A little over 6 years ago we moved into a beautifully renovated 1920's single-storey weatherboard Edwardian in Melbourne's inner North. The 'old' part of the home (4 bedrooms) is carpeted, even up the central hallway, which is a bit unusual. We always knew the floor underneath was a bit d0dgy, as it squeaked and creaked a lot underfoot. The ~15yo extension at the rear of the home (kitchen/dining/lounge) however has gorgeous timber floors, we're pretty sure it's 80mm select-grade brushbox.
We recently decided to add an upstairs extension, so have removed the hallway wall of the front bedroom, to open it up for the stairs, and the rest will be used as a formal sitting room/study. We're also thinking about replacing the hallway carpet, and the carpet in the new study/stairs room with timber floors, and obviously want to match what we currently have, as closely as possible anyway. The area we want to replace works out to about 32sqm, split almost equally between the hallway/alcoves and the old bedroom.
Any thoughts from this forum on gotcha's, do's/don't's, that sort of thing? I rang a timber flooring place for a brief discussion, and was suprised to hear that select grade brushbox would be around $100 per sqm supplied, and $170 per sqm for supply and install. Does this sound right, and if so, are there cheaper options that might be made to blend in with the existing floors?
Also any recommendations for installers in Melbourne?