Free Flooring Installation – Learn the Details

By Lee Wallender

"Free" provokes conflicting emotions. On the one hand, free is free. What can be better than paying $0.00?

On the other hand, it's unfathomable that businesses would carry the high cost of flooring installation. Maybe a shoe store can give away free socks. But with flooring, installation is a service running into the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. We all know that the cost must be carried elsewhere.

Let's examine the details of those offers for free or low-cost flooring installation.

Some extra charge options that I consider moderately or completely optional:

continue reading below our video

To Keep or to Toss? 9 Best Closet Clean-Out Tips

I hesitate to call laminate flooring installation easy. But, well, it is easy. Even a minimally skilled DIYer can install laminate flooring. In essence, you are paying someone to do what you probably already can do.

Carpeting is a bit different: it's not as simple as unrolling the product and pressing the edges into tack strips.

Hardwood floor and tile installation are both considered as much art as they are craft, and you'll be hard-pressed to find free offers for either.

And as a final limiter, free installation offers tend to restrict which laminate or carpeting products can be applied to the offer. As one example, glue-down carpeting is often excluded from these offers.

When shopping, keep materials cost separate from labor cost. I think it's perfectly valid to entertain free and low-cost installation offers, but they should be kept separate from materials- and labor-only estimates.

Standardize estimates so that they are all on the same page. For example, if a company offers $250 whole-house installation, and your house is 1,500 sq. ft., the cost per square foot is around $0.17. A negligible amount, yes, but it helps you accurately compare the various estimates.

Sample Flooring Costs For Laminate Plus Installation (Per Sq. Ft.)

See the article here:
Free Flooring Installation - Learn the Details