A New Floor For The Holidays
You have wanted a new floor for ages. What better time than the Holiday Season is there to show off your new look to friends and family?
I can hear the howls of protest already. Hire contractors, demolition, renovation…. Over The Holidays? You must be crazy!
Yet despite what seems like a very common sense response, this is actually the best time of year to have flooring work done. I’m going to qualify that statement a little, because as always, you need the right people.
What makes the right person? We all know this one: price and quality.
Price of a New Floor – The Holidays give you the best opportunity to negotiate from a strong position
Quality is a tough one and we’ll spend some time covering that topic a little later in this post. Price, however, is the easy part around the holiday season. Why? Because work is slow and schedules are flexible.
The general reluctance to do home renovation work over the season means jobs are coming in at half the normal speed, or even slower. On the other hand, your friendly flooring contractor still has bills to pay, employees to feed and let’s not forget, presents to buy.
When there is a wealth of work, your service provider has the luxury of picking the jobs he wants and a schedule that suits him. Days and hours are squeezed to maximize potential profit and the customer can sometimes be left holding the bag. Schedules stretch, days are added, estimates creep higher, details are dealt with quickly, if at all and clean-up becomes a nuisance keeping the team from going home.
On the other hand; when work is scarce, prices tend to go down and customer satisfaction becomes a front and center topic. Also, with an invoice due at job completion and the work calendar looking thin, your contractor is far less likely to be distracted by other jobs. He will be far more inclined on starting, finishing and successfully billing your job to top up the increasingly empty holiday coffers.
Then there are the actual workers. You can bet that more than any time of the year, these guys are looking to finish early and get paid quickly. To finish early, work tends to be done more efficiently and that means a little faster and a little better than normal. Remember, the entire team is likely thinking “I want to be paid quickly, so I need a happy customer the first time around”.
So, if you want new floors, but really want the work done more economically and efficiently, with the least potential for delays and disappointments, then do your floors over the holidays.
Quality – Having the job done right is still the key
I know I’ve spent a bit of time talking about price, but the first rule should be: It is not only about the money. Sure, you want a good deal and nobody wants to pay more necessary. However, different flooring contractors tend to possess different levels of skill and expertise. To further complicate matters, there are not only the manual skills required for the work, but also commercial skills that ensure the work is started on time, finished on time and done within budget.
The bad news is; the cheapest guy will NEVER be the best guy. The good news is; the best guy is rarely the most expensive. This is because best tends a combination of both manual and commercial skills, so your “best” guy is unlikely to price himself out of reasonable work. So do call around and get multiple estimates, just don’t choose the cheapest, rather choose the flooring contractor that makes you feel comfortable.
Now here’s the part you didn’t know. While common sense tells us the quality of the installation is the most important aspect in how your new flooring looks, most people don’t consider the old flooring. You should know that every square foot of tile floor removal you undertake could generate an incredible amount of noise, rubble and dust.
So while doing a good job putting the tile in is important, so is a plan that accounts for efficient and clean demolition of the old floor and a contractor that can take all of the dirt and dust with them. As importantly, the finished quality of work is entirely dependent upon the old floor removal and sub floor preparation before the new surface is installed.
A dirty, unlevel, or incorrectly prepared subfloor means a poorly installed new floor. Also, let’s get back to the dirt and dust thing, as remediation is also a time consuming part of the new floor installation process. You must keep in mind that for a tile floor, for example, removal can generate as much as 2-3 pounds of refuse up to one pound of that is dust.
Imagine, removing tile from a 2,000 square foot house could generate One Ton of dust. Sure, some can be swept up, but even so, cleaning will be a nightmare and a costly and time consuming nightmare at that. Dustless floor removal is imperative either for tile floor removal, wood floor removal and even vinyl floor removal, or carpet removal. You’ll never know what’s under your floor and you certainly don’t want it spread throughout the house.
My last piece of advice is: Investigate the Facts. Check with former clients to find how their project went. Ask for photos, or videos of finished projects. And if you can, visit a current job site and see for yourself how the contractor works. Is the job site neat, safe and conscientious? Are workers courteous and careful with the homeowner’s property? Is the dustless floor removal actually dustless?
So for quality’s sake, what you need is a contactor with a long list of qualified flooring installers that can finish the job cleanly, professionally, quickly and most importantly, someone that can take all of the dirt and dust with them.
The Benefits of Speedy Floor Removal
Speedy Floor Removal is not only ahead of the curve, it is the company that is building the road around the actual road corner. Speedy not only employs patented dustless floor removal techniques, tools and cutting-edge equipment, but staff is also highly trained specialists with in-depth knowledge. Combine this with a focus client support and high moral character and you have the ideal characteristics for a contractor that can do a job cleanly, quickly and inexpensively.
Check out some of Speedy Floor Removal’s Videos, or the reviews on Angie’s List where Speedy is a Super Service Award winner. See what they have to say about the Speedy team and then compare them to whomever else you might be considering.
Speedy is up to the challenge, and so is the new and improved way to remove and install floors! Now are you up to having those new floors for Christmas?
