Laminate flooring cost?

[torinsmom]

Anyone have any experience with this? I am looking to have laminate flooring installed in most of my house(not in kitchen or bathroom). I had Empire flooring come out today and their estimate was $7400 for the 800 square feet I need covered. That includes padding, transitions and everything. Does that seem really high, or am I just living in lala land? I was thinking $3000-$4000 max. I'm scared to go with a private installer because I want it to be backed up if something goes wrong, but I can't pay that much for a floor!

Marsha

 

[Mickeyluver37]

That's over $9 per square foot. I'd expect to pay about that for hard wood floors, but not laminate flooring. I've never priced laminate, but we only paid slightly more than that for Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors (installed), and oak would have been cheaper.

Now we start looking for someone to come install all new windows. It's amazing what the labor charges are for home improvements!

 

[mookie]

Wow. That's a lot of money! I'm no help, because I'm going to be looking into this myself in a few months, so I"m curious to see what others have to say...

 

[Mickeyluver37]

That's over $9 per square foot. I'd expect to pay about that for hard wood floors, but not laminate flooring. I've never priced laminate, but we only paid slightly more than that for Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors (installed), and oak would have been cheaper.

Now we start looking for someone to come install all new windows. It's amazing what the labor charges are for home improvements!

 

[Nancy]

that seems high to me. I was asking the carpet place about laminate for my DD's bedroom and it wasn't that much more than $3.00 - $4.00 per sq.ft. installed. This was at Home Depot. I'm not sure if it was a sale price, but he told me it shouldn't cost more than medium priced carpeting.

 

[AllyBri]

You're not living in la-la land. Their price is very high.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Empire Carpet is notoriously outrageously expensive. We had them quote our house once, and it was ridiculous! Anyhow, we just installed around 1100 sf (I think it's actually more than this) of higher end laminate in our house, and it was right around $4900 for the laminate and underlayment. My dh installed it himself though, so we saved around $3000.

 

[Snow_White]

That price is horrible. I would never go with that company. Check out Home Depot or something. Anything has to be better than that.

 

[tpask8r]

You will pay about $3.00/sqft for good quality laminate floors and about $3.00/sqft to install. Anything more than that and you need to have justification why. Are you handy? Can you borrow a neighbor's miter saw? If so, you can do it yourself. It is so easy. I did my house and my foreclosure I bought. If you lived in Tampa, I would help you do it for free. Well, maybe for a 12 pack of Coke One, and some chocolate chip cookies! =) It is actually a lot of fun!

Keep Smiling

 

[torinsmom]

This is one job I would be scared to death to tackle myself! I would screw something up for sure. Plus I stay so busy, it would take a year of weekends to get it done. I'm going to schedule Home Depot to come out and do an estimate. I thought when I asked there awhile back, the kind I wanted was $4/square foot installed plus the underlayment, quarter round and all that jazz. Empire was supposed to be having a 50% off sale and so I thought it would be comparable.
UGH! A waste of an evening!

Marsha

 

[Simba's Mom]

We're in the process of having laminate flooring installed in our house. We hired the shop with the best, but most expensive, reputation in town (but they do great work, so we know and don't mind). We're getting Wilsonart, which is one of the more expensive, and we're paying a lot less than that. With a good padding and installation, it's about $7.50 a square foot, and I thought that was high!

 

[binny]

I just bought Harmonics laminate at Cotsco in the Brazilian Cherry with the coupon it worked out to be $1.12 a square ft.


We have over 400 SQ FT so it was a fairly decent job. It is normally $24.99 a box which is 17.88 sq ft Even their highest quote we got was $790 for installation for the whole space.



It rates very high a 4 out of 5 and is used by a lot of installers in the area. Our contractor said it is the equivilent of a $3.75 SQ FT floor

 

[floridafam]

We had laminate installed last year. We went with a reputable local flooring place. Our estimate from Home Depot was almost twice of what we paid. HD wanted extra for delivery, bringing it in the house, etc., etc.

FYI-we didn't use quarter round. Neither DH nor myself can stand how it looks.

Definately do some checking around.

