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Moisture Test

If laying a floor over concrete it is important to perform a moisture test. This can take 24 hours. If your floor shows some build up of moisture they’ll have to treat the floor in a different way before laying the floor to rid the floor of extra moisture. 

Asbestos Test

If this is a remodel, or a refurbishing job, and your house was built or the floor was laid before 1980 then the contractor will need to perform an asbestos test. Asbestos is a material that is very dangerous and the dust up from normal floor installation can make people sick. If asbestos is found, professionals will have to come in and clean it up. This may change a lot about the work in terms of whether or not you can keep the old flooring and fix it, or whether you really need to completely replace it due to asbestos.

Workmanship

When you hire a professional contractor you have a right to expect a certain amount of workmanship. No matter what type of floors that are being installed you want them to do a good job, clean up their messes, and seek to eliminate dust build up as much as possible. You want the finished work to look completely finished and wonderful.

DIY Issues

If you are laying the floor yourself you may have overestimated your carpentry skills. Even the snap together laminate or wood flooring takes considerable skill. It’s made for do-it-yourselfers but you still need to know how to use a jigsaw and other equipment in order to do a good job. Expect to overestimate your ability and suffer some days of frustration due to that.

Hardwood Issues

Some people don’t realize this but if you are having hardwood floors laid, due to issues with different moisture levels the wood has to be stored for up to a week in the house, and in the very room that the flooring will be laid to let it get used to the new environment in terms of contracting and expanding. This might be an issue that you had not considered when you decided on hardwood flooring.

Delays

In most contract jobs it’s smart to expect a certain amount of delays due to issues behind your control. It might be due to weather, illness, or other factors. Ensure that your contractor always contacts you up front about any delays and gives you a reason. Make sure the contractor knows that without a phone call with explanation you expect contractors to arrive on the job site when stated.

Finally, expect to be ecstatic about the look of your new flooring and the boost it can bring to your entire home.

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Define The Project

It’s important that you write out exactly what the project entails including what type of flooring you want to use. If you want, for instance, hardwood floors, you want someone who is skilled in laying hardwood floors and making them look beautiful. Not every flooring contractor can handle every material. 

Be very specific when you define your project. If you want the contractor to handle demolition, construction, and maybe even relocation of pipes and electrical work, this is an important aspect of the project that must be mentioned. Make a complete list of all the materials that you want used, including brand and size. 

Locate Qualified Interior Flooring Contractors

Once you’ve detailed your project list it’s important to now find qualified interior flooring contractors. You have a few options. You can ask friends and family for references. You can even ask your home inspector for ideas of who might be a good choice. Another option is to do a Google Search to find contractors websites that you can review to find contractors to invite to bid. If the project is large, you might even consider posting an advertisement in the local paper asking for bids. 

Screen Contractors

Once you get a list of contractors you can either pre-screen them, or you can wait until you get bids from them to screen them. Either way, it’s important to check up on them to ensure that they have the proper licensing, certification, and insurance necessary to perform the work that you want them to do. 

You can call city hall and talk to their licensing department to ensure that each contractor has the right licensing. You can also call the BBB to find out what their rating is. With the advent of the Internet you can look them up online to find out if anyone has any complaints about them.

Interview Contractors

Once you’ve narrowed them down, via checking on them, it’s important to interview them too. Interview them outside of their bids. But you can interview them before or after you’ve received bids. Regardless it’s important to talk to them in person because that is really the only way you can tell if you’ll get along well with the contractors in question. 

To make it fair, write down a list of questions to ask them, and ask everyone the exact same questions. Write down their answers as they give them, or record the interview so that you can go through them later when you make your choice.

Collect Bids

If you didn’t collect bids up front, now it’s time to collect bids from those that you have invited to bid. Ask them to be very detailed on the bidding using your detailed project list and description to make their bid. Be open to answering any questions that bidders have during the bidding process.

Choose Your Contractor

Now that you have some bids, it’s time to go through each bid with a fine tooth comb. It might help to use a highlighter pen to mark through each item that details what your project description had in it. This way you can make sure they have addressed all the factors in your description. If not, you can write down questions to ask the bidder to fill in the areas they may have missed.

Choosing your contractor is not as simple as choosing the lowest bid. Many times when people compete only on price, there ends up being other charges on the backend. By going over each bid carefully you’ll be able to indicate which bids left some items out that you’d have to pay for later, and which did not. Make your choice.

Prepare & Sign Contract

Once your choice is made, you or the contractor (more than likely the contractor) will create the contract. Read the contract carefully, if something is missing, ask them to add it to the paperwork before you sign it. Often contractors have standard paperwork that they use for all customers, but there is no reason why you cannot add things to the contract before you sign it.

By doing your due diligence and making sure you go through these steps before hiring an interior flooring contractor you’ll be sure to hire the best contractor for the job and end up happy with the end results.

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Before You Start Installing:

First you have to be sure your surface is prepared. You’ll need to ensure that there isn’t a lot of moisture, and if there isn’t any then you’re good to go. If you do have a lot of moisture you may actually be better off contacting a professional to give you advice or help you because you are going to have to ask a professional anyway, about what to do about the excess moisture in your floor before you get started.

The other issue is that for DIY snap together flooring you really need a very level surface to start with. If your property doesn’t have level floors, and sometimes they don’t after settling, you may need to bring a professional in to level your floors before you lay your snap together flooring. That’s just more time and waiting without a floor.

If all of these issues are okay, then you can proceed with laying your snap together flooring yourself according to the instructions that come with the flooring you buy. First you’ll put down the underlayment and then you’ll go through the process of laying the floor. The first boards you put down, the corners, and the last row you put down will be the hardest so pay super close attention to your directions when you do these parts. 

The Specialized Tools You’ll Need:

In addition, you’ll need to have certain tools available like a hammer, miter saw, air compressor, air hose, handsaw, jigsaw and much more. Once you realize all the tools you need you might decide to hire a professional. Even though it’s a snap together floor, it’s not as easy as building blocks. You will need to make cuts and measurements and actually understand the geometry of your flooring.

To Glue Or Not To Glue?

Remember that even though most people say that you can put this flooring down without glue, some professionals prefer to use glue anyway. If you want to avoid glue due to chemical sensitivity be sure to ask your professional about their methods. Many people choose to hire professionals to do tedious and exacting work like this rather than risk wasting a lot of supplies. 

If you read the directions on how to install snap together flooring, and it sounds really complicated to you, and you don’t have most of the tools (so you’ll need to rent them) it might be better for you to hire a professional. If, however, you have all the tools needed and you love a challenge and the directions look easy to you then give it a go. After all, hiring someone to install it will cost about an additional 2 to 3 dollars per square foot. Add up these costs and the difficulty of the project to figure out whether you should hire a professional or DIY.

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