New A/C system, flooring, painting recommendations/suggestions (Tampa: appointed, condo)

[eifvfeuin]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I recently purchased and moved into a 1200 sq. ft. condo in Tampa Palms. It is a disaster and needs complete renovations, including a new A/C system, new hot water heater, new appliances (range, dishwasher, washer, dryer, garbage disposal), new flooring throughout, and a complete paint job. The kitchen cabinets also need to be resurfaced.

We got some price quotes already and I feel like they are way too high. Perhaps I am not being realistic, but I thought maybe I am just not contacting the right people or companies.

For example, we have gotten 2 price quotes for a new A/C system (heat pump). This is for a 24000 BTU system with a SEER rating of 13, the government minimum rating. Our quotes were over $4000 from Acree and over $5000 from the Home Depot subcontractor, ARS. These seem way too high to me.

For new flooring, we got a price quote of over $4000 just for labor to install new laminate throughout the condo including new floor tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. The cost of the material would be extra and we were referred to a showroom to go pick out what we want and pay for it. We already prepped the floors by ripping up all the old carpet, padding and tack strips, so we are down to the bare concrete in the living room and the plywood floorboards upstairs.

For painting, the ceiling had "popcorn" throughout the condo and the walls have a light "orange peel" texture. We hated it. We are paying a painter $2500 to paint the place, including scraping off the popcorn. We thought he was going to make the ceilings smooth, but all he did was scrape off the tips of the popcorn leaving a lot of texture on the ceilings and then sprayed the ceilings white. I told him that wasn't what we were expecting, because we wanted them smooth, but he said that is the best he could do for what he quoted us and it would cost us a lot more to make them smooth (I don't understand why he didn't explain this to us BEFORE he started, because I was very clear with him that we wanted the ceilings smooth.)

We also got a quote for kitchen cabinet refacing. All they do is replace the doors and then put a thin laminate over the outside of the cabinets to match the doors. We thought this project would cost at most $1000. The quote we got was almost $5000.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding our A/C system, cabinet refacing, and flooring? For the floors, we also contacted Home Depot about their $397 whole-house laminate installation promotion, but I am thinking that is a scam too. We had to pay them $35 to send someone out to measure, and I have a feeling they are now going to come back and say they can't do our whole-house install for $397 for this reason or that reason, etc.

Thank you in advance!

[annaegel]

I can highly recommend Floyds Air Conditioning repair. We replaced our unit 2 years ago. We live in a 2,300 sq. foot Tampa Palms home and paid $7k for a Trane. They were recommended by 2 of my friends who are very frugal. I had gotten one other estimate that came in almost $3,000 more expensive.

I think the painter you have sound very reasonably priced. Removing popcorn ceiling is expensive, and messy. If you are getting your house painted and popcorn removal for that price, you are getting a good price.

Several years ago, I knew someone who hired Home Depot on a similar deal for carpeting. They quoted her a price and when they showed up, they had a different price for her. Their explanation was the price was for the carpeting, not the installation and padding she picked out. Be careful or their deals.

[HWTechGuy]

That price for cabinet refacing is just insane. I am inclined to think you could do all new cabinets and more for that price, unless you have some insanely huge kitchen, which in a condo I doubt is the case.

[eifvfeuin]

Thanks for the advice and comments so far. We are going to keep shopping around for the cabinet refacing. We did think that the price for the painting sounded fair, we are just a bit disappointed about the ceilings not being smooth like we wanted. Another question, do most people paint the walls in the closets the same color as the walls in the rooms? Our painter told us he would just spray white paint in the closets like he sprayed on the ceilings, and if we want another color inside the closets (the same light gray as the walls in the rooms) that would cost us more. He also said that hardly anyone paints the walls in the closets anything other than white, even if the rooms are a different color. Is this true?

[Sunscape]

It's not true that people paint their closets white. Some ppl paint it the same color as the walls.
As for Home Depot I have heard all kinds of stories like that before.

[FloridaKash]

I have scraped popcorn ceiling off myself. Scraping it off is not hard. I can knock out a 10 X 10 bedroom in about 20 minutes.

Get a garden pump sprayer. Fill with warm water and a 1 second squeeze of dish soap. Using a fan pattern spray wet the ceiling. Some ceiling take more water than others. Once water starts dripping... you're fine. Let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes.

Using a 8 - 12 inch wide taping knife (for sheetrock) place it at a 45 degree angle against the ceiling and scrape off the popcorn. I suggest being on a ladder and in your other hand have a bucket (like a foot soaking tub) to catch the falling material.

This does make a mess of your floors. If you do not have flooring down, now is the time to do it. The messiest part is texturing the ceiling.... your painter can do the texture.

[bentlebee]

Try Cornerstone air...we use them all the time.

[gulfer]

Our neighbor just had some work done from a private contractor. His wife new the contractors wife, so that is how he was found. We were looking at getting a few things fixed up and that is when my neighbor (who I trust completely) recommended this guy. My neighbor says about the contractor - Great person, great price, great work - COMPLETELY HAPPY WITH IT.

We have a contractor that lives two doors down and I asked my neighbor why not sure him. He said 'XXXXX is to in love with his own work and charges too much'. GREAT LINE!

Send me a direct message if you want the name and number.

[gulfer]

Also, IRNA has a great reputation. I personally have used ACE.

I think you will find that 4K or so to be close to the average. I replaced a 5 ton 15 SEER with all the bells and whistles for about 7,500 total with a Carrier model. But we have a 3,000 square foot home. I was quoted on a cheaper model for close to 6,000 but didn't like the warranty or the comments regarding the model that was going to be put in.

Don't always go with the lowest, sometime you get what you paid for.