To DIY or Not to DIY - that is the Question!

nzfiona · Feb 24, 2008 9:00 am

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the outrageous pricing of a builder, or to floor one's place oneself.....

Whatcha think? Dh really wants to replace the builder-supplied tiling (this firm does all the tiling, not just in wet areas) with laminated flooring, and we'll sort out the pros/cons in advance. So I was thinking why not do all the flooring ourselves, particularly given what FTR posted about this Western Distributors lot?

We're not going to be in a huge hurry to move into our new home once we've built as we won't have to be paying rent and a mortgage at the same time, so why not take advantage of that ability and save money by organising our own flooring?

Is it ALWAYS cheaper to do your own flooring, especially if you use the same quality flooring as the builder would have installed him/herself?

Fiona

royalblue · Feb 24, 2008 6:07 pm

If you don't have to move in straight away, sure, doing it yourself!

One thing though... I have seen a lot of places where tiles have cracks as a result of the concrete beneath cracking as the pad settled. I'd be a bit hesitant to tile larger floors (particularly) too early. Let the pad cure and settle first, to avoid this possibility. But then, I don't like tiles much, (other than wet areas) anyway!

Ash.

nzfiona · Feb 24, 2008 9:39 pm

Hmmmm....thanks. Definitely food for thought!

Fiona

sirgoat · Apr 06, 2008 9:46 pm

did our own floating floor over floor boards, basically the final job will more or less hang on how flat and solid the floor underneath is. We had a dip in our kitchen after the restump settled, did a little bit of packing and was a touch bouncy at first but has settled down.

My only concern is we did our skirts afterwards so no quad around the place ... i take it yours will all be done prior? Also while you could do it with out a drop saw it would be a PITA make sure you get/borrow/rent one that can do your width in a single cut.

Personally we had a puller kit from bunnings which was horrid but lasted but we had to put something under it otherwise it dented as you used it. Had a drop saw which was a GMC and i hated it, used my circular saw and a jig saw. Technically you could do the whole job with a jig saw but the other toys help allot.