Flooring - Laminate or sanding

LirW

Hi,

I've a quite urgent question.
We're moving into our first house soon and in the 3 bedrooms and landing there is old carpet with pine boards underneath. We also have an attic conversion that has the same old carpet but I just found out there aren't boards but very big wooden panels underneath.
I had someone set up to sand all of that but I'm uncertain now.

The sanding will cost me roughly 900 euro.
How much would it cost me to buy laminate (it's around 45 sqm floors altogether) and get a handyman in to do that?
Would it make more sense financially to have the bedrooms + landing sanded and laminate in the attic?

We need to keep the costs down, we couldn't afford more than laminate - if we get new floors - at the moment.

D13exile

LirW wrote: »

Hi,

I've a quite urgent question.
We're moving into our first house soon and in the 3 bedrooms and landing there is old carpet with pine boards underneath. We also have an attic conversion that has the same old carpet but I just found out there aren't boards but very big wooden panels underneath.
I had someone set up to sand all of that but I'm uncertain now.

The sanding will cost me roughly 900 euro.
How much would it cost me to buy laminate (it's around 45 sqm floors altogether) and get a handyman in to do that?
Would it make more sense financially to have the bedrooms + landing sanded and laminate in the attic?

We need to keep the costs down, we couldn't afford more than laminate - if we get new floors - at the moment.

Hi

I'm in the same boat as you as I've just moved house and the new one has floorboards that could be sanded or I could go the laminate option as well. I've done both options in the past and both have their pros and cons.

I sanded floorboards myself and while they turned out great, the flipping dust got everywhere no matter how I tried to seal the room with masking tape around doors etc. Then the dust has to be hoovered up multiple times before you varnish the floorboards or you'll end up with sandpaper under your feet when you apply the varnish! It also takes approx three coats of varnish which has to be sanded down after each coat and the dust hoovered up again. The end result was great and the finish on the floorboards lasted until we moved out four years later. A friend just got the wooden floor his kitchen done by a professional outfit and he said there was minimal dust and as they used an epoxy resin finish, the floorboards where able to be walked on 30 minutes later. The pictures he showed me of the before and after showed a real difference. He was charged €450 for the kitchen and hallway.

As for laminate, again I used this in my last house and it's a piece of cake to lay. Cheap laminate for bedrooms starts off around nine or ten euro a square metre but if the area has a lot of foot traffic like hallways, kitchen or sitting rooms, go for the thicker hard wearing stuff that costs around 14-17 euro a square metre. Good underlay will deaden sound which is especially important if it is upstairs. A jigsaw, ruler and a pencil for measuring and cutting is all you need. If the room is square, you can lay the floor in a couple of hours. Give it a go and save yourself money that you'd pay someone else to do what is a simple enough job.

The downside of laminate, is that it can't be sanded in the future if it gets marked, scratched or worn down. I had laminate in the hallway of my last house and after ten years, the dirt from shoes had ingrained itself into it and it did look shabby. Real wood can be sanded and revarnished.

LirW

Thanks a lot. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do the laminate myself, so I have to get someone in to do it. Fortunately underlay would already be under the carpet that's currently in and it's not too old. I just don't want to keep someone elses carpet, because I hate the dust it gathers.
I was looking at some nice looking laminate that seems to be something between 25 - 28 Euro per sqm. I just need to figure out how that'll work out financially with the labour cost.

Just as a heads up, the underlay used under carpet and under laminate are two different types of underlay.

Carpet has a thicker, rubbery style, and laminate has a thin plastic sheet style. I don't think you'd get away with carpet underlay on a laminate floor as it would be too bouncy and soft (I could well be wrong, of course, though).

LirW

Thank you, at least the Laminate underlay doesn't cost you a fortune.

BorneTobyWilde

An engineered floor would be best. Cost a bit more though than the laminate though

LirW

LirW wrote: »

Thank you, at least the Laminate underlay doesn't cost you a fortune.

You'll generally get it thrown in for free if you ask. most places usually offer free underlay without having to ask. Could be worth a shot.

sbsquarepants

€900 to sand it? That's outrageous

Hire out a floor sander and do it yourself - it will take a few hours and cost maybe €50!

LirW

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

An engineered floor would be best. Cost a bit more though than the laminate though

That's not affordable at the moment, I'd love to but maybe in a few years down the line. The max I can afford per sqm is around 18 Euro at the moment.

Sanding myself is a bit difficult, because I have to mind the 2 nippers and my partner has two left hands, I'm the handy woman here :rolleyes: But I certainly don't feel confident enough or have the time to do it.
I'd put the floors in myself, but I just don't have a few spare days for it unfortunately.

Sausage dog

sbsquarepants wrote:

Hire out a floor sander and do it yourself - it will take a few hours and cost maybe €50!

I sanded two bedroom floors lately. I hired two Sanders, one large standing one and a smaller one for the edges. Hire cost about €100 for the weekend but did not include sandpaper or discs which depending on the condition of your floors can add another €50 to the cost. Make sure you've removed any carpet nails as they'll rip the sandpaper. Then factor in the cost of the varnish, approx €50. I think there wouldn't be much difference in price between laminate & what we did, but it's a matter of which you prefer.

D13exile

I've done the sanding myself before and it makes an unholy mess. Dust gets absolutely everywhere. Professional sanders must have better machines as my friend said there was minimal dust when he got the pros in. When I did it, the end product was great but this was before I had kids. It would be a nightmare doing it now with the dust getting everywhere and kids breathing it in. I'd say that hire sanders aren't a patch on what the pros use and the endless hoovering up dust will drive you mad.

Either get a pro in (€300 approx a room for sanding and three coats of varnish on average) or go laminate.

BryanF

sbsquarepants wrote: »

€900 to sand it? That's outrageous

Hire out a floor sander and do it yourself - it will take a few hours and cost maybe €50!

Got 3 rooms c.15m2 each sanded last year for c.1100 inc vat
This included 4/5 coats of paint. Professional sanding with integrated hover, so no dust and as a result prefect paint finish. guy was there in and out for a week, waiting for coats to dry etc.