Anyone install hardwood floors?

[sydney02]

Our house has hardwood on the bottom floor and had carpet all upstairs. We wanted to replace the carpet with hardwood. I looked at laminate but we are thinking that it is not going to look go in resell to have wood on the bottom and laminate on top.

I'm pricing hardwood and I'm looking at around $5 a square foot for what is really mid-grade wood. Nothing spectacular. Then I'm getting quotes of $5 a square foot for installation. So basically $10 a square foot total. We have about 800 square foot upstairs with the 3 bedrooms and hall. So we're looking at 8,000 for installation!

does this sound right to you? Am I getting hosed by these contractors? Anyone who has installed wood, I'd appreciate any tips or info you have.

And as for doing it ourselves, not a chance. Neither DH or I is near handy enough to tackle this.

[kaylie]

That sounds about right to me. Hardwood is considered to be on the high end of flooring and is VERY expensive. Depending on what species you want, you might be able to get the cost down to $3 or $4 a square foot for the wood, but that's for basic grade. Check lumberliquidators.com.

You could also go with engineered wood, but based on reviews I've seen it's better long term to do solid hardwood.

Your installation cost breaks down to several things: Them ripping out/disposing of current flooring, prepping and repairing your subfloor (this is a MUST do), and then the actual installation. You might be able to save a few hundred bucks if you rip out your current floors yourselves.

Are they also replacing the base molding after installation? If not, you need to factor that in as well.

[sydney02]

Thanks for the info! So that's basically the price, huh? I haven't checked lumberliquidators but most of the contractors have their own people they use for floors and they insist that they I can get a better price through them.

I hadn't thought about the molding after installation. I guess they would. Damn we might have to do carpet for a couple of years before we get this done. We just bought the house last year and it's a freakin' money pit. We got it as a short sale and the neighbors tell me what a great deal we got. The longer we live here, the less of a deal it feel like, lol.

[kaylie]

Yeah, $10 a sq ft installed is pretty average. I would go to Lumber Liquidators and see what their installers would do it for.

What species are you using? For that price you should be getting something along the lines of oak or hickory and it should be 3/4'' thick.

Find out exactly what the installation cost covers. It should cover the things I mentioned above, but do not assume the molding would be included. A lot of times that gets ruined when they pull it from the wall and you have to buy new base molding. That's usually $0.75 - $1 per linear foot. Also, are they quoting pre-finished or finished in place?

We're in the same boat with carpet that I'm dying to replace. We'll probably DIY our install but I want a higher end wood ($8 per sq ft) and we have to do both the first and second story. We're probably going to save for another year or so to do it.

[SusanBAnthony]

My parents just installed solid maple in the downstairs of their house. About 1000 sq ft, maybe 1200. It was about 10K, so sounds about right.

FWIW we are house shopping, and hardwood is a major factor. We put laminate in the same category as carpet: yuck. I would honestly rather have a nice vinyl floor in a kitchen (those things look like real tile!) than laminate. Blech.

[sydney02]

We were looking at maple or a darker oak. I didn't pick out the exact wood as I was still in sticker shock over the cost of the install. I knew the wood itself would be a lot but for some reason, since I'd been quoted as low as $1.25 a square foot for laminate, I was thinking wood would be a little more, like maybe $2. Not $5.
I don't know if what we looked at was prefinished or finished in place. I'm assuming pre finished?
We decided that we are going to put in carpeting for now and then in a couple of years do the floors. I figure we may have to just tackle one room at a time. I'm sure contractors won't like that but putting out 3k a year for a few years is better than 10k all at once.
I appreciate our downstairs hardwood more than ever now. I had no idea how expensive wood is.