Flooring/carpeting - anyone involved?

[Mark_C]

Been feeling pretty bad last few months. Informed today that my degrading health is being caused by a chronic allergic reaction (indirectly) to the carpeting in the house we recently bought, so I was advised to rip it all out and go with hardwood or laminate.

Anyone here do this kind of work or have a referral?

Mark

 

[art13]

If you were closer i'd be able to give you a hand, but laminate is easy enough, can just go with what they call a floating floor. No nailing required, remove any baseboards, lay a row down, cut the last one to fit, and start the next row with the cut piece to stagger the ends so they don't match up between the rows. Usually there is a layer you put down first underneath in order to dampen the noise. After it's done, put the baseboards back up and if you did it right, you shouldn't see any of the floor edges. My dad recently put hardwood in his house, its the same thing but you will need a nailer for it, takes a bit longer.

 

[kschweer]

Agreed. If you're fairly handy it's not a very "hard" thing to do. You can rent a flooring Nailer by the day. I also would help out if I was a little closer. Most hardwood installers will get between $2.00 and $2.50 a square foot. You can save a decent amount of money doing it yourself if possible.

 

[mikem]

I'm busy for another 2 months, but if you need a hand to show you how to do it, I can take a ride down.

 

[mikem]

I can also leave you a 12 inch double bevel chop saw to cut anything.

 

[Mark_C]

Thanks for the replies, and thanks for the generous offer Mike.
As I'm not going to be able to rip up the carpets myself, I just mentally bundled the whole removal and installation together.
I'll snag some friends, or hire someone, to do the carpet removal and I'll look into doing the installation on my own.
I'd check info on HW v. laminate. Got the equipment, including a 10" chop, but will rent a nailer if it goes that way.
Thanks again folks, appreciate the nudge.