 

[phorsenuf]

This is one job I would be scared to death to tackle myself! I would screw something up for sure. Plus I stay so busy, it would take a year of weekends to get it done. I'm going to schedule Home Depot to come out and do an estimate. I thought when I asked there awhile back, the kind I wanted was $4/square foot installed plus the underlayment, quarter round and all that jazz. Empire was supposed to be having a 50% off sale and so I thought it would be comparable.
UGH! A waste of an evening!

Marsha

My DH and just installed laminate flooring in our dining room and kitchen. It really isn't that difficult at all. DH did all the cuts with his circular saw and jigsaw. In the dining room we used the underlayment and in the kitchen it was aready on the flooring we bought. It was easier not having to lay the underlayment first although it just rolls out in sections.

We used Swiftlock by Armstrong in the dining room and that stuff was a breeze to do! In the kitchen we used Swiftlock Plus by Kronotex and we didn't like it as much at all. The end joints didn't lock so they didn't butt together as good as the other. I am actually waiting to hear back from Kronotex about it.

Anyways, it is pretty simple. If you have any questions, let me know!

Oh and one other thing, you don't have to clear all the furniture out first. Just move it to one side because once you lay the floor you can then move it onto the completed section. You don't have to wait until its all done to use it.

 

[I Love Pluto]

We had laminate floors installed by Empire Today last year. They are wonderful. The quality is high end, and the installation is perfect. Yes, they are high in price, but they are worth it.

 

[marlasmom]

Don't go to HOme Depot or Lowes either. Go to a reputable local dealer. HD and Lowes merely hires out local contractors and takes a cut of their fee. If you can't get recommendations on a local store, ask for references and maybe even ask the homeowner if you can see the finished work.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Does that 800 sf include an additional 10% for cuts and waste? If not, even figuring 880 sf that's $8.41/sf and that seems high to me.

Even if you go to HD and select a Dupont Elite (with the attached underlayment) special order style @ $3.97/sf plus $2.29/sf basic installation, that's $6.26/sf before figuring things that aren't figured by the square foot like the transitions. Even if you allow an additional $1.50/sf for that, you're around $7.76. And I'm figuring the highest end laminate that HD has.

Floridafam, just curious; you said you didn't use quarter round? Do you mean the matching quarter round or no quarter round at all? If no quarter round at all, how did you cover the expansion space?

 

[phorsenuf]

Obi, I know you weren't addressing the quarter round issue to me but we chose not to use it either as we don't like the look. We used regular baseboard. I think it gives a cleaner look.

 

[tkd lisa]

Anyone have any experience with this? I am looking to have laminate flooring installed in most of my house(not in kitchen or bathroom). I had Empire flooring come out today and their estimate was $7400 for the 800 square feet I need covered. That includes padding, transitions and everything. Does that seem really high, or am I just living in lala land? I was thinking $3000-$4000 max. I'm scared to go with a private installer because I want it to be backed up if something goes wrong, but I can't pay that much for a floor!

Marsha

I can let you know for POSITIVE this afternoon. I'm having about that amount (770 sq feet by my measurements) done in Mohawk, which is a fairly good quality product. The initial estimate was $3400 for a mid-grade product, fully installed with custom painted quarter round. They move all the furniture in and out. I've now picked out two products, and had the professional measure, so I'll get a final price today.

Frankly, I wouldn't use someone like Empire. I'd get recommendations from people I work with and get a couple of estimates. I've found that the local stores (assuming they've been in business a while) give better prices and better service. They also have long term employees that know what they're doing, instead of local high school students.

 

[mickeysgal]

OP: That price sounds awful high to me. For that kind of price you can get an exotic real hardwood - installed. If you're searching for another installer, go to the manufacturer's website and look up their dealer locations. Or perhaps call the manufacturer directly and ask for recommendations for their best installers/companies that they recommend. Believe me, they most likely have heard who's good and who's not.

Regarding the quarter round question, I don't understand this either. We just put in engineered hardwood in our basement and even there, there is a gap that needs to be covered by quarter round. We have baseboards but the quarter round is still needed to cover the expansion joint. How can you install a floor without accounting for expansion?