Interior remodeling
Flooring
Hardwood, luxury vinyl plank, tile, and carpet, prepped and installed flat.
Flooring is mostly about what is underneath it. A floor laid over a subfloor that is not flat will telegraph every dip, and hardwood put down over a damp slab will cup by the second summer. Older houses here have plank subfloors, settled joists, and two or three layers of old vinyl that all have to come up first.
The quote separates the removal, the prep, the material, and the trim so you can see where the money actually goes. We flatten and repair the subfloor before anything goes down, and we tell you what that costs before we start. The installer who measured the rooms is the one who lays the floor.
Most people are choosing between hardwood and luxury vinyl plank. Both have a place, and the right answer usually depends on the room and what walks on it.
What is included
- Removal and disposal of the old flooring
- Subfloor repair and leveling
- Underlayment and moisture barrier where needed
- Hardwood, vinyl, tile, or carpet installation
- Transitions and thresholds
- Baseboard and shoe molding
- Cleanup and haul-away
Options
- Site-finished and prefinished hardwood
- Luxury vinyl plank and tile
- Ceramic and porcelain tile
- Carpet
- Hardwood refinishing
How the job runs
Flooring, step by step.
Quote
We measure the rooms, check the subfloor and moisture, go through samples, and quote the material and labor as one number.
Prep
We move furniture, protect the path through the house, pull up the old flooring, and repair and flatten the subfloor.
Work
We lay underlayment where it is needed and install the new flooring with proper layout and expansion gaps.
Finish
Transitions and trim go on, the floors get cleaned, the furniture goes back where it was, and anything that still moves underfoot gets fixed before we bill.
Questions
Straight answers.
LVP or hardwood for a family with dogs?
Luxury vinyl plank, in most cases. It shrugs off nails, water bowls, and accidents, and a scratched plank can be swapped out. Hardwood is warmer and does more for resale, but dog nails will mark a site-finished floor within a year and the repair is a refinish. Prefinished oak with a hard aluminum-oxide coating is the middle ground.
Can you install over my existing floor?
Sometimes. Luxury vinyl and engineered wood can float over one flat, solidly attached layer of vinyl or tile, and that saves demo cost. We will not go over anything soft, loose, or more than one layer deep, and going over tile raises the floor enough to affect doors and appliances. We check flatness before we decide.
How long does it take?
A typical 1,000 square foot main level is two to four days for luxury vinyl or carpet and three to five for tile or nail-down hardwood. Subfloor repair and leveling add time and are the part nobody plans for. Site-finished hardwood needs extra days for sanding and cure time.
Do you refinish old hardwood?
Yes, and on most St. Louis houses with original oak it is the better money. Sand, stain, and three coats of finish commonly runs about $4 to $7 a square foot here, well under the cost of replacement. Boards sanded down to the nail heads or damaged by water need weaving in, and we check for that first.
What about squeaks?
Squeaks come from the subfloor moving against joists or nails, and the time to fix them is while the old flooring is up. We screw the subfloor down, add blocking where joists have shrunk away, and shim from below when there is basement access. A hundred-year-old house will not go completely silent, but it gets much better.
Related
Often done together.
Kitchen remodels
Full kitchen renovations from demo to final trim, run by one crew lead.
See details →Basement remodeling
Turn an unfinished basement into living space, done dry from the start.
See details →Finish carpentry
Trim, built-ins, stairs, and millwork that make a room look finished.
See details →