Home Flooring Guide

As with most flooring materials, laminate flooring is sold by the square foot. A square foot of laminate flooring is relatively inexpensive, but if you are going to buy enough to cover all the flooring requirements of your house, then it is going to cost you a lot.

Laminate flooring usually costs $2.50 to $3.50 per square foot. This may not sound like a lot, but multiplying it to the area of your floor space would result to a bigger amount. If you have a medium-size house with a floor area of 1,000 square feet, you would have to spend $2,500 to $3,500 to cover it with laminate flooring. This is the price of the raw materials alone. Expect to pay more for the labor cost and the other materials that you may need.

Laminate flooring is still cheaper compared to getting wood or stone flooring for your house. Wooden flooring can cost as much as $7 per square foot, while stone flooring can cost $12 per square foot. Marble flooring is the most expensive flooring material available, and it can cost as much as $18 per square foot. This means that for a house with a floor area of 1,000 square feet, you would have to pay $7,000 for wood flooring, $12,000 for a stone flooring, and almost $20,000 for marble flooring. These prices do not include the cost of installation.

Most people choose to have their laminate flooring installed by professional builders or contractors. This can save you a lot of stress, but it can also increase the cost of your flooring project. Contractors usually charge by the hour. They can charge as low as $10 to as much as $30 per hour. It is very important to hire the services of experienced contractors so your flooring project can be finished early.

If you choose to get glued laminate flooring, the installation can definitely take longer than the usual which means that you would be paying the contractors more for their services. Glued laminate flooring generally takes 48 hours to dry before the floor can be stepped on. If you get reputable contractors, they would probably not charge for the whole two days. However, you would still be required to pay at least 16 out of the 48 hours including the three or so hours it would take to install the flooring and the two or so hours needed to clean up once the project is finished. Over all, you would be charged around 21 hours' worth of labor, which can amount to $210 to $630.  If you add this amount to the cost of the flooring and other materials, you would have to pay as much as $5,000 for your laminate flooring.