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The actual laying the floor and nailing isn't hard, but the prep work is the tricky part. The main level of our house had hardwood except in the family room. We ripped out the carpet and then had a contractor we had worked with before come get us started on putting the wood down and once we were comfortable with the process, he left. We finished the entire room except for some pieces that needed to be special cut and the molding. He came back and did that for us. Even with a pneumatic nailer, it's a long and tedious process. It took us 18 hours to do a 14 x 16 room.
You can't just start laying down the wood anywhere. You need a plan. Like in our house it was obvious (well to me at least) that the original floor installers started around our fireplace.
Well doing the calculations of what it cost us and the time involved. You're better off paying the $10 a square foot. We spent $8 a square foot doing that one room ourselves with the help of a contractor. I can't even fathom the expensive of renting the equipment you would need. We _are_ handy folks and we would be intimidated on such a large project.
I have a somewhat related question. We got Bruce hardwood flooring in the foyer, hallway, and kitchen of our new house. The builder screwed up, and after putting in the hardwood flooring severely scraped and gouged the hardwood flooring in the kitchen when installing the dishwasher. Also I've found many boards slightly chipped in one corner, obviously done upon installation.
There's more than 15 boards in the kitchen that either have deep gouges or scratches on them. Unfortunately did not notice this prior to closing as the builder covered it up by staining those gouges or scratches so they couldn't be so easily seen.
Now, the builder is telling me that since it is tongue and groove, taking those boards out and putting new ones in, they won't fit in well or look right. They are resisting fixing it, now that we are at the 60 day after closing repairs.
In my opinion, that's too bad for them. I paid extra for the hardwood in the kitchen, it was not standard with the house. I expected a brand new product that should look 100% perfect on day one. It is not my fault as they claim that the shipping box of the dishwasher had a hole in it or one of the legs was sticking out. Again, that's their problem.
In my opinion if they have to rip out the entire hardwood floor and replace it so it looks perfect, that's their problem and not mine. Again, none of this is my fault and I expect a newly built house with a hardwood floor - to have its hardwood floor not be full of scratches and gouges that have been poorly covered up.
I'm having other issues with this builder. They chipped one corner of the granite countertop on the center island when they installed the cooktop. They tried to cover it up with extra caulking (we found this prior to closing) but it doesn't look good. They are resisting doing anything else to fix that.
Another really bad thing is we paid extra for the "railing package" for the stairs which instead of a half wall up the stairs it has poles going between the hand rail and the floor. The poles are round but where they fit into the floor they are square shaped. They are not aligned straight with the floor - some are off one direction and some are off another - very noticeable to the eye. They tried to fix this when we found it prior to closing, but could not. Now they are claiming it was defective from the manufacturer. Well, they should have rejected it then and sent it back for a new one. They also seem to be resisting fixing this.
Those are the major issues, there are some others that are more minor but are things they should have addressed after the pre-closing walkthru.
I'm beginning to be afraid we may have to take them to court over this. It is frustrating - they have very poor quality control or inspection of their work - by their subcontractors, and refuse to take responsibility for it.
At this point, I wouldn't recommend this builder to my friends and I've told them that. I'm also starting to try and escalate it up the management chain. I had some success in doing that prior to closing when the agreement on renting out my old house ran into snags, and for my troubles they agreed to knock $1450 off the price of the house without my asking. So I'm hoping maybe that will shake some things loose.
Anyway, such is the saga of my new house. However, am very happy with the neighborhood (in Gainesville) and the house in general - it would be a great house if all these problems were fixed.
I have a somewhat related question. We got Bruce hardwood flooring in the foyer, hallway, and kitchen of our new house. The builder screwed up, and after putting in the hardwood flooring severely scraped and gouged the hardwood flooring in the kitchen when installing the dishwasher. Also I've found many boards slightly chipped in one corner, obviously done upon installation.
There's more than 15 boards in the kitchen that either have deep gouges or scratches on them. Unfortunately did not notice this prior to closing as the builder covered it up by staining those gouges or scratches so they couldn't be so easily seen.
Now, the builder is telling me that since it is tongue and groove, taking those boards out and putting new ones in, they won't fit in well or look right. They are resisting fixing it, now that we are at the 60 day after closing repairs.
In my opinion, that's too bad for them. I paid extra for the hardwood in the kitchen, it was not standard with the house. I expected a brand new product that should look 100% perfect on day one. It is not my fault as they claim that the shipping box of the dishwasher had a hole in it or one of the legs was sticking out. Again, that's their problem.
In my opinion if they have to rip out the entire hardwood floor and replace it so it looks perfect, that's their problem and not mine. Again, none of this is my fault and I expect a newly built house with a hardwood floor - to have its hardwood floor not be full of scratches and gouges that have been poorly covered up.
