New Wood Floors

Slay,

Did the insurance company give you an estimate? $5.00 a sq ft for an engineered floor is not nearly enough. Make sure whatever floor you do get it is engineered and not just prefinished.

Full disclosure: I am a contractor. Your project is too small for me but if you want to call me I will let you know what you should or should not do. 646-436-3942

The contractor gave me an estimate, roughly $14,000 for floors and ceiling/painting walls. $5/sq ft just for the wood itself, not including labor, is far too little? That's what the contractor himself relayed to me.

Also I believe they said I am looking for 3/4 inch engineered wood. I am on lumber liquidators website and don't see a 3/4 inch option on thickness. Am I looking at the wrong filter?

You can get stock items in less than 1 week. If pre-finished floor, it will take 3-4 days to install the floors (no herringbone or special designs) for a 2 bedroom apartment (1200-1400 sq ft). Add 3 more days if you are staining and finishing the floors in the apartment. You just need a floor guy rather than a contractor.

https://www.havwoodsusa.com/

Cool - it will be pre-finished. Also the reason I am using a contractor is because there is ceiling damage thats needs repair as well because the apartment above me leaked a bunch of water through my ceiling and all over my floor.

@Primer_05 - Can I send you the PDF of the contractor's estimate of work that needs to be done? I have no idea how to read and understand this and find out if their estimate is low. Basically it's 517.5 sq. ft of wood flooring, estimated cost of just over $14,000. But there is also the ceiling that needs repair built into this estimate. So not sure how to calculate on my own how much money I have to spend on the wood itself.

Send over the estimate

primerenovations@mac.com

You need the contractor because they generally install base molding and paint better than a floor guy

You can get an inexpensive prefinished floor but is that what you want? You are better off with an engineered floor

Slay, Armstrong 5 inch wide real oak wood is appx $6 per ft after discount. List price $7.99. Take a look.

Install is $4-6 sq ft plus contractor upcharge which for a small job can be high.

Working off another floor contractor's estimate that I got on another job (which can be tricky since everyone has a minimum that they need to make to do a job) to remove old parquet and install and finish red oak strip with a simple molding in that sized space should be $10K-$11K, if your subfloor isn't damaged, so the ceiling repair/painting would be $3K-$4K. Does that sound right?

Working off another floor contractor's estimate that I got on another job (which can be tricky since everyone has a minimum that they need to make to do a job) to remove old parquet and install and finish red oak strip with a simple molding in that sized space should be $10K-$11K, if your subfloor isn't damaged, so the ceiling repair/painting would be $3K-$4K. Does that sound right?

I went to PARAMOUNT FLOORMART, INC, 347 37th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11232 and purchased Bruce Dundee red oak (not engineered wood) for $5.25 per sq ft.

Still better off buying engineered. Mirage is around $7.00 sq ft. Junkers around 8-9. Better quality: PID or LV 14-25 sq ft

New York hardwood floors 60 12th street has a big variety of american made products and good prices.

Brooklyn

Do not assume the building is going to allow this work when the elevators are being serviced. Try to get everything lined up as soon as possible. If you think you will run into a time crunch, talk to your super right away. It helps if you are on a friendly basis and have applied the grease. As far as your estimate is concerned, very difficult to tell how reasonable it is. Your ceiling could require simple patches or extensive work. Depends on how severe the water damage is. The level of work involved will be reflected in your cost. Make sure painting of the entire ceiling is included in the written estimate. You do not want to have a mismatched ceiling.

Just a personal opinion, but I hate engineered flooring.

30, I used to but if you have a 5mm wear layer, engineering is pretty good and you can go wide plank. All hardwood beyond 5inch wide expands and contracts significantly enough that you will see gap in your floors with NY overheated and dry apartments during the winter time. For suburbs with humidity control in the heating system, hardwood wide planks work just fine.

I am going through the unfinished floor vs engineered wood dilemma myself. Contractors seem to try to steer us toward unfinished/site finished wood so that they can install it first, then do all the other work and finish at the end without worrying about it.
All the flooring stores on the other hand are pushing engineered/pre-finished.

And what do you do if you want to sand and stain a different color?
P The one's I REALLY can't stand are the one's with beveled edges.

300 Mercer,

We have installed hardwood flooring greater than 5" that did not have any gaps at all.

Primer, At the peak of the winter, they will unless they are using a large capacity humidifier which keeps the relative humidity in the apartment >35% vs typical summer humidity of 50% or so. My apartment without humidifier gets as dry as 25% relative humidity and it is a challenge to get the humidity up due to strong steam heat.

30, I agree with you on beveled edges. Many people do not like them. I personally do not have any issue with it.

BTW, finishes on engineered used to be tougher that site finished poly. However, with 2 coats of Bona Traffic HD, you do not have that issue any more. It cures overnight and you can use your floors. Rugs needs a little longer.

300 Mercer,

Perhaps your apt has a humidity problem but that does not mean that problem exists everywhere. It is very important to check these levels prior to installing but in many cases, it is not necessary.

We had our contractor install 5" oak. We glued and nailed the wood subfloor and also glued and nailed the oak boards. This was a belt and suspender approach. We also used Sika Bond, which is a bit pricey. 4 years latter, in a typical hot in winter nyc apt, we have had no problems. Our floors are as tight and flat as the day they were installed. I dont know about 5" plus flooring, but I think the same belt and suspender approach would work.

I believe ours are only nailed not glued. They are also 5 inch oak. Our apartment was exceptionally dry during the winter and I needed multiple humidifiers to raise the relative humidity to above 30 due to strong steam heat with our apartment temperature 78-80 degrees. The floors gapped during winter but they are completely back to normal now.

Nailed with beads of glue but not full glue.

It seems like a few years ago everyone had to have "real" wood and now all I see is engineered wood. Has the quality improved or just the marketing?

I think the prevalence of engineered wood stems in part from the fascination with wider floors. But there is a vast array of difference among engineered floors. If you are going to put down 3" oak, there likely is no reason to even think about engineered products, whether cost, aesthetics or performance wise. But if you want wider boards, funky looks, etc., engineered floors can be (but may not be) cheaper , sometimes by a lot, and may not exhibit as much shrinkage or be as susceptible to moisture issues. A well made engineered floor is not any (or materially) cheaper than its solid counterpart, and has a 1/4" or larger wear layer, so it can be sanded and refinished just as much or often as solid wood. There is significantly more dimensional stablility, but in my humble opinion (after installing 7" ash engineered plank floors in my apartment), they transmit sound more readily. In my case, the engineered version was more than a solid floor, but because of the width of the boards and given that it the floor extends into kitchen, we opted for the engineered variety. Oh, and I cannot stand that bevel in some flooring, it screams cheapness and is a petrie dish.

nyc_sport, well put.