Flooring labor costs

[A.tomas]

I’m curious what flooring professional charge for a flooring job Specifically for Labor costs?



I completely understand that every job has different costs When you consider materials being used and the labor that can entail and floor leveling etc.. To be specific to my Job I need someone to install 893 Sq. Ft. of (vinly plank flooring). My Square Footage is split between two levels with 11 stairs and I’m being quoted between $$$$4-6 thousand just for labor. All I literally need is them to lay the flooring with a minimal amount of leveling! there is no demo for the contractor to do as all the flooring is removed already. and there isnt much leveling they have to do either to the floor. Im installing all the base and quarter round myself as this is something I can handle with my back injury. So I want them to come in and level some minor areas and lay the flooring. I’ve only talked to 3 contractors but I find this to be very over priced for standard click lock style vinyl Planks. I have personally installed this type of flooring before and it’s quite easy to install, but due to a back injury I cannot do the work unfortunately! I’ve looked at the national average on many websites and the cost of labor is insanely over priced from what I understand. Even at 4.5K the lowest I have been quoted, Thats about 5 bucks a square foot on installation costs. as I said before they don’t even have to move furniture or rip out flooring, it’s already done!!!



*If this is way overpriced, How do I Negotiate?



*And most importantly what should the cost of labor be on a job like mine???



Thanks

 

[highup]

It's really hard to advise on a job without seeing it in person. Leveling, or should I say flattening properly is one of the most important things of the job. If you can visually see or you can tell by walking on the floor that there are places that are unlevel, then there's probably a lot of leveling that needs to be done to meet the manufacturers specifications. If you have put a 6 ft level on the floor in many places checking for flatness then you may be right about minimal leveling.
I can spend as much time making a floor flat as I do installing the material so instantly that would double the price.
I know a lot of installers just starting one corner and go for it. I have three jobs to look at where there are problems most likely resulting from not making the floor flat. That's why I say it's hard to give too much advice without seeing the job. Will the installers be removing or installing any base? Are there any bathrooms?

 

[A.tomas]

Thanks for reply Highup

like I stated I will be installing all base and quarter myself. I can actually do that with my back injury. I just can’t be on my knees bent over for hours each day, for day you see.

There is no demo at all!!! All the flooring and baseboards are already removed. It’s ready for a contractor to come lay flooring despite a little leveling.

and to answer your question regarding the floor level. it’s so level that all three contractors are like oh wow this is going to be easy to work! This is very level there’s they all said happy and surprised! There’s about 26 ft.² up against one wall that needs to be leveled out.. all my flooring I removed previous had laminate plank flooring so it was previously leveled for that and is in very good shape!

And there is no bathrooms or weird layouts. Just two L-shaped layouts on each level. Each Levels L- shape is about 450 sq ft. Each. With the stairs in between.
They are only charging between $800-1000 to do the 11 stairs depending on what one of the 3 contractors quoted. So if we minus (-) the labor of install for the stairs, We would be left with only 3200 to 5000 depending on what contractor to do the labor on the the non-stair portion of flooring.
stills seems a arm and a leg to come in lay that flooring. All level but a small area.

Seems like I’m being giving the run around quite frankly. And speaking from family and friends what they paid for flooring in the last few years it’s just kind of not in the same perspective and they’ve had harder jobs and dealt with more of an uneven flooring situation also.
One contractor I’m working with was a recommendation and it’s way out of price to what my inlaws paid for for same material vinyl plank.

confused!

thanks again.

 

[Jon]

To me the stairs could be where the high charge comes in
Just think how many sq yards one could lay in an open area as compared to all the cutting in on stairs
Rather do an open area any day where you can just drop the flooring down with no cutting
Meant to add I would never split the price on the job like taking the stairs out cause someone could say you do the stairs while another layer gets the easy area. Its an all or nothing price to me

 

[highup]

Where I live the shops are paying about $2.50 per square foot for installation. I take a wild guess and assume the shop is charging 3.50.
$4 x 900 is $3600 which would be pretty good money. $2 per square foot would only be worth it if the guy had no other work going on..... Plus the stairs and those are hard to tell without seeing them. These could be very labor intensive.
This is all hard to know without knowing where you live because I'm sure a larger City would be more expensive.