Laminate Flooring Installation - Guesstimate This Job For Me Please

flowerchick · 10-30-2011, 09:00 AM

I've been working with a man who does handiwork, odd jobs and construction for the last year to do repairs, renovations and he's a reasonably nice fella whom I've entrusted much of the work I've done in fixing up my home to him, but here's my predicament now: I'm not getting a full accounting (despite my repeated ongoing requests) of the work he's done. I feel the last two invoices are excessive. They came late and are incomplete and he's been unable to give me details of the jobs that he's done and stalling on getting me answers when I inquired, and I suspect what's coming is going to be questionable anyhow. My intuition has been telling me since the prior invoice I'm being overcharged, and since that time I've been asking him to provide job detail with his billings which he has failed to do, causing a riff in our working relationship and a work stoppage.

My workman installed nice laminate flooring throughout the entire house of my 2 bedroom home (about 1200 sf) So my question in this post is about how many hours would it take for a reasonably skilled installer to install laminate flooring in a standard 2bedroom home -- all rooms are square or rectangular shaped - nothing fancy -- all straight cuts. The bathroom was tiled, so that area was not done.

Or perhaps the other question might be, how long would it take you to install laminate flooring in a home such as this? How many hours of labor might be included for labor to do a job such as this?

I'm posting some photos of the installation job to give you an idea of what was completed. Hopefully this will help put things into perspective.

Thanks for your consideration, input and thoughts and help with this. I appreciate everyone's input, so please feel free to add your comments and posts.

FlowerChick

Living Room #1

Living Room #2

Kitchen

Hallway

Dining Area

Master Bedroom

Second Bedroom

**oh'mike** · 10-30-2011, 05:18 PM

Is he working hourly?

Does his time include picking up materials?

removing any floor covering?

How much floor leveling was required? How many door openings were under cut?

Was the fireplace opening scribed or met with a transition strip?
Did his time incluse base or shoe molding install?

How many transition strips were installed?

Any furniture to move? did he have a dumpster of did his time include trash removal?

Answer these and someone here might have a guess for you.---Mike---

DrHicks · 10-30-2011, 06:03 PM

^ What Mike said.

The problem is that there are just too many variables. For instance, you can buy good hardwood laminate for as little as 69 cents per square foot (if you catch the right sale), or you can spend close to $5 per square foot. Underlayment can be as cheap as 25 cents per square foot, or as high as $1.50 per square foot.

That said, your contractor really should be providing you with detailed invoices.

flowerchick · 11-01-2011, 08:06 AM

Is he working hourly?

These are excellent questions, thanks for asking!

Does his time include picking up materials?

No.

removing any floor covering?

No,this was installed over barewood, already prepped and cleaned.

Was the fireplace opening scribed or met with a transition strip?
Did his time incluse base or shoe molding install?

I believe it was installed simply right up against the fireplace, nothing special. There were carpet remnants which were simply removed.

How many transition strips were installed?

Three pieces, and he failed to properly install another, thanks.

Answer these and someone here might have a guess for you.---Mike--

flowerchick · 11-01-2011, 08:07 AM

I bought Lumber Liquidators good hardwood flooring on sale at $2.39 sf. with their recommended brand standard underlayment. It was not terribly expensive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrHicks

^ What Mike said.

The problem is that there are just too many variables. For instance, you can buy good hardwood laminate for as little as 69 cents per square foot (if you catch the right sale), or you can spend close to $5 per square foot. Underlayment can be as cheap as 25 cents per square foot, or as high as $1.50 per square foot.

That said, your contractor really should be providing you with detailed invoices.

**oh'mike** · 11-01-2011, 08:31 AM

I haven't installed laminate in years---however I did charge $3.00 per square foot --that would be about $3600---

Could be installed for less---call a local store that does installations and ask for their approximate cost per square foot.

This area has high labor and insurance so adjust for that----also check at you library and look at 'The National Repair and Remodeling" book by Craftsman.

Bud Cline · 11-01-2011, 10:29 AM

First you came here complaining about the handyman-guy working on your pool and you locked him out of your properly because he wasn't forthcoming with detailed invoices. When comments in the thread didn't go your way you destroyed your thread by deleting every one of your posts.

Now you are here complaining about the guy that did the laminate.

Is this the same handyman-guy?

**oh'mike** · 11-01-2011, 02:10 PM

Just a note on cheap flooring --it's more costly to install than good quality --

Why is it that people who buy cheap stuff some how figure it will be less expensive to install than good material??

karenlock · 11-19-2011, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flowerchick

I've been working with a man who does handiwork, odd jobs and construction for the last year to do repairs, renovations and he's a reasonably nice fella whom I've entrusted much of the work I've done in fixing up my home to him, but here's my predicament now: I'm not getting a full accounting (despite my repeated ongoing requests) of the work he's done. I feel the last two invoices are excessive. They came late and are incomplete and he's been unable to give me details of the jobs that he's done and stalling on getting me answers when I inquired, and I suspect what's coming is going to be questionable anyhow. My intuition has been telling me since the prior invoice I'm being overcharged, and since that time I've been asking him to provide job detail with his billings which he has failed to do, causing a riff in our working relationship and a work stoppage.

My workman installed nice laminate flooring throughout the entire house of my 2 bedroom home (about 1200 sf) So my question in this post is about how many hours would it take for a reasonably skilled installer to install laminate flooring in a standard 2bedroom home -- all rooms are square or rectangular shaped - nothing fancy -- all straight cuts. The bathroom was tiled, so that area was not done.

Or perhaps the other question might be, how long would it take you to install laminate flooring in a home such as this? How many hours of labor might be included for labor to do a job such as this?

I'm posting some photos of the installation job to give you an idea of what was completed. Hopefully this will help put things into perspective.

Thanks for your consideration, input and thoughts and help with this. I appreciate everyone's input, so please feel free to add your comments and posts.

FlowerChick

Living Room #1

Living Room #2

Kitchen

Hallway

Dining Area

Master Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Look Flower, this is the deal. You absolutely need detailed invoices before you can pay them, period. Give him back the invoices and tell him that. Get out your contract and look and see if this is spelled out, if it's not, you may have a problem. If you do not have a contract, stop work immediately and get a contract with him or with someone else, next, have your head examined. There are a million contractor work lists on the internet, look to see which one is in your area and contact someone else, ie: 'Angies List' in Houston, 'Service Magic', 'Mr Handiman', etc. The thing with these lists, people grade them on their performance and if they have problems they are taken off the lists, so you get good qualified people.