Hi there,
I am looking to lay down some timber floor boards in one room of a house I own.
I have had heaps of people tell me that firstly, its extremely expensive, and secondly its a really difficult job that only a professional can do. At the moment the floor has carpet and under the carpet is just this smooth surface (don’t know what its made out of but looks like cheap wood).
The room is 5mx6m.
Can anyone tell me about how much money I should be looking to buy timber floorbaords. I’m afraid I’ll be ripped off.
Secondly, has anyone had experience in laying down floorbaords and can give me any tips?
Thanks heapsI suggest you would be looking at approx $60.00 minimum per sq metre to buy depending on what timber you use and it usually works out about the same to have it layed.
I would guess you probably have a partical board floor at present, have a word with a builder about whether this would need to be removed prior to installation.Dave
Hi Jessica,
Lots of “depends on’s” with this question. First of all, is it an IP or PPOR? This may determine what quality and maintrenance you will require. Second, what sort of budget? Third, how handy are you on the tools?
There are many choices, all have pros and cons. You could go, solid timber planking, bamboo strip style, laminate, vinyl etc. The solid timber, unless you are pretty handy, would suggest you get someone in. Laminate is pretty simple to do and is hard wearing, vinyl – don’t know but probably professional for the best result.
In terms of product, solid timber boards look fantastic but will require maintenance. Laminate can look ok, don’t require much maintenance but can look cheap. Have seen some great jobs with vinyl but will come down to personal choice.
As for costs, Dave mentioned $60 per meter for timber which is probably about right. Laminate can be sourced for about $15 to $35 per meter and vinyl, don’t know.
hoper this helps.
Jan
Thanks so much for your replies Dave and Jan.
Its for PPOR and we are doing it up to live in for probably about another 5 years or so. My husband really wants to have a nicer place to live (we live in a worst house on the best street). I don’t want to spend a whole lot of money – just enough to do a cosmetic renovation that is going to satisfy my husband’s need for a place that looks decent and that we can entertain in.
I have sanded floor boards in one of our investment properties and they came up looking beautiful but I wasn’t sure about the actual laying of them.
I hadn’t thought about laminate. I will check with hubby. I also hadn’t given any thought as to whether I would need to take out the existing floor – I had just sort of hoped I could lay the boards down on top of the smooth surface??Hi Jessica,
If this is for you PPOR I personally would not go the laminate floor, I have layed them in a unit, they look good, but are not as durable as a timber floor, there is a few aleternatives for you, depending on your budget. Solid timber flooring would be ideal but is also expensive, you can buy it pre finished which means all you need to do is lay it, no sanding required.
You can buy timber flooring that you have to sand and polish. The prefinshed timber boards usually range from $60 m2 and upwards. The bare timber boards range from $30 m2 upwards. It all depends on the choice of timber. There is also another timber floor which you can purchase it is almost indenticall to lay as laminate, but it has about 6mm of timber on the top, this is prefinished and is about the $30 to $40 m2 mark. In regards to the exsisting floor, if it particle board flooring then you can just lay the floorboards directly on top.HEy There,
I have done this one my own PPOR in a room.30m2 of timber laminate (Rosewood).
The existing floor was crap and we laid masonite acrossthe complete surface area to be covered. This helped with leveling and insulation. We got hte following.
15x 2m2 packes of flooring (5mm)
30m2 of 7mm Masonite
35m2 of 3mm thinsulate foam rubber sheeting
2x glue tubes (high grade supplied with laminate board.
5 Timber edges for the door entrances
Total cost $1,500
so that is a total of $50/m2
+ Ozito Jigsaw = $26
+ Ozito Belt Sander = $29
+ FAce Masks = $9.95TIME:
Took around 2 days to lay… however if only overlaying existing flooring … 1 day.
Special notes:
1. Make sure you leave 3-7mm clearance on each wall or cabinet edging (to allow for expansion and contraction when temporatures change)
2.****** Remove all surrounding skirting boards (So you can put back on later and the job will be complete! —- VERY IMPORTANT…We got this all on 18 month interest free and no payments due .. .and then onsold the house!… then paid out cost of the job.
Good Luck!
KiwiNice budgetting there kiwi, the other thing to be aware of is how its treated for tax. If you are timbering over timber floors it can sometimes be classed as repairs and be 100% tax deductible.
If you are removing carpet and laying a floating floor, its also classed as repairs and again tax deductible. If on the other hand you do tiles where there were carpets or lino before, then you would only be able to depreciate this for 2.5% for 40 years. Its mad, but thats our taxation for you.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Hey DD,
As this one looks like a PPOR, I don’t think this applies unless it is classified as a home office for deduction purposes!
As for other comments, I agree with not going down the laminate path for a PPOR. I did mine and regret the decision.
cheers
Jan
hi – if you decide to go with timber flooring search out an auction centre. The trading post in your area will help you find the nearest auction. You will save about 50% especially if you don’t need a full bundle.
cheer
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Hi Jessica,
We laid laminated flooring in our own home a few years ago and am not happy with it. We’ll probably replace it with boards in the future which will be our 4th floor replacement.
We replaced an old timber floor last year in a kitchen, with new boards. It was bad, holes, missing boards, etc under masonite and vinyl. We buy 2nd grade boards, not select, which means you get a few notches, or maybe bits you have to cut out. Cost is about $1.80 per lineal metre. You can sometimes buy slings of boards at auctions. Check it out if you’re in Sydney.
We’re currently doing up another old house, a 1880s brick workers cottage, which will have all timber boards as would have been there originally, laid over particle flooring sheets which had been laid before we bought it (in March). We took out the awful old carpet. To do the floor will cost about $2500 timber only, and that is 3 bedrooms, hallway, combined kitchen living area. It is easy enough – I am the labourer for hubby.
Anna
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