Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a commission if you decide to make a purchase through one of my links, at no cost to you.
Has anyone out there shopped for flooring before? Right now, I’m at a loss as to how to even begin my project. Home Depot will come by and measure all the rooms you are wanting to replace, including leveling/moisture tests and provide a breakdown of everything for $35. Some flooring stores offer free consultations using a laser measuring tape, but it sounds like that’s all they do – should I just buy one and do that myself?
This can’t be good for the rest of the decision-making process if I can’t even decide on this.
I’ve had enough time to decide on what’s going where:
Entire downstairs (except the laundry room): Hardwood
Laundry room: Ceramic tile
Stairs and upper landing: Hardwood
Scott’s office/guest bedroom: Carpet
Guest bathroom: Ceramic tile
Craft room: Hardwood (yeah, carpet would be ok too, but hardwood sounds smarter for a room being used this way)
Primary bedroom and closet: Carpet
Primary bathroom: Ceramic tile
There are all sorts of questions that come to mind after those decisions, and I’m not even thinking about color and cost yet! How long will each install take? How much should I do at once? What needs to be removed prior to installation, and what is simply installed around (the toilet? the cabinets?)? If I’m planning to replace the bathroom cabinet and sink, should I be installing all of this at the same time (ok, I’m pretty sure that one’s a yes)?
This undertaking will be by far the biggest project that will take place in the house, so I suppose that’s my best excuse for why I’m a little panicky over the numerous items to consider for this endeavor. I’m fairly certain I can do the tile work myself, but the hardwood flooring and carpet will need to be professionally done.
Time and money are of course my biggest factors in all of this. Without a doubt, I am really looking forward to seeing all of these changes – who wouldn’t be! Have you seen my nasty carpet?
So, does anyone out there have advice? I could use all the tips I can get! Thanks in advance for any comments :)
We've replaced all the flooring (or will be soon) throughout our house, too. We installed laminate wood flooring ourselves through most of the main floor (LOVE the laminate!) and saved tons of $$ doing it that way. We had carpet professionally installed by Lowe's. We are doing/have done all tilework, vinyl and ceramic, ourselves. It took the pro's a few hours to install all the carpet, but we had to lay down some tiles first to show them exactly where the carpet should start. Some tips: If you have coupons, use them. Do your research – we found that we were able to “haggle” with the carpet people at Lowe's to get a better price than a competitor's. I would think you also might be able to do this with wood, too. Also – don't forget about Costco! We found our laminate flooring there for an amazing price, and I'm pretty sure they have hardwood there, as well. If you shop around and know your stuff, you can save quite a bit of money and be extremely happy with what you end up with. Good luck! You'll be SOOO happy to get rid of that old nasty carpet! We sure were. :)
Thanks Chelsea! I'm VERY excited about it. Thanks for the tip on Costco… there's one right by my house, and I suppose serendipitously I already bought my membership (haven't used it yet)! I know that laminate can save some serious $$$ when comparing to hardwood, but did you have any trouble with damage caused by the dog? That's my main concern there.
A company will typically not provide a meaningful layout for something they've measured until it's purchased. This is because they don't want the customer taking it to a competitor who can just beat the price with no investment of time or liability for errors.
Since time is money, measurement & design services are never in fact “free”. The cost is simply built into the purchase price of product &/or labor.
Big box stores are typically far more expensive than regular contractors. In fact they typically get a 10% referral fee & simply sub out the job to an affiliated independent contractor. (I worked @ HD for 5 years).
Hope this helps.
-AC