Everyone wants to save money when they need flooring installed. Some go the route to do it themselves, or they try to do parts of the job before installers come. Others will just pay a professional to do it for them so that they know it was done correctly. What could you expect in cost?
The first thing done is to prepare the base or sub floor for the installation. That sometimes involves removing the old flooring or getting a floor flatter if it has a low or high place in it. Installers will usually have the cost of removing and disposing of existing flooring. It will depend on the type of flooring being removed and what they may have to do to the sub floor. Glue down products sometime leave a residue or doesn’t come off cleanly. They may have to grind off leftover flooring or put a sealer on the floor.
If you are removing any type of ceramic or porcelain tile or stone, you will need to remove all the setting materials as well before another installation. It will be a similar situation if you are removing a wood flooring that was glued to a floor. The adhesive would need to be ground down. Once this is done, the next step would be done.
Hard surfaces such as tile, hardwood, laminate, and luxury vinyl need sub floors to be as flat as possible before installations. They have a low tolerance for uneven surfaces. Either low or high places can cause a failure in an installation. High places need to be either ground down or smoothed out over a longer distance. Low places need to be filled as well as large cracks in a sub floor.
Any flooring that is installed will also not be warrantied against moisture. If you are installing a floor over a concrete sub floor, either have it checked for moisture, or have it sealed to make sure it won’t. There are several products that can be used to seal moisture out of a concrete substrate. If you are glueing a floor down, it is also good to use a primer on the subfloor to give you a good surface to adhere to as well as insure that an old adhesive won’t cause an adverse effect with the new adhesive.
International Certified Flooring Installers Association (cfiinstallers.org) CFI or the International Certified Flooring Installers Association is a great resource if you are looking to learn how to install flooring. They will help you how to install different flooring products professionally so you don’t have a failure and that you can make good money at it.
If you are installing carpet, there are a number of specialized tools needed to install it, as well as a skill of putting it together. As you get into patterns and natural fibers, the skill level increases and the cost associated with the installation.
Hardwood flooring can be very basic to install with a few tools to very complex and expensive tools and the use of math and geometry. The CFI has training, but the NWFA NWFA | National Wood Flooring Association is specifically focused on wood flooring. They will help you from basics to complex patterns and shaping with wood flooring. Wood flooring can be simple with a waterproof hardwood that clicks together such as French Oak Coastal by Proximity Mills - Rutherfordton, North Carolina - BPS Southeast or you can get into complex installations with a sand and finish that could be multiple species of woods in patterns that require routing and cutting as you install the floor.
Tile installation is a very challenging installation that many attempt to do to save money. Unfortunately, it is the most expensive to make mistakes on. Tile installation cost is in the thousands of dollars many times. It requires skill, because you are usually putting a floor in or creating an area that will be getting a lot of water exposed to it. Water damage is expensive to repair and replacement cost are very costly. The CFI can help with this, but the Certified Tile Installers | Ceramic Tile Education Foundation | CTEF (ceramictilefoundation.org) CTEF specializes in tile installation. There is a handbook that is available that breaks down every type of tile installation and how to do it properly. Tile installers can do very well for themselves and it also allows you to be very creative. There are thousands of different types of tiles that you can use or cut with special saws and make pictures in your work.
Click flooring such as laminate and luxury vinyl are probably the easiest, yet misunderstood flooring. The prep work for these is the same as for wood flooring when it comes to getting the sub floor ready. You still have to check for moisture and have a flat floor. It doesn't require as many tools or specialized tools as the other products which helps it to be more versatile of a product that can be professionally installed or DIY.
No matter what product you put in, there are guidelines for them and you must follow them to prevent failure. Professional installers spend a lot of time and money into learning how to install flooring. Whether it is going to training classes or buying certain tools, they work to provide customers with the best possible installation that you will love for years to come. It may look easy, but anyone who spends hours every day perfecting a trade will do that. The more difficult the installation, the more expensive it will be. There is no set price for floor prep to installation. It is all affected by the individual job as well as the skill needed to do the job. The better skilled you are, the more likely you will never be without work and your cost per job will be higher and the beauty of the completed job.
