Q: How do I find the right flooring contractor, and what’s the cost to install hardwood floors?
A: with today’s technology most people will turn to Google, yahoo or Bing to find a flooring contractor. Just type flooring contractor in your area and within seconds you will get result up to 10 per page.
You will also find companies who will just sale the material; all you have to do is find an installer to install your hardwood floor or any other flooring you might need. That’s a great start, but to find the right flooring contractor here are some tips to save money time and aggravation.
WHAT NOT TO DO
- Stay away from unlicensed contractor. This may surprise you but a lot of people will hire unlicensed contractor to save a few dollars.If anything goes wrong with the installation, or the unlicensed contractor starts your job and not show up you have no recourse.
Let’s say everything goes well and the job is done, and six month later you have some issues and you are not able to make them return or worse yet you can’t get them to call you back.Now you have to find a new contractor and hopefully this time you have hired a licensed contractor to fix any and all problems.This means you have to pay additional funds to correct the problem and that’s not good.
- Stay away from any flooring contractor who does not have a showroom or an office were you can physically visits if anything goes wrong.
- Don’t buy your product online unless it’s a reputable company and they have a great return policy at no cost to you and make sure you get in writing their warranty on product after installation.
- Don’t hire a handy man, for most part they are unlicensed and they don’t specialize in flooring but they are jack of all traits.
HOW TO CHOOSE FLOORING CONTRACTOR
- When contacting local flooring contractor asked them about design ideas and their expertise in design and floor planning. This will help you weed out flooring contractor who know nothing about design and floor planning.
- Once you have found several licensed contractor with a showroom in your local area make time to visit their facility and look at all the flooring samples.
- Get three quotes to compare.
- Make sure they bring all samples to your home so you can see the samples next to your furniture and lighting before deciding on color & style.
- Make sure you get a total square foot measurement so you can compare with other flooring contractors, some flooring contractor will add 5% and some 10%. Be sure to ask about the waist factor and how they came up with that number. This will help you not waist product therefore you save money.
- Do your research online for pricing, this way you can better negotiate pricing with flooring contractors.
- Make sure in their proposal all molding and transition pieces as well as demolition and disposal fees plus furniture moving are included.
- Make sure you get a firm date on installation in writing, get a start date and completion date.
HOW TO CHOOSE HARDWOOD FLOORS.
- Hardwood floors come in 4 basic constructions:
- Solid Hardwood Flooring – are hardwood floors cut into wood planks from a solid piece of wood that generally come in 3/4″ thick. (use over raised foundation, not recommended for concrete slabs.) unless you first install additional plywood over concrete & then nail down the solid wood floor over the ply wood substrate..
- Engineered Hardwood Flooring – are several layers of wood that are glued and pressed together to create a wood plank.The Range of thickness vary from 1/4″ to just over 9/16″. (this product can be installed almost anywhere in your home, including over dry concrete slabs.) using glue down as well as stapled or floating application.
- Long strip Hardwood Flooring – are created exactly like engineered hard wood floors but the main difference is with a longer and wider plank. this product can be glued-down, stapled or floated over many sub-floors and used almost anywhere in your home, including dry basements.
- Exotic Hardwood Flooring – is a way to describe hardwood species from around the World. you wont find these hardwoods in North America and they come from Australia, Africa, Brazil and the Far East. with Exotic hardwoods you can get a unique wood graining and colorations. Most exotic floors are available in engineered wood construction but some are only available in solid hardwood planks
- Research the species of the wood floor you are interested in. Different species have different tolerance janka for wear and tear.
- Check for wear layer thickness, (this is very important). The thicker the wear layer the longer the floor will last and the more sanding you can get out of it.
- If you are purchasing hand scraped or hand distressed product even though you will never sand it. It is important to have a good wear layer for performance.
- Ask about the finish on the hardwood floor and the type of protection it has for long term wear and tear and let’s not forget about the warranty.
- Dark hardwood floor will give a formal look to your house so make sure you match your color & stain with the design of your home and furnishing. This why it is so important to work with a flooring contractor who understands design and floor planning as well as product and installation.
I hope this will help you in your search for flooring and flooring contractor. Here is couple of links for a square foot calculator and
virtual decorator to help you design and estimate how much flooring you may need.
If you have any comments or questions you can contact us by emailing to info@urbanhomedesignllc.com
Best wishes, Urban Home Design llc,
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