Replacing carpet with hardwood


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Old 05-22-10, 07:05 PM
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Replacing carpet with hardwood

I've never bought hardwood floors before. I'm thinking about doing it myself but I don't know how hard it is. That's my first question. I'm pretty handy, but am not ready to spend 50 hours installing a hardwood floor.

Second, how do I know I'm not getting taken by a hardwood floor installer? For instance if we buy Shaw hardwood floor at $4.80 per square foot installed, how do I know when the installers come they actually bring me the exact material I want and install it well? I'd hate to get poorly installed floors because I didn't pay $7.00 per square foot or whatever.
 
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Old 05-23-10, 03:31 AM
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The hardest part is prepping the area for hardwood. Pull a floor register up and see how thick your subflooring is. If 3/4" you should be fine. You will need to undercut (after the carpet crud is removed) each doorway's jamb so the flooring will slide under it, and I like to remove the baseboard while I am at it. Since you have carpet, your baseboard may be high enough so you can leave it. Start on a straight line across the room, measure to the opposite wall in several places to see what your dimension variation will be as you lay the flooring. Of course you will need to acclimate the wood flooring to your house's humidity and temperature for at least 72 hours before installing.
You will find at most of the home center stores they advertise flooring installation for $2.50 sf or so. Yeah, that's for laying the floor. It doesn't include removing the carpet, carpet strips, undercutting the jambs, laying the roofing felt, reapplying baseboards and shoe molding. So, with that said, check all these things out with the installer prior to giving out the contract.
 
 

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