How much $ to change to hard-wood floor?

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
What kind of hardwood? Taking-up the tile will be a pain in the ass and costly, if you don't do it yourself.

It's not that difficult assuming they didn't use concrete instead of thinset.

I'd guess at least $20-25k installed with new base molding for engineered hardwood...more for solid hardwood.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Xavier434
Considering the cost of this sort of change and what could potentially go wrong I would quadruple check the background of whoever I contract. Most likely, I would never even consider someone unless I got a recommendation from a trustworthy source. Having that sort of thing go wrong is scary.

The company I have coming today thinks they'll have the best quote out of the lot. I've been seeing their ads in the newspaper for a few years, so that's a good sign. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who's had their windows replaced at all. But with as old as my windows are, it'll be nice to have ones that open
These ones have been here so long that they're just either swollen shut or house settling has got them to where they won't open (the house is over 100 years old, not sure on the windows but they have ropes for the counterweights).

OMG!!!
DO YOUR RESEARCH before you sign their contract!!! A lot of those companies use extremely high pressure tactics to get you to sign right away, doing everything from offering you rebates for your current windows to giving you a discount "if you order today. It costs the company money to keep sending salesmen out, so we'll give you a 15% discount today only." In my area, their prices were between 2 and 3 times what it would cost me to get one of the local contractors to replace the windows. Twice I endured the sales pitch from two of those companies. I don't care what free item I'm getting for the 1 hour pitch; I'm never going to put up with those guys again.

 

[jaedaliu]

http://parents.berkeley.edu/re...end/home/hwfloors.html

as with any contractor situation, you should get 3 quotes, figure out why people are charging a difference of 25% and go with the one that makes sense.

I've worked with Tulip when I was managing the frat house. They were very professional, and the prices are supposedly a little higher, but they always did a good job refinishing.

Seeing that you haven't purchased the house yet, maybe you can drop by the different places and just try to pick and choose a wood that looks right for you, and bring a floorplan and see if they can give you a rough estimate.

 

[DrVos]

Would you consider some type of floating floor system? They make some really nice wood laminate floors that are very similar to hardwood. You won't even have to rip the tile out.

 

[bctbct]

$8-10 sq. ft plus what ever the demo costs you.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: bctbct
$8-10 sq. ft plus what ever the demo costs you.

maybe in fantasy land. Materials will be in that range alone. You have Labor to install + labor to tear up marble. That is anything but cheap.

 

[alkemyst]

tile comes up messily but pretty easy. You just get one of those jackhammer things and go to town. It's extremely labor intensive...even if you broke out heavy hammers and decided to re-smoothcoat the floor.

Replacing carpet to wood is much easier, just rip it up and pull out the nail strips.

For pricing who knows without seeing it, however; I know of two people that used Craigslist and found those selling 'gray market' prego and better for fractions of the cost.

One had their whole house (2600 sq ft - bathrooms) done for cheaper than buying the materials themselves.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: Evadman
$25 to $30 a square foot for tearing the old marble out and replacing with 3/4" oak or similar.

I would take the job without even looking at it at $30 a foot.

10 to 12 is about the right price.

 

[Delta6Echo]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones

Originally posted by: SunnyD
How about - get a quote from a flooring contractor?

lol, but we're ATOT, we can do anything.

:laugh:

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
tile comes up messily but pretty easy. You just get one of those jackhammer things and go to town. It's extremely labor intensive...even if you broke out heavy hammers and decided to re-smoothcoat the floor.

Replacing carpet to wood is much easier, just rip it up and pull out the nail strips.

For pricing who knows without seeing it, however; I know of two people that used Craigslist and found those selling 'gray market' prego and better for fractions of the cost.

One had their whole house (2600 sq ft - bathrooms) done for cheaper than buying the materials themselves.

They redid their floors with stolen spaghetti sauce? :Q

 

[GMI]

bay area has some fierce competition in the remodeling business, espeically considering how slow it has gotten in the recent monthes. will you be looking at solid wood or engineered? There are a few major flooring dealers out in the San Leandro/Oakland area that will have pretty good pricing, provided you are willing to do the legwork.

have you also consider using laminate flooring?

Demo usually cost around $7~10/ sq ft and install will depend on your material choice and how tight you want those hardwood to sit.

 

[RossGr]

Last summer we had Brazilian Oak 3/4" hard wood floor laid. We are on a slab so they had to but down a 7/8" underlayment. About 1000 sqft, cost $11K.

 

[cliftonite]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: bctbct
$8-10 sq. ft plus what ever the demo costs you.

maybe in fantasy land. Materials will be in that range alone. You have Labor to install + labor to tear up marble. That is anything but cheap.

If he does it himself I think he could do it for ~$8. I helped my uncle put in hardwood flooring in 2 of his rentals and it came out less than $8 id say. But we did have 20% coupon @ HD to bring down the cost of wood to around 3.50 per sq foot. We also bought the compressor and the Bostitch(m3?) nailer to do future units.

