Need help: hardwood floors for home (Tampa, Riverview: hardwood floor, how much, new home)

[nawwal_jrrt]

Hi All, We will be moving to a home in the tampa palms area and need to replace the carpets with hardwood floors because the kids have had allergy problems with carpeted places before.

Has anyone done this for their homes? Any thoughts on cost or good hardwood floor installers? We were thinking about home depot/lowes as possible places to start but are not sure if they are better/more expensive than some custom floor companies...

In all i think about 1500-2000 square feet or so of carpet may need to be replaced.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

[tonynorie]

I live in an older home in South Tampa that was built in the 50's. The original wood floors (oak) have been refinished and look great but 3 years ago I needed to put down wood in the addition. After much research I decided to go with engineered flooring and I installed it myself and bought it from Home Depot. It's very nice and easy to care for and in addition, the wear layer of oak is about 1/8" and they say it can be refinished twice in it's lifetime.

There are installers in Tampa that will put down 3/4" oak flooring but it's rather expensive.....the companies I would recommend include Bast Hardwood Floors and Naffco (there's more but I can't think of the names).

If you do a search you'll get plenty of information on the internet. Good luck!

Tony Noriega

[nawwal_jrrt]

Tony, thanks! I'll check engineered floors as well... But if we want to go with, say 3/4" oak, how much do you think it may cost per sq feet for cost as well as installation? Some initial figures i saw seemed to vary from $4 per sq ft to more that $12. And i think we may have close to 1500 sq ft at least to cover.

I guess i'll shop around and ask. I'll update this once i get some information...

[elizabethdonley]

Hi,
We replace our 2nd floor with the floating floors from Sam's Club. By far the best quality for the price, They include the insulator under the floors and those floors do not scratch etc. The 2nd floor is just for my kids so it was a great choice for them, but they do look "fake".

In our Living Room, Office and Master we are in teh proccess of replacing them with 3/4 inch solid wood floors. Lumbar Liquidators are the best price for the quality around. We are not glueing them, we are placing plywood over teh concrete floors and then nailing them. It is a bit of work, but not too bad. The guy in Lumbar Liquidators is pretty nice and can give you good advice and if you need help with instalation, he also can do it.

They are in 41 south of 54 about 2 miles south. They also have all kind of great floors. We are going for Brazilian Cherry 5 inch plank and it is really ellegant and beautiful. No one else had their prizes on those kind of floors.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Good luck

[lesterf]

bast floors tampa fl there good

[bnepler]

We had Flooring America do our home. We had engineered Hickory floors put down. What every you choose make sure a vapor barrier goes down on the concrete slab first. It's Florida and you don't want them buckling. They did a great job.

[Talos]

I just closed on a house in Riverview, and faced with a similiar situation. The previous owner had a dog, and the carpet is old (9 years), so we're getting quotes on replacing 1500 sq ft of carpeting (essentially the entire non-wet living areas).

So far I've gotten a quote from Lowes which came out to be around $14,100 (roughly $9.50 / sq ft) for laying down engineered hardwood. My wallet initially had a heart attack (hadn't gotten any other quotes) but I'm starting to think it's not a bad deal. One thing that was odd was that the person who did the hardwood estimates at my new home had stated that we could lay down solid planks on the concrete slab... something the salesman (and all the other literature) had stated was NOT possible.

I had also called up Empire Today for an in home estimate after my wife saw their TV ad. But when I had called them, the operator wanted to make sure that all the decision makers would be present, otherwise she didn't want to make the appointment. That set off a Red Flag, and I looked them up on the Better Business Bureau and at TheSqueekyWheel.Com. Too many people were complaining about high pressure tactics and poor customer service, so I cancelled the appointment.

If I get another quote I'll post it.

[bnepler]

What every you choose make sure a vapor barrier goes down on the concrete slab first. It's Florida and you don't want them buckling.

[LinzNac]

My boyfriend just replaced all his carpet and title for hardwood floors. He used Empire Today. It was great.. the company came in and no fuss no mess no dust. Took 2 days cause of other problems with the building structer.

Empire Today - Hard Surface Flooring

[nawwal_jrrt]

We finally went with Bast based on the recommendations here. They were certainly the highest quote i got by quite a bit but they did a fantastic job. We still have to wait and see how things hold up over the months and years (especially in florida) so i'll follow this up with an update sometime later based on how things go.