up for a few weeks and after it dried out it went back flat again. So it's obviously tolerant of changes in moisture.

NCPete · 03-17-2006, 12:49 AM

self-leveling light-weight concrete is what you were in need of, after the main pour fully cured. used it all the time, to prevent just what you describe.

Matt · 03-28-2006, 11:02 PM

Let me add something - whatever the price, it is too low! 500 square feet and a weekend later and I don't know if my knees will ever be the same again. However, LOML is happy and it does look good...

dancam · 04-22-2006, 02:53 PM

I'm in Asheville (there's a building boom going on here and sub contractors are hard to schedule at decent prices). I just had #2 white oak flooring installed (~3,000'ft) and it cost 1.35/sq ft to install and finish sand and I used another contractor to finish. The finish contractor cost was 1.45/sq ft for two coats of Minwax stain and three coats of satin poly. (Note: the install contractor would'nt work with stain, said it added too much time to the job and he had too many jobs lined up...it's great to independent in the good times...I wionder what he'll do when the building boom slows down or goes away!!!!)

The cost for the #2 white oak was 1.65/sq ft and there was little or no waste. We lucked out w/the oak, it's the best #2 I've ever seen, lots of quarter sawn pieces and very little bad pieces. We had ordered 15% over for waste and wound up having enough left to do the shop floor which I coated with three coats of Penofin Golden Oak and then a final coat of Penofin Marine Oil (all of the Penofin was left over from the timberframe).

Good luck,
DanCam