Wood Floor Fitting

sugarcoma101 · 3 October 2015 at 2:03PM

Hello,

Had a quote this morning for a wood floor fitting which I'd love opinions on.

It's for 70 metres square (two bed flat) including stairs cladding. Supply and fit has been quoted at 9k including VAT.

The material is high quality engineered wood floor.

And I am in London

Its definitely higher than expected so opinions appreciated! The flat is not lived in currently and there isn't any furniture to move about, and it includes removing the current carpet.

Thanks!

Marktheshark · 3 October 2015 at 2:24PM

Look for a smaller firm or even just a fitter and offer to pay for the materials.
Flooring firms often have two or three fitters and about a 8 or 9 office and sales staff .
All that can only be paid for from the fitting price.

Offering to pay for materials on delivery opens up the job to labour only fitters which they are many.
None will offer free credit on materials in hope of getting paid later, only a large firm will, hence the £130 per m2 price for what is a sub £20 Budget engineered to - £50m2 (contact quality SOLID WOOD !) if they use junkers solid wood which is the best that money can buy product its only £40-50 m2 plus fitting.
at £130m2 someone is having you over, even for Junkers solid wood.

sugarcoma101 · 3 October 2015 at 3:14PM

Thanks for that Mark-I had my suspicions that it was too high!

Could you give me a rough guideline on how much it costs to fit wood flooring (say Junckers) per square metre? Just trying to get an idea of options.

Cheers!

Marktheshark · 3 October 2015 at 4:16PM

Junkers is solid wood that can be sanded and sealed dozens of times, engineered wood is a veneer on plywood and basically is one step up from laminate.
Engineered wood is £12-£20 per m2 to buy wholesale
Real solid wood like Junkers starts at £35 and up to £65 for the expensive African hard woods.
Engineered wood basically fits like laminate clipping together with glued ends.
On a wood subfloor real wood can be attached directly to the sub floor with secret nails or on concrete with a batton system for raised floor or metal back clips for flat fit.

An average fitter will get if employed £10 a m2 flat fit and £20 a m2 lengh for stairs and nosings tread and riser .

metal Nosings are sold from £12 a m lengh for nice homly ones.

A self employed fitter will want a better rate as they tend to be far better fitters
who can chase the better jobs, what they wont do is shell out on £3k of wood in the hope you pay for the job.
You offer to pay retail for the wood on delivery or at the trade counter so they can make a small mark up and they will suddenly be interested in the job as it's viable to them.
About a weeks work with the stairs so expect about £1500 for Labour for a really good fitter paid on completion.
Hold a retention bonus on top of £250 for 12 weeks which is paid for satisfaction and durability of the work, so they have incentive for a good job.

Advertise on some flooring forums for any interested fitters with references stating you will pay for materials at retail price at the trade counter which you then take back to the flat.

If it is empty with running water offering them use of a room as free digs might attract out of city fitters as work is very short up north on flooring at present.
With a price per job and retention bonus, they wont want to hang around.