Cost of Hardwood!

[Akaz1976]

My parents are considering replacing the carpet in there condo living room with hardwood.

So i was wondering if anyone here could recommend a place that installs hardwood floors and how much should it cost (they live near square one mississauga).

Also rest of the house is already hardwood. I am assuming that i would need to be refinished for the whole floor to match, any ideas how much that might cost?

Finally, their kitchen floor is pretty bad and ripped in some places (its seems that base flooring has some sort of plastic paper like covering). Could that be redone in the whole package deal or should it be done separately? (since kitchen usually isnt hardwood).

Budget wise they would be on lowend (what ever that might be).

Akaz

[Ben Doone]

Check out Matheson Hardwood Flooring.
Their showroom is located at Dixie and Matheson.

[plisk3n]

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!

[glaswegian]

just checked out their gallery, looks like work well done to me


http://www.woodchuckflooring.com/gallery.htm

[sparkplug]

I was quoted $2.50 to $3.00 per square foot to pound in prefinished hardwood, so I've been doing it myself. Stairs cost around $100 each for the riser and tread. Doing your own flooring is fairly easy except near the wall, transition points (like where hardwood meets carpet) and stairs.

Unfinished hardwood would cost more money to install since they have to sand it and then put the stains and urethane coats on it.

[stealth]

I was quoted $2.50 to $3.00 per square foot to pound in prefinished hardwood, so I've been doing it myself. Stairs cost around $100 each for the riser and tread. Doing your own flooring is fairly easy except near the wall, transition points (like where hardwood meets carpet) and stairs.

Unfinished hardwood would cost more money to install since they have to sand it and then put the stains and urethane coats on it.

Ya, they really get you with the add-ons like stair pieces. I bought one stair piece (about $45.) and took it to my father-in law, who has a wood workshop in his garage. He used it as a template, and routed out all my stair pieces for just the cost of materials (about $5. per stair). Manufacturers are scammers....to do them all only took him a couple hours-he's a details obsessed guy. So he made an extra one, and I returned the original I bought, lol.
I did pre-finished as well, and it looks great, but I gotta admit, unfinished with a few coats of urethane is the best way to go IMO.

[CRXGSR]

Ya, they really get you with the add-ons like stair pieces. I bought one stair piece (about $45.) and took it to my father-in law, who has a wood workshop in his garage. He used it as a template, and routed out all my stair pieces for just the cost of materials (about $5. per stair). Manufacturers are scammers....to do them all only took him a couple hours-he's a details obsessed guy. So he made an extra one, and I returned the original I bought, lol.
I did pre-finished as well, and it looks great, but I gotta admit, unfinished with a few coats of urethane is the best way to go IMO.

You know stealth, pictures are woth a thousand words. Post some pics! ;)

[sparkplug]

You're lucky your stairs are all the same size. Quite often stairs are a bit crooked. Some are higher than others, some have more depth. Mine happen to be slightly narrower at the top than the bottom. So I was cutting 89 degree angles, not 90 degrees.

I also found my inside walls were a bit crooked. The outside walls are perfect, but the staircase and inside walls were off by about one degree.

[stealth]

You're lucky your stairs are all the same size. Quite often stairs are a bit crooked. Some are higher than others, some have more depth. Mine happen to be slightly narrower at the top than the bottom. So I was cutting 89 degree angles, not 90 degrees.

I also found my inside walls were a bit crooked. The outside walls are perfect, but the staircase and inside walls were off by about one degree.
True, thats often the case, so by leaving the stairs a little longer than necessary, they can be "fine tuned" with the mitre saw later.
In the end, a little bit of wood filler can also save the day :)

In my current home, the basement was poorly done, so the walls bow out by about an inch and a half along the full length of the wall. That made things tricky when I was putting in the laminate :)

CRXGSR, I'll try and find some pics to post for you :)
edit: ok, you can see some of my hardwood floors here:
http://groups.msn.com/Itstimeforpics/oakvillehouse.msnw
Hard to tell, but I actually did about 750sq. ft of oak. Sorry the pics arent the greatest, I wasnt really focussing on the floors. The house is now a rental unit, so please forgive the furniture/decorating :)
I also did the slate in the kitchen and marble in the bathroom.

