Clark's Big Book of Bargains (28 page)

One of the interesting things Home Depot has done—and I like it—is to quote a price for carpet, pad, and installation, all at one price per square foot. For the consumer, it means there’s one easy price you can use to compare, instead of having to add the cost of the carpet, pad, installation, and delivery. And there’s one party who is responsible for the installation of the carpet. Most of the problems people have with carpet come from installation, when the carpet isn’t properly stretched into place. It ends up looking rumpled, and wears poorly.

Flooring can be expensive, and you should use your neighborhood as a guideline for the decisions you make. People pay for a house based on selling prices in your neighborhood, and if you over-improve your house, when you sell it, you’ll never get back anything close to the money you spent on the improvements. So if people in your neighborhood have vinyl floors in the bathrooms, you shouldn’t tile your bathroom floor—unless you’re doing it for your own enjoyment. If people have hardwood floors in the kitchen and carpet everywhere else, you shouldn’t do hardwood floors throughout the house, unless you prefer hardwood.

If you have an older-style home, from the era when people covered up hardwood floors with carpet, there’s tremendous value in pulling up the carpet and refinishing the hardwood floors, because people put such a premium on hardwood floors today. I’ve owned houses that were built in 1937, 1939, and 1947, and all had hardwood everywhere.

If you add hardwood floors to your home, you’ll have three basic choices: laminate flooring, “engineered” flooring, and solid wood flooring. Laminate, which most people know by the brand name Pergo, looks like hardwood but isn’t wood at all. It’s made of a countertop-like material, like Formica, that has an image of wood on the surface. An engineered floor has one layer or more of wood on the surface and several more layers below, kind of like plywood. Solid wood is just what it sounds like: It consists of wood planks, usually ¾ inch in thickness, and from 1½ to 8 inches in width. Most solid wood floors are red or white oak, but there are several other varieties, including maple, cypress, and cherry.

Laminate, as you might expect, is cheaper. Next is an engineered floor, and solid wood is the most expensive. For a typical two-room, 400-square-foot job, expect to pay about $2,000 for laminate, $2,500 for an engineered floor, and $2,600 for solid wood, including installation.

If you’re adding the floor over a concrete surface, the best choices are laminate or an engineered floor, according to Brian Butler, owner of Butler Hardwood Floor Inc. Because solid wood is nailed into place, there’s a chance the planks would come up if installed over concrete. Laminate is installed over a foam pad and its joints snap together or are glued. An engineered floor is usually glued down. So both are more stable over concrete.

If you’re adding the floor over another surface, solid wood is a good choice because of its long life—you can refinish it again and again.

If you’re capable of installing hardwood floors yourself, you can cut the cost of adding hardwood substantially. Laminate costs about $3 a square foot for the material, or about $1,200 for 400 square feet. A home-improvement store might charge you another $2 a square foot to install it. An engineered floor might be $3.75 a square foot for the prefinished flooring and glue, plus $2.50 a square foot to install. Solid wood might be $2 a square foot for the unfinished wood, $2 a square foot for installation, and $2.50 a square foot to sand and finish the floor.

Costco sells a kit that has everything you need. But you have to know yourself. I couldn’t do it if there was a firing squad waiting for me.

If, like most of us, you need help, you can find someone in your area who sells and installs the flooring at the Web site of the National Wood Flooring Association (www.woodfloors.org). Butler says you should make sure the installer follows the standards and procedures of the Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association (NOFMA), such as sanding a solid wood floor three times for a smoother surface. Ask them, “How many times are you going to cut (sand) the floor?” And ask to see the work they did at their last job.

One more thing you should know about solid wood flooring is that it comes in different grades. The standard is called “No. 1 common.” The wood planks will have a few knot holes and dark mineral streaks. Just above that in quality is “select and better.” It costs about $1 a square foot more, and has a more uniform appearance and almost no knot holes. Still higher in quality is “clear,” which is extremely uniform, with no knot holes or mineral streaks. The cost is about $1.25 above select and better, or $2.25 a square foot above No. 1 common. So for a 400-square-foot job, add $400 for select and better, $900 for clear. Below the quality scale from No. 1 common is No. 2 common. You would save about 35 cents a square foot for flooring that Butler says is very knotty with a lot of variation.

