Assistance figuring our flooring remodel

[Account Closed]

Hello all,

I am working on remodeling my first investment, and I need to have the old, thirty-year old carpets ripped up and replaced with laminate / vinyl to look like wood for the living room, dining room and kitchen, and the three bedrooms to have new carpeting.

The house in question is ~1,500 square feet, but I have gotten some extremely high estimates for the job and am wondering if I'm either misunderstanding something or not approaching this job correctly.  The house requires 800 square feet of vinyl / laminate wood imitation flooring, with the balance going to carpet.  There is one set of stairs, which is also carpeted.

Home Depot and Lowe's both gave me estimates of a whopping $10,000, and a local floor guy gave me an $8,000 estimate.  This seems nuts!  Even the most expensive laminate and vinyl options are $3 psf, which is $2,400 for the 800 square feet which require that.  Could carpets really cost $4K+ for three bedrooms?  Or is labor that high that you can get up to $8,000 or $10,000 in this case?  I was budgeting on spending $5,000, so these numbers are waaaaaaaay out there.

Any help would be appreciated!  Thank you!

[Kevin H.]

It should cost you between 3-5k depending on the product you decide to use. I would buy the product from Home Depot or Lowes and find a contractor to do the installation. You can negotiate better pricing in Home Depot by going to the bid room. I'm doing a flooring project in a bit and was able to knock off 35% of list price. All thanks to negotiating with a Home Depot pro in their bid room. I'm doing the installation myself to cut down on the cost.