Cost of Hardwood!

[DISH]

Wow, great price for installing the floor. Hardly worth doing yourself when you factor in tool rental costs and hassles.
The rate for the crown molding seems like a rip though (crown molding isnt exactly hard work if you know how to use a coping saw/mitre saw).

That price is just labour. You still need to add the costs of nails, under paper and glue. Probably around $2 after everything.

600 sqft would be approx $1200
An amateur can do that in 2 days.
Gun rental is about $50 per day x 2= $100
compressor about $35 per day x 2 = $70
Nails, glue and underpaper etc.. approx $100

Total cost is $270+ your time.

[pandaharo]

Ikea has 1.09/sq feet and I believe the box said no tools neccessary or necessary tools included. It is a snap in type fitting, not sure about finish or feel, but 1.09 is pretty cheap, I might get it for my dogs dog house.

[sparkplug]

That price is just labour. You still need to add the costs of nails, under paper and glue. Probably around $2 after everything.

600 sqft would be approx $1200
An amateur can do that in 2 days.
Gun rental is about $50 per day x 2= $100
compressor about $35 per day x 2 = $70
Nails, glue and underpaper etc.. approx $100

Total cost is $270+ your time.

It took me more than 2 days to do less square footage than that due to cutting around stairways, fireplace and doing the stairs.

Gun rental is $21.99/day at Home Depot. You get a Stanley Bostitch MIIIFS, which is the gold standard for professionals. I don't know about compressor prices.

Nails are around $80/box for 5700 staples or you can buy them in smaller packages. $0.85/clip at Home Depot or $8.75 per 13 clips at Rona. You also need a small box of 6d nails for face nailing and smaller hardwood floor nails if you wish to hammer into the tongues near the wall.

Glue is cheap and you don't need much (if any). All you need is one container of PL/400 for subfloors. $2 for small tube and $4 for large. In general, you don't want to glue your floors. It needs to expand when there's humidity. If you glue, it can't expand and will bubble upwards.

Don't forget the $4 for wood filler.

[silvalude]

I'm looking into getting hardwood into my house next year rather than going through the builder. We're looking to go maple, and average price seems to be about 4.50-5 sq/ft.

I found these stores in the GTA after some googling:
Acadian Flooring http://www.acadianflooring.com

Giant Carpet Flooring http://www.giantcarpet.com/

Canadian Flooring http://www.canfloor.com/

The Hardwood Flooring Store http://www.hardwoodflooringstore.com/

Trust Flooring http://www.trustflooring.com/


Anyone hear of any experiences with any of these?

[sparkplug]

I found hardwood flooring in an unlikely place. Costco sells select & better oak flooring for under $3/square foot. They're in 20 sq ft boxes for $57.99 and you can check them out on their web site.

[gooch1000]

Got mine done at Woodchuck Flooring in Scarborough. Excellent service and really customer oriented. Holmes on Homes uses these guys, so you can't go wrong!

www.woodchuckflooring.com

[glaswegian]

Bamboo is the way forward, anyone know where to get it cheaper in the GTA?

[plg_cp]

I found hardwood flooring in an unlikely place. Costco sells select & better oak flooring for under $3/square foot. They're in 20 sq ft boxes for $57.99 and you can check them out on their web site.

A couple of things to check when considering too-good-to-be-true pricing would be whether or not the strips are finished on the bottom (no-no as they cannot deal with moisture) and if they are made in China (milling accuracy is critical).

That plus the fact that too-good-to-be-true usually is just that...

[CharmyPoo]

www.woodchuckflooring.com

Woodchuck Flooring quoted us pretty high for labour and materials - around $1 more than others.

[patrob]

Woodchuck Flooring quoted us pretty high for labour and materials - around $1 more than others.

How many sq. ft. do you have to do? Do you have carpet to be removed, all that adds to the price & but you can probably do that yourself...

[Ray]

Woodchuck Flooring quoted us pretty high for labour and materials - around $1 more than others.

I also visited Woodchuck and they are quite friendly and knowledgeable but they are more expensive in material costs relative to other places I've called.