Cost of fitting Laminate \ Real wood Floor

[stevec59]

Hi,
Was looking at Laminate and real wood the weekend and having it fitted by the supplyer, could people let me know how much it should cost per metre squared to fit the floor, underlay scotia,door bars etc, just so that I know if I am being over charges.

Thanks

Steve

 

[WoodYouLike]

How long is a piece of string?
Price depends on site situation, materials needed etc etc etc.

 

[stevec59]

The supplyer is providing everything, I was just supprised by how much the labour was for fitting, its hallway going into storage cupboards (but no bars there, just go straint in) and into the lounge (20ft Sq), that is fairly rectangular, it does have an alcove,but no silly shapes. I thought Laminate \ Real wood ( Not Glue together) was reasonably easy to lay, I don't want to do it because I want a good job, but its a case of how much should I pay for a good job, OK, If i did try and do it, it would take me all day and I would probably get annoyed with it, but a proffesional layer I guess its shouldn't take that long.

Steve

 

[ln1234]

Steve,

I'm with you on this one - laying the modern 'click' laminate is a lot easier than putting a wood floor down, but a lot of tradesman don't seem to take that into account when quoting for laminate installation.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but I can't see the installation in a 4mx4m room taking a pro installer more than a day to complete (including the edging) - assuming the sub floor is flat, skirting is already fitted, and there is one chimney and door opening. What is the going dayrate for a good carpenter these days - £150, £200, £250? Around here in London you get a very good carpenter for £250 a day

 

[WoodYouLike]

Steve,

I'm with you on this one - laying the modern 'click' laminate is a lot easier than putting a wood floor down, but a lot of tradesman don't seem to take that into account when quoting for laminate installation.

Can I ask you why you think there is a difference between installing laminate, wood-engineered or solid floorboards? The fact that the product which has to be installed might be loads cheaper than other products does not mean the installation service should/can be cheaper too.

I'm not flaming you, just like you to understand that all these type of flooring almost always take the same time to install - click-laminate might give you a head-start, but then you hit the last row, the door posts, the fire place etc and the "real-wood" T&G installation catches up with you in this time frame.

 

[Chri5]

WYL- 1st time I've ever thought about disagreeing with you .

Click laminate is lighter, easier (no nails, no glue), requires less tooling and is less damage prone. Surely you'd agree that it's 20-40% quicker?

As for cost, guys round here quote £15-£25 a sq m for real wood- no idea if they drop the cost for laminate being easier.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Sorry, don't really agree it will be quicker and definitely not 20 - 40 %. Parts of it will be quicker, but most times you encounter the same little problems (or bigger problems with the click-system due to having to make the inevitable corrections and damaging the top part of the click-system) that will hardly give you so much time benefit using a click-system.
9 times out of 10 a standard simple (and good quality) T&G construction is - in the end - quicker than click.

Still see no reason why the price per sq m for a fitting service - separate item from the products bought - should be different.

Roughly same amount of tools are needed, same preparations to take, same type of underlayment to lay, same amount of doorpost, architrave to undercut, same number of beading/scotia to install.

Don't worry about disagreeing with me, happens to the best of us

 

[Chri5]

I'll go with your words, you are the flooring guru and as such you know the true times since your doing flooring work as a constant (well when you're not distracted by us numpties asking you questions!).

 

[stevec59]

[quote="As for cost, guys round here quote £15-£25 a sq m for real wood- no idea if they drop the cost for laminate being easier.[/quote]

I am being charged £15 per sq m, that works out to £450, that seems a lot to me, even if I went for a good laminate, the labour works out more per sq m, the majority of it is fairly straight forward, its just all the cutting for the end bits, fitting the scotia and door bars that are Likely to take the time.Wish I coud get £450 for what I think will be less than a days work..

Steve

 

[WoodYouLike]

You can always decide to do the work yourself

 

[stevec59]

Very True, but I know that I won't do a good job, and besides, my wife would never let me or divorce me

I guess its a case of you get what you pay for, you pay nothing and do it yourself and it might look OK, but get it done professionally and it will look perfect and might even last longer, so I guess it makes sense in the long run and if they rae going to charge £450 for fitting (that is more than 20 yr warranty laminate would cost at £13 per sq m), then I guess I might as well go the whole hog and go for Engineered top layer or real wood. The guy is going around today to take exact measurements to see if I have over estimated, so i might save a bit..

Thanks for all the replies..


Steve

 

[stevec59]

I guess the next question is...engineered wood or real wood, I think the engineered wood is going to cost @ £40 per m sq and real @ £50, so for 30 sq m @£300 difference, I have had a look on the web and there seem to be advantages for both.

Quote:-

Engineered wood, too, is real wood. It is a sandwich of 1/16" to 1/8" of finish wood on top and non-finish plywood underneath. So, what you're looking at is 100% genuine wood.

But did you know that it's actually better to have plywood underneath? That's right: the middle layer of plywood is laid cross-ways to the finish layer, providing additional strength to the flooring.

I suppose the disadvantage over real wood is that it can only be sanded 1 -3 times, so if it gets damaged you are more likely to need a replacement piece put in and I hate to think how much that would cost.

And I guess when it comes to selling the house (not for several year yet) to say that it has a Solid Real Floor would be good.

Steve

 

[WoodYouLike]

I suppose the disadvantage over real wood is that it can only be sanded 1 -3 times, so if it gets damaged you are more likely to need a replacement piece put in and I hate to think how much that would cost.

And I guess when it comes to selling the house (not for several year yet) to say that it has a Solid Real Floor would be good.

Steve

In all our years of supplying both wood-engineered (more and more) and solid wood floors it absolutely rarely happens the floor needs to be sanded again - plus you can only sand a solid wood floor as far as the T&G begins: most times the same thickness as proper wood-engineered floors.
More and more manufacturers switch to only wood-engineered floors, it's more eco-friendly too (less hardwood trees needed), plus engineered boards are much more stable (with plywood backing and with standard crossed-backing made of pine).

Your buyer will look if the floor is wood and not plastic laminate: wood-engineered boards are wood, stabler than solid, so the value of your home is regarded the same if you have good quality wood-engineered flooring as with solid flooring (better even, fewer problems with movement and gaps).
What your buyer would care more about is the way it is installed: properly or showing DIY signs

 

[stevec59]

Thanks for that, I did some more searching on the web and it does say that real wood is more prone to expansion etc, there were quite a few positives for engineered, so I think I will go for that.

Thanks for all your advise, much appreciated.


Steve