Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hardwood Floor Installation Prices - Impact On Pocketbook

There is no denying that installing hardwood floors on any room in your home or your entire home could cost you a lot of money. You have to be willing to pay the costs to beautify your home. The fact that you are considering hardwood flooring in your home would indicate that you are at least willing to come up with the cash involved in having this kind of flooring installed. The total cost of installing your hardwood flooring would largely depend on the size of the area you would want to cover with hardwood flooring and the kind of materials and work involved in the installation. Hardwood floor installation prices also vary depending on where you are located. Upscale neighborhoods and cities as well as condominiums and apartment buildings would jack up hardwood floor installation prices. Hardwood floor installation prices are also affected by additional work you require after the flooring has been installed.

You have the option to have your hardwood floors installed by professional contractors or to do the installation yourself. Professional contractors charge higher as their profits are included in the hardwood floor installation prices they quote. Independent contractors would have lower hardwood floor installation prices than those that are commissioned by local home improvement stores. This is because the local home improvement stores pad these hardwood floor installation prices to include their own fees. Doing the hardwood floor installation yourself would do away with these additional costs and labor charges. The cost of doing your own hardwood floor installation, however, could be increased by mistakes that you are likely to commit especially if you are new to doing your own home improvement project.

The hardwood floor installation cost could also be affected by the kind of hardwood flooring material you choose to use and your existing flooring. There are separate charges for dismantling or taking out your existing flooring. There are also charges for laying out the plywood subfloor and asphalt felt underlayer required of solid hardwood flooring installation. This makes it cheaper to install engineered hardwood flooring. These hardwood flooring installations come at lower prices and require less labor as these could be glued down to even concrete floors. There are, however, restrictions as to refinishing since the thinner hardwood wear layer is not as resilient to refinishing as solid hardwoods are. Potential physical changes as expansion and contraction are less likely to happen in engineered hardwood floorings.

Contractor hardwood floor installation prices would be at around $1,000 per 100 square feet of space to be worked on. Again, this cost could move up or down depending on the kind of materials you would require and whether or not you would require additional work such as custom borders, trim moldings, and subfloor treatment among others. Another option you can take is to do the legwork yourself and procure the materials on your own, and then leave the installation to professional contractors. This option can cut down your labor costs by about twenty percent. But, you do have to do your own haggling on the price of materials. There are contractors that could get huge discounts from their partner establishments and suppliers and could save you some cash on the procurement of materials. Carefully weigh the amount of savings you would get from doing your own legwork versus the amount of money your contractor can save you on the cost of materials.

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