Can anyone give me some advice on placing a wood floor in my living room, hallway and stairway? I was wondering what tools will I need and how can I approximate the cost with 340 estimated sq. ft. with the floor costing 3.75 a square foot. What should I add for waste?
Here's a few links for you to consider:
You should add 20% for waste. If it is glue down you will need more glue than the can says . If it just snaps together and lays down with no nailing you will probably need the foam backing that go's down first. There is a nailer for some engineered flooring. Never put flooring on your steps. You just need to replace the step tread with new. You will need a door jam saw to cut your door trim up so as to get your flooring under the trim.
To add to what IAM said. If you just said living room I would give you different advice. Stairs can be a real headache for laminates and really require fine carpentry skills. You will be changing the heights, maybe dealing with balusters, dealing with the bull nose front edge, dealing with where the tread meets the risers. If you cant answer how these things will be handled, off the top of your head, as you are reading my answer, then I would go out on a limb and say you are in over your head. I just recently had a consultation with a homeowner who had true hardwood floors installed. She did the steps too. The installers, so called professionals, didn't even do the stairs correctly. There really is a lot to it.
Add 20% for mistakes and waste. Multiply 340 x 3.75 = then x 1.20 = to get your total cost of flooring. My advice is to have it professionally installed. It is not as easy as we are led to believe. After many harrowing days of doing my own install I ended up hiring a contractor. The floor had to be un-installed and thankfully we were able to re-use the tongue and groove product. Case in point; I installed similar flooring in my living room and hallway incorrectly. There were gaps along the walls, the boards did not snap together all the way. The floor must be absolutely clean and LEVEL. No bumps, no staples, no residual left from previous flooring. You need to check that the rooms are square and plan for that. I used spacers along the walls which was a mistake. The grooves in the planks must be very clean - no dust, no debris of any kind. You need to check this with every plank or you won't get a snug fit. Don't over-tap the planks into place. If you don't have the instructions with the engineered floor go to their website and download them. Good luck.
