Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Feb 26, 2010 9:15 pm We recently had a solid timber spotted gum floor laid over chipboard in our existing house. The problem is an 'aquaintance' (DH friend - someone who I didn't know) is a builder, who has done alot of work for the extended family laid it for us. First problem - DH didn't get a quote, just assumed they would charge market rate. Next, it took 6 days to lay 55 sq mtrs. When we got the bill my DH was totally devastated, charging us more than 3 times what we expected. He has met with the builder, but he stands firm that he charges $60 an hour, and there were 2 of them doing the work. We know that most others would only take 2 days. What do we do? PS DH doesn't want to talk about it anymore, just wants to pay the bill and forget about it. Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor? 2Feb 26, 2010 9:31 pm Unfortunatley I think it is a harsh lesson you've learnt, but I can't see you have any choice but to pay, he has done the work We are having quite a few friends do work on our house and I wouldn't dream of not getting prices of them before hand, I would never assume anything. From a tradies (well his wife anyways) perspective, it's sometimes worse doing jobs for family & friends. ____________________________ Bec ____________________________ Building our Balinese Resort Inspired Dream Home Blog ~ http://hagarshouse.blogspot.com/ Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor? 3Feb 26, 2010 10:42 pm oh.. sorry to hear about your experience... As someone much wiser than me said, a job will expand to the maximum time it has been allowed to take and having spent many years in professional services organisations, I could not agree more.. Clarifying everything beforehand, agreeing on timeframes and developing contingency plans is a must.. Whilst I'm intending to engage a guy to help me to lay the floor (and he advised $60 per hour as well) I'm going to participate in the process as his second (yeah, whilst I'm believing in delegation and trust, here I want to micromanage) and so far, a preliminary agreement has been 4 days for 350 m2 of hardwood floor (sanding and coating excluded).. The reason I decided not to use them for sanding and especially coating is because coating takes several layers to coat and at least (oh, this depends indeed) 8 hours will need to be allowed between consecutive coats... ... built a Promenade with Clarendon. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25104 20-10-09 - excavation and piering completed ... 12-04-10 - Basins fixed. Connecting to the electrical grid 23-04-10 - PCI 07-05-10 - HANDOVER! Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 4Mar 08, 2010 6:53 pm Market rate is about $2500 all up. That's supply and install moisture membrane, supply glue, install your floor onto your chipboard floor. That's not including sanding and polishing. Just laying. Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 5Mar 08, 2010 7:09 pm Yes - that's what we thought - and yes we were charged 3 times that. We have part paid the bill, but I refuse to pay the rest until we get a breakdown of the amount. All we have is an invoice that states one amount - no description of what exactly it covers. Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 6Mar 08, 2010 7:22 pm Install only 55 sqm raw timber i charge $1512.50 inc gst and i am not cheap. We would lay that in a day they must have slept half the time. If they dont have a signed quote why pay them at all isnt that how the law works. Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 8Mar 09, 2010 6:53 am I think that if you agreed to do it then he did the work for you then you are probably not going to get out of paying, unless you can negotiate a reduced amount. Builders are almst always the WRONG people to have anything to do with flooring. They tend to have a know-it-all mentality for anything made of wood. If I wanted a house frame put up, or a sub floor made, I would use a builder, but never a floor itself.....there is no law that says paying too much for an item or a service is illegal. Any item or service is worth what the buyer is willing to pay basically. Sorry to say. At least you know for next time you build a house or renovate one!!! Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 9Mar 09, 2010 6:56 am Ps. Big tip. When someone wants to charge an hourly rate, it is code for "I don't know what I am doing so I'll charge an hourly rate so I am covered". Get a flooring pro to lay your floor on a per m2 rate. Quicker, cheaper in the long run, better job. Fixed price. Everyone is a winner. Let your builder build. Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 12Jun 11, 2010 10:13 am Average price to lay solid timber floor ... wouldn't it be fair to expect it to be: - for laying over builder's particleboard subfloor - about $60/m2 laid and fully finished with standard solvent based, or a bit more for water based? - for laying over plywood over the slab - about $ ??? /m2 laid and fully finished Would the laying include the cost of glue and all other bits and pieces 9anchors, plastic moisture membrane, nails ...)? How much glue is needed? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: A tricky topic - average price to lay solid timber floor 13Jun 11, 2010 10:53 am 3 days and $60/hr x 2 is RIDICULOUS! I've been in a similar situation with my car. A job that should have cost $300 max ended up costing me $1,500. The workshop decided that it took much longer and was much harder than first expected. They did not tell me that the price was going to be 5x the original amount at any point in time and at the end, just gave me this ridiculous invoice. We ended up agreeing to half the $1,500 at $750 but that was still more than double what I had anticipated. That said, I am in business myself and I am sick and tired of people trying to screw me. It is as much the builders fault for not giving you a quote/hourly rate as it is yours. I'm sure if you had of known it was going to cost 3x the amount you wouldn't have gone with this guy. To me, these people are just scumbags. I had another instance where a box supplier gave me a quote for 100 boxes of 2 different designs. Then says once I made a deposit that he needed to make a minimum of 200pcs of each design. I agreed because I needed the boxes ASAP. The boxes were then delivered but there were 270 of 1 design and 230 of the other. 100 boxes more than we ever spoke about. The company then told me that it was industry standard to supply more (and charge the customer) however this was never mentioned to me (I usually get my boxes from China). I was not impressed, refused to pay the invoice even though the guy said that it was going to come out of his pocket. The speech almost sound rehearsed. Not impressed. /end rant Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15907 If this is a custom build then I would expect the builder to set out the door frame closer to the wall to avoid the gap between architrave and the wall and or specify… 9 8306 The most likely cause of your timber swelling (parquetry?) is either a plumbing leak or carelessly leaving water on floors after use or both. 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