[sunnybono]

My parents are considering replacing the carpet in there condo living room with hardwood.

So i was wondering if anyone here could recommend a place that installs hardwood floors and how much should it cost (they live near square one mississauga).

Also rest of the house is already hardwood. I am assuming that i would need to be refinished for the whole floor to match, any ideas how much that might cost?

Finally, their kitchen floor is pretty bad and ripped in some places (its seems that base flooring has some sort of plastic paper like covering). Could that be redone in the whole package deal or should it be done separately? (since kitchen usually isnt hardwood).

Budget wise they would be on lowend (what ever that might be).

Akaz


If you are in no hurry, I'm in the process of renovating a house in Downtown Toronto and my partner tells me that he has a supplyer of hardwood floor (3/4" Thick by 3" wide) who will sell to us for $3.50 / sq foot.

sk :)

[sparkplug]

Hardwood prices vary by quality. Rona has oak hardwood for $3.99 regular price.

There's a Home Depot grand opening in Calgary and they're selling maple hardwood for $1.99/square foot (regular $3.89/square foot).

[Brandon]

I helped install the hardwood at my sister's house. It really depends on your place and what the current setup is, plus what kind of hardwood you want. Like, if you don't have a plywood subfloor, you'd either have to get one put in or put in hardwood that doesn't require it. If you don't have a subfloor, and it's concrete you'd probably have to use hardwood that uses adhesive to bond to the ground. As well, what kind of finish do you want? You can get prefinished or get unfinished and do that after.

Basically, when we did it, I don't remember the cost but I think it was less than $2.50 per sq. foot (at Rona's, but based on a great sale and free gift cards we had) and my sister's house already had a subfloor. We already had a compressor and borrowed a nailer from someone and the installation took three days. We've never done it before, but it worked out well. The hardest part was cutting everything at proper angles and corners. It was also hard to use the nailer when close to the walls.

If you don't want to do it yourself, just pick a few contractors based on recommendations and send identical quotes to each of them based on the wood/finish you choose, and tell them you're sending it to multiple people. As well, you should make sure they have a standard of quality you confirm with them, this could be how many nails they use per board, etc.

[shybutsly]

Since you said that your parents live in a condo, you should definitely check the condo rules before proceeding. I wanted to install hardwood or laminate in my condo and the board requires a 6 mm cork underlayment which caused me to reconsider whether or not it was worth doing.

I have heard stories from the US of people installing hardword floors in their condos becuase they were unaware of the condo rules surrounding hard surface flooring. They were subsequently sued by the condo association and forced to rip out all of the hardwood.

[sunnybono]

My parents are considering replacing the carpet in there condo living room with hardwood.

So i was wondering if anyone here could recommend a place that installs hardwood floors and how much should it cost (they live near square one mississauga).

Also rest of the house is already hardwood. I am assuming that i would need to be refinished for the whole floor to match, any ideas how much that might cost?

Finally, their kitchen floor is pretty bad and ripped in some places (its seems that base flooring has some sort of plastic paper like covering). Could that be redone in the whole package deal or should it be done separately? (since kitchen usually isnt hardwood).

Budget wise they would be on lowend (what ever that might be).

Akaz

I live in a new subdivision and just met a contractor greenpark & h&r homes, who installs hardwood flooring and crown moulding (wood only). Ricketts Contracting is the name of the Co. and Dean is the owner tel416 737 9150

He quoted me $1.75/sq.ft for the floor and $2.00/linear foot for the crown Moulding. Remember you have to supply the material which he will tell you where to get cheap!!!!!

Good Luck.

SK

[stealth]

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).

[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

:razz:

[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

:razz:

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.