Tile and stone are two other popular choices in flooring. People often use stone in a foyer, tile in a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, or sunroom. While hardwood has become more and more popular in kitchens, it’s not as water-resistant as tile. So if the dishwasher ever overflows when you’re not home, water can get under the hardwood and cause damage.

Tile isn’t waterproof either; it’s water resistant. When it is installed in a shower, a special pan liner goes under the floor and tar paper goes behind the gypsum-board walls to make it waterproof, according to Joshua Bowden, a tile installation contractor and owner of J.B. Design Tile and Stone. For floors, a waterproof membrane must be installed. If tile is installed over a concrete floor, the installer must use an anti-fracture membrane, otherwise the tile eventually will crack.

Tile is even more expensive per square foot than hardwood, although the average job usually is smaller. Bowden said his typical job is a 100-square-foot to 300-square-foot kitchen, a master bathroom of 150 to 200 square feet, or a small bathroom of 50 to 60 square feet. At about $7 a square foot installed, it would cost $1,400 for a 200-square-foot job, installed. Marble or limestone, popular flooring materials, could cost $2.50 more a square foot.

Installers charge more for more intricate patterns, perhaps $1 a square foot more for a diagonal pattern, and more to remove old tile. Bowden said it could cost $5 a square foot to have old tile removed and hauled away.

• Tips on Carpet and Flooring •

• Consider ordering carpet from a store in Dalton, Georgia, where most carpet is manufactured, and having it shipped to your home.
  

• If you choose to buy carpet from a store locally, your best bet is to shop at Home Depot and Costco, which are putting enormous pressure on the industry to lower prices.
  

• Consider wood floors if you prefer wood, but not to increase the value of your home.
  

• There are three kinds of “wood” floors: Laminate, engineered, and solid wood. Solid wood lasts the longest but is the most expensive. Laminate and engineered floors work best when installed over concrete floors.
  

• Tile and stone are more expensive than hardwood. Tile costs about $7 a square foot installed.
  

• Internet •

• www.carpetsofdalton.com
  

• www.cfi-installers.org
  

• www.woodfloors.org
  (National Wood Flooring Association)
  

• www.nofma.org
  (The Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association)
  

* SHEETS AND TOWELS *

The best way to save money on housewares, such as sheets, blankets, and towels, is to buy irregulars. You can save a fortune.

One of the best places to buy these items is Value City, which has irregulars of just about any houseware item. Irregular sheets might have a minor stitching error—but who’s going to notice? I don’t, and I make a bed with hospital corners, something I picked up at a camp where you had to be able to bounce a quarter off your bed. It drives my wife crazy.

I’ve bought beautiful king-size blankets for $19 that would have cost $90 to $100 or more if they were first quality.

The most dramatic savings for sheet sets are for the premium, very-high-thread-count sheets, because most people who buy ultra-premium sheets aren’t interested in irregulars. These sheets are very comfortable, and when you buy irregulars, all you’ll notice are that they’re the best sheets you’ve ever had, and the price was great—as little as $30 for a queen set. That’s probably less than an inferior set of first-quality sheets would cost.

More and more, stores are advertising the thread counts of linens, which technically are the number of threads running vertically and horizontally in one square inch of fabric. The most common style of sheets, percale, have a thread count of 180–200. Luxury sheets these days have thread counts of 300 and above, some even higher than 600. But you can’t judge a sheet just by its thread count or by the use of premium cottons such as Egyptian, pima, and supima, because the fit of the sheets and the strength and durability of the fabric—not just the softness—also are factors. If you can get a quality sheet set for a good price, that’s all you have to worry about.