Cost of Hard Wood Floors

I see high quality hardwood floors on the web at $5-6 per sq ft. For a 2000 sq ft place, assume you need to cover 1600 sq ft. Assuming installation cost of $8-10 a sq ft, it is only $20-25,000 but I have heard my friends spend much more than that per sq foot. Are they overpaying? Thanks.

Not to hijack the thread, but I have also seen products such as Mirage engineered floors online for at least $3 psf cheaper than in a store. Is there any concern to buying on floors as opposed to through a store?

Your installation costs are low - depends on what needs to be done. Subfloor repair/installation? Remove/reinstall baseboards? Finish in place?

p.s. I've done it for $10/sqft but that is on the low, low end and I wasn't too bothered about insurance.

Another recent flooring discussion:

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/22313-wood-floors-price-difference

Flooring:

demo existing flooring
remove all debris
Subfloor?
If not, self leveling?
Moldings, what kind?
What kind of wood floor? 3/4" oak, then stained and poly or engineered?

What kind of quality do you want?

Its like anything else in this world, you get what you pay for.

All the above (not engineered) - some leveling. High quality wood but not exotic wood. What would be the difference between with subfloors and without subfloors.

if you are using a hardwood you need the subfloor, 3/4" plywood that will add roughly $3.00 sq ft to the overall price.

If you are using engineered, can you go over the old, thin parquet floor or should that be taken up to go directly over the concrete? Pros/cons of either?

It depends what you are looking for. I am not intending on staying in my apartment for more than 5 years and the building I am in has a lot of 1st time buyers/starter apartments. I wasn't about to drop 10K on floors because the apartment won't ever appreciate the investment.

I went with 5/8" engineered click lock flooring. It went down in 1 day (600 sq ft with two installers) I paid just under $4.00/sq ft not including installation.

I went right over my existing flooring (linoleum!) and the guys did have to put down some material so that the floor was level as well as a padding material.

So far I am really happy with the look and sound of the floors, IMO you can't tell they are engineered or click lock install.

Any views on red oak vs white oak - is it just aesthetic preference?

I've gotten a quote of $18/sqft for installation of oak flooring using 2 1/4" boards including a new 3/4" plywood subfloor. The price includes removal and disposal of the old hardwood flooring from my prewar apartment. Is this reasonable?

The installer does not plan to add anything between the subfloor and the hardwood boards. I want a solid feeling floor with no squeaking. Should he be adding insulation above the subfloor?

My all-in was much less than that (11-12psf), but I caught a good deal on something I really liked from Lumber Liquidators, and I think my timing was pretty good (economy/competition-wise) when I was seeking bids from contractors.

I thought they always put at least rosin paper between the sub and top floors. My installation included an insulating underlayment. I'm very happy with the results.

UWS, a little felt in between wouldnt hurt. Does the $18.00 sq ft include new base molding?

I think $15.00 sq ft is where it should be, are you staining the floor?

UWS987632, there's oak and there's oak. White is a little harder then red, and it looks a little different. There's much more red available, so it should be cheaper. The real difference with either is in how it's sawn: plain-, quarter- or rift-sawn. Then there's the grade, i.e. how many little knots and discolorations. All of that impacts the price.

I would also think that finishing in place (sanding, staining) is more expensive than prefinished.

Home Depot:

$1.99 per sq. ft. Click Wood and Laminate Installation
The Home Depot is your one-shop source for flooring and installation. Take advantage of our everyday low price of $1.99 per sq. ft. for basic installation (labor only) of laminate and click wood flooring purchased through participating The Home Depot stores. See store associate for details and minimum purchase amount.

Click lock is far different from real wood flooring. I was just hired to remove click wood flooring from an apartment that was installed 2 years ago. The feel of it just isnt the same, sure if someone is on a very very tight budget then ok but if budget is not that important i would never use it

Primer - The $18/sqft does not include the baseboards (they were replaced recently so I don't need to replace them), but it does include new quarter moldings at the bottom of the baseboards. The price also includes staining and finishing of the floor in place once the installation in complete.

Is there any special staining? Are you going dark? if you really want it dark then the installer should waterpop the wood, that opens the pores and the floors come out much darker.

Even though the moldings were done a little while ago generally they are installed right over the wood floor so when unless they remove the molding and try to reuse it i dont see how that will work well.

$18 seems still a little high. There is nothing wrong with asking them to come down a little. $15-$16 seems very reasonable.

How many square feet is it? The bigger the better. The smaller jobs actually costs more per sq ft then big ones