My husband and I are thinking about putting in our own flooring...?
Question:We are thinking about either putting in hardwood or tile. We just moved to Florida and have no idea what the issues would be in installing it ourself. We are just curious as to cost of having it installed versus us doing it ourselves. The house is about 1900 square feet and the whole thing needs to be done. Any ideas on where we could get online estimates...or the difficulty of us doing it ourself. This would be truly our first time for attempting something like this. But we also have our first baby and would really like to save some money...if possible
Answers:
Installing tile or hardwood is not that difficult if you have some construction background, or mechanical minded. Generally, what you need to consider is the longevity of each product, and what type of traffic you new floor will handle. Tile, especially porcelain body tiles, are very durable and will last A very long time with little maintenance. The down side is they are very hard and cold..Hardwoods are warmer and softer, but because they are natural wood there is a greater chance for damage and scratching. If you have pets stay away from hardwoods. As far as installation, you need a flat stable sub floor, free of grease or any other contaminates. Most slabs need at least a little prep ( Scraping and floating ),
But ceramic allows a bit more leeway. The cost of wood floor labor is generally cheaper, but the cost of the material can be higher. Hardwoods can also be refinished if they get scratched up. So, for a new born I recommend hardwood, but for a little older child and pets ceramic is the way to go.
Anything you can do yourself will be cheaper than hring someone. Tile is durable, somewhat simple to install with the right tools (tile wetsaw for cutting tiles, thinset trowels, grout floats, etc). Hardwood floors are beautiful and durable. They can change the entire look of a room. With the right tools they can be very easy to install. You didn't say whether you had a wood sub-floor or slab. Wood sub-floors need a little more prep than slab floors, which you must add in to the cost. In my home, I installed a wood laminate floor, or a floating floor. Wood laminate has the look and feel of a hardwood floor and it was very easy to istall. The plnks just snap together. It can go down on either wood subfloor or slab. The only prep needed is to lay down a vapor barrier between the subfloor and the laminate. The cost was considerably more cheaper than tile or hardwoods. Hope this helps!
We have just recently finished building our house ourselves and installed tile and wood laminate. Wood laminate is very easy and inexpensive to install. I like the low maintenance and durability of it and would recommend it . I tiled for the first time and it wasn't difficult either. I bought a tiling book from Menards and just followed the directions. The main cost was the wet saw and of course the tile but it looks great. Much cheaper doing it yourself.
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