I'm having other issues with this builder. They chipped one corner of the granite countertop on the center island when they installed the cooktop. They tried to cover it up with extra caulking (we found this prior to closing) but it doesn't look good. They are resisting doing anything else to fix that.
Another really bad thing is we paid extra for the "railing package" for the stairs which instead of a half wall up the stairs it has poles going between the hand rail and the floor. The poles are round but where they fit into the floor they are square shaped. They are not aligned straight with the floor - some are off one direction and some are off another - very noticeable to the eye. They tried to fix this when we found it prior to closing, but could not. Now they are claiming it was defective from the manufacturer. Well, they should have rejected it then and sent it back for a new one. They also seem to be resisting fixing this.
Those are the major issues, there are some others that are more minor but are things they should have addressed after the pre-closing walkthru.
I'm beginning to be afraid we may have to take them to court over this. It is frustrating - they have very poor quality control or inspection of their work - by their subcontractors, and refuse to take responsibility for it.
At this point, I wouldn't recommend this builder to my friends and I've told them that. I'm also starting to try and escalate it up the management chain. I had some success in doing that prior to closing when the agreement on renting out my old house ran into snags, and for my troubles they agreed to knock $1450 off the price of the house without my asking. So I'm hoping maybe that will shake some things loose.
Anyway, such is the saga of my new house. However, am very happy with the neighborhood (in Gainesville) and the house in general - it would be a great house if all these problems were fixed.
Why did you close on the house if you noticed many of these things beforehand?
Why did you close on the house if you noticed many of these things beforehand?
I agree there. Not to hijack the thread, but my house was built by the same builder in the same neighborhood and I did not have any problems with them fixing anything. The builder is correct in saying if you take out damaged boards, the new boards will not fit well. The floors can be damaged while installing them. Corners get chipped, scratches happen etc. You fill them in with these little wax crayons.
I think I'm going to hire someone. A few thousand dollars isn't anything to sneeze at but I don't want to hate looking at the floor because I screwed up a job or have to replace a door because I didn't cut it straight.
I got a quote today for $2.50/sq foot, $1/lineal foot for baseboards, $35/door. I'm looking to get other "bids" too. What's a good price for installation? And he wants to charge $.30/sq foot for removal of the "old" carpet...
Edit: i forgot to mention that we're probably going to go with the Ecotimber woven bamboo in Amber (http://www.ecotimber.com/flooring/display.asp?id=59 - broken link). Found it online for $4.49/sq foot and a place locally that will match that price.
Why did you close on the house if you noticed many of these things beforehand?
Sammy...did you make a decision yet?
To answer your question - they promised they would fix it right after closing - the walkthrough was the DAY of closing - in the morning with the closing in the afternoon. I trusted the builder at their word. Then, after closing they started with all the excuses I listed in my prior post.
Anyway, I'm sure it will eventually get fixed - Heather seems to have had a good experience in that everything did get fixed eventually. It may be my fault that I didn't escalate this sooner with the construction superintendent since the "assistant superintendent" was the one making the excuses.
Also, did not want to delay closing obviously. I had the movers scheduled for the next day, and had arranged time off from work, etc. so it would have been a mess to change all of that. And more importantly, I took the builder at their word that these things would be fixed "shortly after closing" - their words, not mine.
I think I'm going to hire someone. A few thousand dollars isn't anything to sneeze at but I don't want to hate looking at the floor because I screwed up a job or have to replace a door because I didn't cut it straight.
I got a quote today for $2.50/sq foot, $1/lineal foot for baseboards, $35/door. I'm looking to get other "bids" too. What's a good price for installation? And he wants to charge $.30/sq foot for removal of the "old" carpet...
Edit: i forgot to mention that we're probably going to go with the Ecotimber woven bamboo in Amber (http://www.ecotimber.com/flooring/display.asp?id=59 - broken link). Found it online for $4.49/sq foot and a place locally that will match that price.
Just wanted to say-carpet removal is not hard. Not fun either : ) but not bad. Well, pulling staples stinks. We just did our new (old) house-five bedrooms, 2 hallways and a basement room was all carpet. Ugh. But it only took a few hours. Just watch your costs for carpet disposal. In my case, I needed a dumpster anyhow because of garbage in the house (a foreclosure). We saved several hundred $, at least, in our case. Oh, and we discovered hardwoods in 2 bedrooms and a hall (on one floor) and on all the stairs!!! I'm getting those refinished, and am thrilled!
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A few thousand dollars isn't anything to sneeze at but I don't want to hate looking at the floor because I screwed up a job or have to replace a door because I didn't cut it straight.
