The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

What is the going rate these days to put in wood flooring?  I'm wanting to have a small area done and I'm being quoted what I think are really high rates.  All I'm wanting is 4 mil red oak with a oil based stain.  The price I was quoted makes me wonder if its gold plated.

Unfortunately, the answer is "it depends."

How much work will have to be done to the substrate before they can lay the floor?  If they have to smooth a slab or other foundation/girder work before they lay down a substrate it will add to the cost.

Also, is the room irregular shaped in any way?  More cuts = more labor expense. How many doors?  That's more labor.

If you are in any way self inclined you can do wood floors yourself for a reasonable price.  The labor is a killer, either financially or physically if you do it yourself.

No sir I can not.  I am a flooring neophyte but thought I might be able to shed some light on discrepancies.   Get a quote from Lowes for the deal then.

I did my floors myself so I can't recommend anyone I'm afraid.

Inteller, sounds like you are pricing out a prefinished wood floor from Lowes, is that correct?  I just had mine installed by Superior Wood Floors and it ran $3.25/sf including the glue.  Depending on the plank type, you can glue, nail or float the floor.  This didnt include any subfloor as it was on concrete slab.  I've heard that some 2" plank oak wood floors are runnign 6.00-7.00/sf installed and stained but that doesnt include any subfloor work.  Just a lil info...hope it helps

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Originally posted by inteller
The area is perfectly square (11x11).  It will need some plywood subflooring and facing nails, but that is cheap compared to the actual flooring, which I'm looking at is about $1.60 a sq ft.  Looking at installation rates from Lowes et al they are showing labor to be about $2 a sq ft.  no while that probably doesn't include installing the sub flooring, let's just add on another $1 per sq ft for simplicity's sake.  At $6 per sq ft for everything, that should come up to $726 or so.  Let's just round up to $750.  I'm being quoted $2400 for the area.  You can't tell me the staining is over $1600.

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I recently went through this for an area about the same size.  Did everything myself with the help of friends.  Flooring=$700 not including stain, poly, nailer, nails/staples, sander/pads, subfloor,etc...

If you don't want to do the job yourself $2400 might be a little high, but reasonable.  Consider more labor if it's not a "floating floor" or pre-finished flooring, because the contractor will have to come back several times to sand/poly for 5-7 coats.

Inteller, if you have a miter saw you can easily do this yourself. You will need to rent the nail gun (get the air powered) and a sander.

Besides the flooring itself you will need:
*Air powered nail gun
*Floor Sander (you'll only need a couple of *sand paper refills in medium and fine grit)
*quarter round for base boards
*stain and a applicator
*poly and an applicator
*chalk line
*measuring tape and straight edge
*miter saw

It's not that hard to do it, but it is tough on your back and knees.

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Originally posted by inteller


I found someone really cheap to do the whole thing.  The other guys were just ripping me off.

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Good luck...I suddenly saw the future posting from Inteller..."my floor is buckling"

I hope I'm wrong.

I've used both Renaissance and Woodpro in the past.  There was some difference in price but both were in the $8.00 to $9.50 per sq. ft. range.  That included a 5/8" plywood subfloor (with some type of tar and plastic used on the subfloor as well), an even mixture of 3" and 4" red oak planks, and stain with 3 coats of poly.  No tear out was included in the price.  Both did good work.  I preferred Woodpro simply from a personalty stand point.