Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 20, 2013 4:47 pm Just curious if it is feasible for us to do the floors ourselves. Carpet was included as a standard item in the contract, but we prefer to replace carpet with timber floor. Had a look in their showroom but couldn't pick anything that we loved. So is that possible for them to credit us the carpet and then we get someone else to lay down the floor? Thanks! Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 2Feb 20, 2013 5:16 pm It's actually fairly common. Talk to some flooring places to get pricing & specifications, for example they'll need to know whether they're laying onto concrete etc ... if this is for upstairs then the answer may be different than for downstairs, etc etc. There will be some products which are difficult or impossible to do afterwards, others which are fine. Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 3Feb 20, 2013 6:28 pm Forg It's actually fairly common. Talk to some flooring places to get pricing & specifications, for example they'll need to know whether they're laying onto concrete etc ... if this is for upstairs then the answer may be different than for downstairs, etc etc. There will be some products which are difficult or impossible to do afterwards, others which are fine. Thanks Forg. So how is the credit of the carpet part calculated? Would they have a breakdown list for all the items in the house as in how much the material + labour is? Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 4Feb 24, 2013 4:28 pm The credit that you recieve back from the builder is generally quite low compared to the actual cost or the cost if you were to uprade to that. It would vary greatly depending on the builder and the quality of material they are offering. You will really need to ask the builder and prepare yourself for a low number! Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 5Feb 25, 2013 7:55 am Hey Tangle we are doing our own timber floors, letting Fairhaven do carpet and tiling to bathrooms. Standard inclusion was tiles. The contract shows our tiled main areas would have been charged at $5200 (hall, meals, living and kitchen) we received a $3100 credit. They told us the $5200 is a retail price. We will be doing our own floating floor laid after they hand it over to us. Total cost of timber floor is $7000 laid (through a company I know very well) and for the same floor through Fairhaven (same product and everything) it was going to be $11,500. Definitely worth looking at the possibility of doing it yourself if you have the ability. Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 6Feb 25, 2013 9:31 am Builders markup is 30% (unless u neg less) on any alterations but they will only give you credit on the standard inclusions at their cost price. So its a matter of working out the figures and see if its viable. Note that if you want to do it yourself the builder will only let you commence it after handover in most cases. Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 8Mar 20, 2013 12:07 pm I am so glad I read this forum. I really didn't like the timber floor boards on offfer with Fairhaven. Looks like there are others in the same boat Re: Can I do the timber floors myself? 9Mar 20, 2013 4:39 pm Only issue you might encounter is with the skirting boards. Just ask your builder to cut paint, but not install. That way you'll get a nice clean look around the edges. Alternatively you can rip off the skirting - although this can damage the walls. Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15884 2 4657 3 5579 |