Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

Hello,

We are having a new home built and we are getting hardwood floors
throughout, except the laundry room and bedrooms. Our builder sent us
to "Contemporary Carpet" to pick our flooring out. They quoted us a
price of $16,220 for all the hardwood. If I had to guess I'd say
there is hardwood throughout 1500 sq ft of the house. They broke it
down by room, and here is one to give you an example:

Great Room
353.5 sq ft
$5192

This comes to $14.69/sq ft. Does this seem high? Here are the floor
we chose: http://www.nextag.com/CAPELLA-Standa...99/prices-html.
This is prefinished maple flooring, which has about 5 layers.
According to that price, they are charging over $8/sq ft for
installation. This is higher than what I've mostly seen searching
around. Is there something I'm not thinking of that could bump up the
cost?

Thanks,
Steve

Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

"Licorice Tattoo" wrote in message
ups.com...

Great Room
353.5 sq ft
$5192

This comes to $14.69/sq ft. Does this seem high? Here are the floor
we chose:
http://www.nextag.com/CAPELLA-Standa...99/prices-html.
This is prefinished maple flooring, which has about 5 layers.
According to that price, they are charging over $8/sq ft for
installation.

We remodeled our house a few years ago and paid $8/sq ft for solid red oak
strip flooring, installed and finished.

One would naively think that prefinished flooring would be less expensive,
but...

Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

"Licorice Tattoo" wrote:

This comes to $14.69/sq ft. Does this seem high?

You're making the classic mistake of assuming _any_ builder upgrade is related
to builder cost.

When you buy something through your builder, you are paying for the materials,
the installer and the builder markup plus any additional markup he thinks he can
extract from you. His odds are good because anything that you want is going to
look small in the context of the house price. You have noticed that it's very
expensive.

Good rule of thumb - if it isn't structural, you are better off living with the
standard product and upgrade later on your own.

Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

On Feb 22, 5:18 pm, Rick Blaine wrote:
"Licorice Tattoo" wrote:
This comes to $14.69/sq ft. Does this seem high?

You're making the classic mistake of assuming _any_ builder upgrade is related
to builder cost.

When you buy something through your builder, you are paying for the materials,
the installer and the builder markup plus any additional markup he thinks he can
extract from you. His odds are good because anything that you want is going to
look small in the context of the house price. You have noticed that it's very
expensive.

Good rule of thumb - if it isn't structural, you are better off living with the
standard product and upgrade later on your own.


Could it be an option to have them leave it unfinished, and you
subcontract it your self. You could easily get it done for ~1/2 that
price (as long as you don't use Sears :) ). You could also do this
with the carpet.

Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

"TH" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Feb 22, 5:18 pm, Rick Blaine wrote:
Could it be an option to have them leave it unfinished, and you
subcontract it your self. You could easily get it done for ~1/2 that
price (as long as you don't use Sears :) ). You could also do this
with the carpet.

In some locations, you can not get a occupancy permit without finished
flooring in the main areas (hence you wouldn't be able to close). Sometimes
it is better financially to simply roll the cost of the upgrades into the
mortgage and have it amortized over many years rather than having a large
out of pocket expense to incur as soon as you move in.

Good rule of thumb - if it isn't structural, you are better off living
with the
standard product and upgrade later on your own.

H/W flooring and ceramic tiling is one of those borderline cases because
they have an effect on baseboard trim, door jamb casings, door clearances
and thresholds. Installation of these can be pretty messy and disruptive if
you are already living in the house.

-alan sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA

Is our builder gouging us on hardwood?
 

"Alan Sung" wrote:

H/W flooring and ceramic tiling is one of those borderline cases because
they have an effect on baseboard trim, door jamb casings, door clearances
and thresholds. Installation of these can be pretty messy and disruptive if
you are already living in the house.

Agreed. Good point.