CLBean

Anyone know how much it costs to get hardwood floors installed in a house? Labor & Materials... just a rough estimate would be great.

Thanks all!

GreenMonster

I don't know the answer, but do you mean a real hardwood floor, or one of hardwood substitites like http://www.pergo.com/Pergo/US/US_Con...29,USA,00.html ??

That'll make a big difference in the price.

I've got pergo in the kitchen (real hardwoods in the bedrooms and living room), but it was all there when I bought teh house.

TypeSAddict

We have real hardwoon in two rooms, and pergo in one room and our sunroom. IMO, the pergo is nicer. THe hardwood floors get real nasty lookin real fast, but the pergo looks good for years.

indoMFP

My buddy did his entire entire house (minus the kitchen) 3300 sq ft for about $15k, we did it ourselves... for everything I think professionals wanted about $27k.... it is crazy expensive, but if you got allergies and pets well worth it...

chef chris

Just materials, about $4 sq ft.

Labor is crazy.

CLBean

Thanks all. Probably Pergo, not the most expensive stuff. I don't have that much space to do, maybe 1000 sq. ft. I can't find anywhere that just gives rough prices. I'll call around before I do it, but I'd like an idea up front.

Thanks

indoMFP

Just as a reference, most hardwood is about $2-6 a square foot. Labor is about $70-120 per hour. I would figure for 1000 sq. feet look to spend about $5k.... Good Luck and hope you got a good bank balane...

GreenMonster

Tell me about it. The prego stuff doesn't look that hard to put down either. If you know how to swing a hammer, you can saves a ton of $$ on the labor. Check out the installation instructions on the website I posted above.

I haven't gotten "real" estimates on what it will cost to side my house, but guessimates put it at 7K-15K. My step-dad and I vinyl sided his new two car garage last summer, and figure we can side my house for about 2.5-3.5K in materials.

Slimey

Looks like people are right on target -- about $10000 - 15000/floor professionally installed.

We just had our floors re-sanded and refinished for about $1200/floor.

GreenMonster

Sometimes I think I'm in the wrong profession. Instead of going to a college-prep HS, I should have gone to the Vocational HS and became a contractor

Slimey

Tell me about it -- on Thursday I spent 30 minutes adjusting and cleaning a microscope at work and my office manager tells me thanks, we just saved about $300 for a service call.

Silver™

I have heard good stuff about Pergo, but this is what we are putting down in part of the house we are building. Heard good stuff about it and seen it in person so we went with it.

http://www.quick-step.com/welcome.aspx

Chief F1 Fan

I have butcher block pergo in one bathroom and HATE IT! It looks like the cheeeep ass shit that it is. Don't cheese out and buy it, esp. if you're going to have 1000 sq feet of it. It has a gloss that looks like a dull plastic looking shine. This will especially true where there's a lot of direct light on it. My law partner put it on his office floor (25x30) and it looks like shee-ot. I told him not to buy it but he didn't believe me. The rest of my home has Brazilian cherry hardwood floors on the first floor and is the way to go. It cost ~70 percent over a high end berber plus installation.

GINge!

I got about 2,000^ft of cherry HW installed...looked real nice, then my dog scratched the shit out of it. Cherry is technically a HW, but it is the softest of them, so if durability is a concern, get oak.

SpeedyV6

Walnut is even stronger/harder than oak.

synth19

Okay, I'm glad you viced this opinion... it does look badass from the link supplied..I need to see it in person.

dfreder371

Just my opinion, but I think Pergo sounds "cheap" when it is walked on, especially by a woman in heels.

My company owns Wilsonart, and they make a pergo like floor. All of the fake wood floors have issues, but if you do go fake wood, make sure all sides, not just the top of the laminate is sealed. The main issue is water and swelling, so you need sealed sides or a glued together floor.

My though is that nothing beats a real, hardwood oak floor. And if you really want it to be pretty, get a quote on a "quartersawn" oak floor. I have two friends who own businesses installing real hardwood floors. Both millionaires under 55. Although they are losing business to Pergo and the like, they will not touch the stuff due to the water problem.

If you go with real hardwood, here is what you do not want to have happen. You decide to go with real 3/4" thick strip oak and sign the contract on Monday. Tuesday, the guys show up to install the floor. No, no, no. Although hardwood floors can be installed at anytime of the year, the ideal times are the spring and the fall, when humidity is average, neither high nor low. At any rate, the wood should be dropped off in your home, the bundles broken up, such that the wood can "aclimate" to the temperature and humidity conditions in your home. After a week or so, then construction can begin.

If you go real hardwood, there is a very good clear finish imported from europe called "Glitza." If after staining (if stained at all) and Glitza is applied, get the hell out of the house and take your pets for the next 24 hours. The solvents used are very toxic, but the finished product is very beautiful. The guys who apply glitza wear full body protection and have pressurized air pumped into their suits. This is not a do it yourself job.

On top of this, weather you go real or artificial, there are moisture issues...some of these floors have to "float" (not be nailed down in the artificial case) for expansion and contraction. Down in Danville, IL, I had to fly one of my friends down there to look at the foyer of the quaker oats company that had a hardwood floor put in in the dead of winter, wall to wall, when the humidity in the air and the moisture content of the wood was lowest. The foyer was about 100x100 feet. This floor was not installed by my friend. When we got there, in the middle of the foyer, the floor was approaching knee high due to swelling.

In winter, if you go real hardwood, do not be alarmed if you see the seams between the wood begin to open, even if it is clear coated and "sealed". This will happen. It will close up when the humidity rises to its "as installed" condition. What you do want to do is keep those gaps cleanly vacuumed.

We once did a strip oak floor for a doctor in the chicago northwest suburbs, who I thought was absolutely crazy. The floor finish? Absolutely jet black, in a white room with jet black dining furniture. It turned out absolutely, completely, drop dead georgeous!