Labor and Installation Costs for Laminate Flooring

One of the most important things to understand when facing a laminate flooring installation is that a number of factors can affect your final cost. For example, what type of flooring is already installed in your home, as well as the extend of your installation job, can massively increase your costs, making it crucial that you understand exactly what you want and need out of your flooring project in order to get the best labor costs. General price for laminate floor installation ranges from $2 to $5 per sq.ft depending on the details of the job.

The best way to get an idea of how much the labor for your laminate installation will cost is to fully prepare for the job. Preparation is one of the most important tasks of a flooring installation, and it is something that many homeowners are unready for or unaware of. Tasks involved in preparing your home for an installation that can balloon costs include removing your current flooring, protecting the surfaces in your home, gauging and correcting the readiness of your subflooring and acclimating your flooring materials. In an effort to reduce costs, many homeowners decide to address preparation themselves, although this is only effective if you understand the tasks required of you:

• Acclimate the Flooring: Unlike some other flooring materials, laminate must be prepared for installation, a process that is known as acclimation. Owing to its fiberboard interior, laminate flooring is particularly susceptible to humidity, sometimes causing the laminate to swell and greatly interfering with installation. When you acquire your laminate flooring material, you need to unpack it and let it sit in your home for at least 48 hours. This will allow your flooring to adjust to your home’s unique humidity level and will ease installation.
• Moving Furniture: Important to any flooring job is removing and storing your furniture until the job is complete. Moving furniture can greatly increase the overall cost of your installation job, particularly if you allow your contractor to handle the task for you. Most contractors charge anywhere from $20 per piece of furniture to upwards of hundreds of dollars, depending on how much furniture needs to be moved and whether or not it needs to be disassembled and reassembled. At the start of your installation you should consult your contractor about the costs of moving furniture to get an idea how this will affect your final costs.
• Removing Flooring: If you have existing flooring that needs to be removed to accommodate a laminate installation, this can greatly affect your installation costs. While it’s possible to hire a separate contractor to handle this task, your installation professional may offer you a better price as a part of their overall services. Although it is possible for you to remove this flooring yourself for no cost, the scope of the job may be more than you are prepared for. Additionally, the type of flooring that needs to be removed also can increase cost, with the cost of removing wood flooring being anywhere from $0.25 to $2 per square foot. Average floor removal cost is $1 per square foot.
• Subflooring: As with any flooring job, your subfloor must be examined for its levelness and consistency. If your floor is uneven, rotted or has sustained any other significant wear, these issues must be addressed before an installation project can begin. Leveling a floor, for example, is an extremely time consuming process that can explode your budget, and is something to be aware of when planning a laminate flooring installation. The costs of preparing your sub floor can range between $0.50 and $1.50 per square foot, with the type of subflooring and it’s condition affecting the end price.

Once your home has been fully prepared for installation, there are still a number of issues to consider that will inform the cost of your project. Primarily, the size of your job will be a large determiner of your overall costs, with a larger job being more expensive. Secondly, any rooms that require additional considerations, such as those with unusual designs or an excess of corners, can add to your costs as they will increase the length of your installation job. As with most factors related to the cost of your project, it is important that you consult your contractor. In general installation price ranges from $2 to $5 per sq.ft depending on the exact details of the job.

How Much Does Rental Equipment Cost?

Flooring jobs, perhaps more than any other type of home improvement project, require specialized equipment that can add to your overall cost, which is particularly true when you are going the DIY route. One of the many advantages of working with a contractor is that they have access to all the necessary equipment for your installation job, and the cost of this equipment is often built into the overall installation cost. If you have to rent the equipment, on the other hand, the added costs to your project can be hundreds or thousands of dollars more. If you do decide to go with DIY project then you can expect, depending on the equipment you need, rental expenses of $1000 and up. To make a project with sum work on sub floors and other finished can take the rental price to the $3000+, therefore before deciding on DIY it is highly advised to talk to professional contractor.

How Much Does to Replace Damaged Laminate Flooring Planks Cost?

It is possible through the course of your installation for individual laminate flooring planks to be damaged. As you would imagine, the more planks that are damaged, the greater your costs. Fortunately, since laminate flooring is generally inexpensive, it shouldn’t be too heavy of a financial burden to replace a small number of damaged planks. Also, if the damage was caused by a contractor error, your contractor will often assume the replacement cost. However, practically speaking, it is NOT recommended to replace parts of the laminate floor since the “locks” which hold the laminate in one piece can be break, and breaking the chain might drug a chain reaction and breaking the strength of the whole laminate floor. In other words, small fix might make you need to change the whole floor, which is a risk. Before replacing parts of the laminate make sure you consult with contractor to make sure your repair will have guarantee.

Laminate Floor Additional / Optional Costs / beyond the Basic Carpet Installation

As previously mentioned, there are a number of tasks secondary to the installation itself that can add to the price of your project. However, in addition to preparation costs, there are other “behind the scenes” expenses that can increase your project’s final price tag. Some of the most common additional costs that you should be aware of in your laminate flooring project include:

• Moldings: Molding is what allows your laminate flooring to smoothly install against objects in your home such as walls. The price of the molding can be influenced by a number of decisions, including what type of material you choose, how big your floor is, how long your moldings are and how much trim will be required to complete the project. Added molding costs can include preparing and removing existing molding and how intricate the job may be. When partnering with a contractor, costs to install molding can be $5 to $10 per line foot.
• Baseboards: When a flooring installation is complete, there is often a noticeable gap between the flooring and the wall, which is why many homeowners choose to add baseboards to their flooring project. Generally speaking, baseboards will cost $0.65 to $1.50 per linear foot. However, this price can increase depending on the height of your base board, as well as the extent of the installation job.
• Trim Pieces: Trim pieces are often used as an accent for laminate flooring projects, and are an optional cost for your flooring project. If you choose, or need, to use trim pieces in your laminate flooring job you can expect to pay between $0.50 and $0.75 per linear foot. Note that contractors buy those materials in bulk and therefore get better prices from what you might get going by yourself to buy.
• Reducing Costs: Money savvy homeowners have a number of tools at their disposal to decrease the final cost of their installation project. Firstly, you should examine every cost that is presented to you in order to determine its necessity. Secondly, any portion of your laminate project that you think you can handle yourself can lower both your labor and installation costs. Finally, you should ask your contractor directly if there is any way that they can help you save on costs, whether it is through reduced material costs or waiving certain fees.