remove and lay new flooring or lay new flooring over old

Hi,

We want to lay new wood flooring and would like to know if it's best to remove and lay the new flooring or simply lay the new flooring over the old. We would prefer to remove and lay new flooring but we are mindful of our budget constraints, so if this option is more expensive, we would consider laying new over the old but we are concerned about squeaky floor boards.

Thanks,

Generally speaking, anytime you are uplifting new flooring it is going to cost you more. Unless you do the work and dispose of the material yourself, however even then there will be costs for disposal =). Most of our installers charge approx $2/m2 for uplift and removal on top of the installation cost. What type of "wood" flooring are you installing?

I assume you mean $20/m2 for uplift and removal? We are planning to install hardwood flooring. Note that we are removing a number of walls and also moving the bathroom so even if the floor stayed, there is the tile and the gaps where the internal walls were that will have to be dealt with. Wondering if we would really save much by running flooring over top. And can you install hardwood floowing over tile or must it be lifted.

Tile removal ranges from $20 all the way up to $38.50, depending on who you use. There are many varying degrees of professionalism and varying outcomes (ie if you pay more you can have an almost dustless experience as they use fancy extractors etc). It's always best to try to get back to the subfloor, although floating timber can be installed over soundly installed tiling, with no dramas at all, other than increased height (which makes drop offs to carpeted areas, plays with door clearances and can impact things like dishwasher and fridge clearances.

Floating floors and carpet and even some vinyls can easily be removed DIY style, although you can have tradespeople do it. Ranges of pricing go from about $3 and up, depending on what you need lifted and removed. Taking up an old carpet is easier than an old parquet floor for example (the later costing about the same as tile removal).