It’s no doubt that hardwood floors are the best floors to install in your home. The floors are not only elegant, they are also durable. While the units are great to install in your home, their main flaw is that they are expensive; therefore, they will stop you on your tracks if you are budget conscious. If you are planning of installing the units in your house, here is a guide on the costs that you should be prepared to meet:
Material Costs
You need to factor in the costs of the materials that you will use. To determine the cost of the materials you need to find the size of your house. This calls for you to multiply the length and the width of each room in order to find the floor area. You should then combine the areas of all the room and add 10% to the total area. The additional 10% will cater for wasted material and installation errors.
If you have calculated the total area and found it to be 900 square feet you should purchase 990 square feet of material. One feet of hardwood goes for a price between $3.50 and $12.95; therefore you should be prepared to part with $3,465 to $12,821. If you are going for exotic species of hardwood you should expect to pay more.
Installation Costs
For the flooring material to be professionally installed properly you need a professional to install the flooring for you. If your area is 900 square feet you should be prepared to part with a range of between $2,475 and $6,075 as installation fees.
The cool thing is that there are a number of things that you can do to lower the installation costs. One of the ways is removing old floor coverings, filling holes, preparing the subfloor, removing baseboards and leveling the surface.
Other Money Saving Tips
In addition to taking measures to cut the installation costs, there are a number of other things that you can do to save the amount that you spend in installing hardwood floors. If you like the look of hardwood, but the costs are too high for you, you should consider going for cheaper lookalike alternatives.
For example, you can go for engineered wood which contains plywood that has been topped with a thin layer of real hardwood. When you use engineered wood you will save between $2 and $3 per square foot!
For an ideal look you should ensure that the wood is installed by a professional contractor.
