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Pre and Post Wood Flooring Installation
Tasks
How to Save a Bundle on Installing a
Wood Floor
By Mark J. Donovan
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Recently my wife and I
decided it was time to replace the fading, worn
out carpet in our family room. We decided that
instead of just replacing it with new carpet that
we would instead replace it with an Oak hardwood
floor. Though we had a professional actually
perform the wood floor installation, there was
still a significant amount of pre and post wood
floor installation work that we chose to do. Of
course we could have paid the wood floor
installation company to do the work, however it
would have nearly doubled the cost of installing
the wood floor.
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Pre Wood Floor Installation Tasks
Prior to
installing a wood floor, there is always the task of searching out and finding
the type of wood floor you are looking for. In our case we visited three
different home improvement stores, with one catering specifically to installing
wood floors. We received quotes from all three wood floor stores and compared
prices and tasks performed. In particular we paid attention to the costs that
went above the basic wood floor material costs and installation costs. For
example, we looked to understand the costs for just measuring the room for
flooring, and if this cost was deductible. We also looked carefully at the costs
for installing quarter-round moulding around the baseboard. We also looked to
see what the charges were for moving furniture, and subfloor preparation that
they felt would be required. Finally we looked at costs, or support, for taking
away wood scraps. Some wood floor installers charge a fee for rubbish removal.
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After
deciding on the type of wood flooring and who would actually install it, we
got down to work doing a number of pre wood floor installation tasks. To
save costs we decided upon having only the wood floor installed, period. We
would do everything else, which quite frankly represented a great deal of
the work.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
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Because
we decided that the old baseboard trim was in rough shape and did not want
to see the baseboard trim buried by 5/8 thick of wood floor we chose to
remove the old baseboard prior to the wood floor installation.
Next we
removed all of the old carpet and padding. We cut the carpet into 4 foot
width sections using a utility knife and simply rolled it up and loaded it
up into our van.
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After discarding the old
carpet we then removed a small 3’ x 5’ section of
ceramic floor tile and subfloor. This required
some significant work. See my article on removing
ceramic floor tile.
Next, we disconnected
and removed our wood stove from the family room.
This required disassembling the stove pipe and
moving the very heavy stove from the room.
We then
tiled a small 3’x4’ area where the stove sat. Due to fire code reasons a hearth
of some sort is required and we elected to go with ceramic floor tile.
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After sweeping up
and the subfloor and checking for any damage
we returned the furniture until the wood floor
installer showed up a couple of days later.
Just before his arrival we then removed all
the furniture from the room.
Post Wood Floor
Installation Tasks
After the wood floor
installation was complete we started by
installing new baseboard trim.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
Instead of
staining the baseboard trim the same color as the window and door trim, we chose
to paint it the same color as the walls, but using a semi-gloss paint. This
decision was a great choice as the finished baseboard trim really looks sharp up
against the new oak wood floor. If we had decided to stain the baseboard trim it
would have clashed with the oak wood floor color.
After
installing the baseboard trim, we reconnected up the wood stove and moved the
furniture back into the room. With the furniture relocated our wood floor
installation project was complete. The wood floor looks impressive and we saved
a small bundle performing all of the pre and post wood floor installation tasks.
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So the next
time you are considering replacing your old carpet, consider installing a new
wood floor instead and doing the pre and post work yourself. The pre and post
work is not that hard to do and you will save yourself a small fortune. In the
end our wood floor costs were not much higher than the price of installing new
carpet.
For help on new home construction,
see HomeAdditionPlus.com’s
Home Construction Contractor Bid Sheets.
Home
Construction Contractor Bid Sheets
will
help ensure that you find and hire the right home building contractor
for your next home improvement, remodeling, or building project. In
addition, they will help to ensure that your home improvement project is
completed on time and on budget.
Related Flooring Information
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