The work is HARD and at times painful. Holding that heavy ass nailgun for 8hrs a day will wear you out real quick.

 

[SampSon]

There are only a few people in this thread who have any idea of what they are talking about.
An easy round number is $10/sq foot.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: paulxcook

Originally posted by: SpiderWiz
Three Fifty

Tree fiddy?

DAMN YOU LOCH-NESS MONSTER!!!!

 

[NoShangriLa]

Simple DIY with out hiccup can be as little as $12,000. And, it can cost more than 2X as much as I previously mentioned if you get a pro ++ high quality/rare wood.

I installed my own floor, prep, purchase tools & supplies, 1600 sqf (bamboo), 13 stair threads (@ $82 per bamboo thread), dumping fees, tax, and loads of elbow grease for under $11,000.

 

[NoShangriLa]

Originally posted by: cliftonite

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: bctbct
$8-10 sq. ft plus what ever the demo costs you.

maybe in fantasy land. Materials will be in that range alone. You have Labor to install + labor to tear up marble. That is anything but cheap.

If he does it himself I think he could do it for ~$8. I helped my uncle put in hardwood flooring in 2 of his rentals and it came out less than $8 id say. But we did have 20% coupon @ HD to bring down the cost of wood to around 3.50 per sq foot. We also bought the compressor and the Bostitch(m3?) nailer to do future units.

The work is HARD and at times painful. Holding that heavy ass nailgun for 8hrs a day will wear you out real quick.

Rent a cheap power scraper will make short work of the marble/tiles, and carpet removal is easy. The key to a good quick install floor is prep (make sure it is absolutely flat).

 

[rh71]

When people say total square footage of a house, is that just the perimeter size? So does that include the 2nd level which also needs to be done?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: rh71
When people say total square footage of a house, is that just the perimeter size? So does that include the 2nd level which also needs to be done?

No, total house, all floors of livable space.

 

[Fritzo]

We have half wood floor/half carpet. I tell you what- wood floors SUCK to keep clean (especially if you have kids). You see dust on them all the time, footprints, lint, dirt...you have to clean the damn thing every other day.

I give hard wood floors a big :thumbsdown:

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
We have half wood floor/half carpet. I tell you what- wood floors SUCK to keep clean (especially if you have kids). You see dust on them all the time, footprints, lint, dirt...you have to clean the damn thing every other day.

I give hard wood floors a big :thumbsdown:

Because it's better to have all that dirt hidden in the carpet where you don't have to clean it up?

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: alkemyst
tile comes up messily but pretty easy. You just get one of those jackhammer things and go to town. It's extremely labor intensive...even if you broke out heavy hammers and decided to re-smoothcoat the floor.

Replacing carpet to wood is much easier, just rip it up and pull out the nail strips.

For pricing who knows without seeing it, however; I know of two people that used Craigslist and found those selling 'gray market' prego and better for fractions of the cost.

One had their whole house (2600 sq ft - bathrooms) done for cheaper than buying the materials themselves.

They redid their floors with stolen spaghetti sauce? :Q

Sounds tasty. :laugh:

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Greenman

Originally posted by: Fritzo
We have half wood floor/half carpet. I tell you what- wood floors SUCK to keep clean (especially if you have kids). You see dust on them all the time, footprints, lint, dirt...you have to clean the damn thing every other day.

I give hard wood floors a big :thumbsdown:

Because it's better to have all that dirt hidden in the carpet where you don't have to clean it up?

No, that little stuff doesn't show up on carpet, you can vacuum once or twice a week, and it looks great. With wood floors EVERYTHING shows up. They look great if you like to spend everyday sweeping.

 

[brandonbull]

I would DIY on removing the old flooring but not installing. Depends on what type of wood you are going to choose and what type of subfloor you have. The subfloor needs to be fairly level. I put 1000 sq ft of engineered hardwood in my house and it took about 1/2 ton of cement(19 - 50lb bags) to get my slab leveled. I floated the BR111 engineered chestnut and it was $5/sq ft, underlament was another $0.50/sq ft, and the glue was about $50.

It took me forever because each board was only 3-1/4" wide and came in 4 different lengths. So you also have to layout each board to ensure you don't have adjacent seams in each row. Unless you are really handy and have nothing else to work on, I would not suggest you tackle a 2500 sq ft hardwood flooring job.

You should plan on spending a minimum of $15k just for materials on a project that size.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
We have half wood floor/half carpet. I tell you what- wood floors SUCK to keep clean (especially if you have kids). You see dust on them all the time, footprints, lint, dirt...you have to clean the damn thing every other day.

I give hard wood floors a big :thumbsdown:

Same with tile (we have white tile). Hair all over the place after a couple days. I know it's gotta be worse on carpet. I'd rather see it and vacuum than pretend it's not there.