Archive for the ‘Flooring News & Tips’ Category

The Ultimate Guide to Economic Flooring

When you’re ready for a change in your home, seeking out economic flooring can be the way to do it on a budget. Homeowners can often be scared away from flooring changes because of prices, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

New flooring doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get a new look on the floor of your home by choosing from some economic flooring options that will turn heads while keeping money in your wallet.

Here are some examples of economic flooring that can provide the look you want without the expensive price:

Cork Flooring

Cork can give your floor a unique look. It’s made out of natural materials and has become more heavily used in the United States because of its environmentally friendly elements. The floor is naturally resistant to mildew, mold and termites, making it a healthier option of flooring that doesn’t off-gas like normal floors can when they are installed.

The most unique part of cork is that it gives a cushion under your feet. It won’t feel like you’re in a bounce house, but it is softer than normal hardwoods would be.

Linoleum Flooring

Linoleum is an option of economic flooring that can still provide an eye-catching look. It’s also a durable floor, lasting sometimes over 35 years if it is cared for properly. It’s a versatile type of floor that can have different looks, as opposed to the cork flooring which is mostly the same color.

Linoleum is a good flooring for rooms that can get water on the floor. Its water resistance makes it a good choice for bathrooms, kitchens and even laundry rooms. It can also go in high-traffic areas without wear concerns.

Laminate Flooring

If you don’t want to pay for hardwood flooring, laminate can provide a cheap option that still gives you the same look as wood. For as many hardwood choices as there are for homeowners, there are just as many laminate choices that look like wood. The chances are good that you’ll be able to find almost exactly what you’re looking for when you choose laminate.

The flooring can fit in any room of your house, whether you need something for the most high-traffic areas of the home or you want a wood-look for a bedroom. It’s also easy to install and keep clean throughout its life.

Vinyl Flooring

Vinyl is another option for economic flooring. It has multiple looks that can perfectly match your home’s paint color or cabinets. It is widely viewed as the easiest type of flooring to clean. Wipe it with flooring care products regularly, and you’re done.

It’s also easy to install on your own, keeping even more money in your pocket after not having to pay someone for installation.

When you’re ready for new flooring, contact Speedy Floor Removal to give you a dust-free floor removal experience. Contact us at 352-415-2832 or send us a message from our website. We also offer free estimates and would love to provide one for you.

The Importance of Dust-Free Floor Removal

When it’s time to get your floors removed, dust-free floor removal is the ideal approach for your home or business. It can help you avoid the dust mess that can overtake your home while also keeping your family safe.

Dust Can Be Dangerous

Dust can contain residue from cleaning products. Some intake here and there can be a problem, but the problems increase when your floors are replaced if you don’t use a dust-free process. Having dust in your house isn’t always something that can be controlled. However, when floor removal is necessary, dust laying around the house can be spread all over if you aren’t using a dust-free approach.

Dust can be dangerous for people of all age ranges. It can impact those with allergies and asthma while producing itchy skins and eyes for others. Coughing, sinus issues and bronchial infections can also pop up from simply having too much dust in a house.

If flooring is removed without a dust-free approach, the amount of dust in the area can cause health problems for everyone in a house during and after the process.

Dust-Free Floor Removal Eliminates the Cleaning Bill

When flooring of any kind is removed, dust will be in the air unless you use a dust-free flooring company. It doesn’t matter how well you try to prepare, the dust will get into carpet, your air ducts and the fabric on your furniture.

This can cause further problems down the line. Every time you walk on the carpet, your steps will push dust into the air. The same thing will happen when you sit on any of the furniture. When you turn your air conditioning or heating on, the dust will come out through the ducts and disperse throughout the house.

At Speedy Floor Removal, we do the job right the first time. If there is any dust in your house after the process, we will pay for your cleaning bill when the job is through.

Residential or Commercial Removal

Whether you’re looking for dust-free floor removal for your home or your office, Speedy Floor Removal will do the job for your floor removal needs. The quality of work done on your floor removal will have an important impact on the next flooring that will be put in. Trust us to get the job done with floor removal that doesn’t need a cleaning service to follow it.

Call us to set up a free estimate at 352-448-3909 or send us a message from our contact page.

New Carpet Smell: What You Need To Know

Your carpet can start to smell for many reasons. It can begin as a new carpet smell, starting right after the carpet is put down because of fumes from the installation process. As the carpet gets later in its life, it can get a musty smell that becomes repulsive to a home owner. The reason your carpet smells is often drawn back to how old it is.

Most carpet installation projects end with the same smell filling the room for days, sometimes weeks, after the project is over. The repulsive smell isn’t even the worst news. Those smells signal the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. Here is what you need to know about VOCs, the best possible ways to limit them and other reasons your carpet begins to smell:

What are VOCs?

The VOCs are present in new carpet, carpet pads and adhesives, spreading through the air of your home after installation. They can include formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, perchloroethylene and others.

VOCs are the reason clients with new carpet can battle coughing, fatigue, headaches and shortness of breath, as well as eye, nose and throat irritation. They can contribute to immediate and long-term health issues for different people.

In carpets, 4-PC is the most frequently found VOC. It comes from the carpet backing, which is made of latex and used on approximately 95 percent of carpets. Over time, VOCs dilute and the strong smell goes away.

One alternative to dealing with VOCs comes in Green Label Plus carpet, which was developed by the Carpet and Rug Institute. This kind of carpet produces low emissions of VOCs and can help customers avoid the symptoms that come with inhaling VOCs.

Installation is Important to Limit New Carpet Smell

When you are having new carpet put in, ask the company installing it to unroll the carpet and allow it to air out in a clean, ventilated area for a few days before installation. Some carpet can even be tacked or nailed down, helping home owners avoid the new carpet smell that comes in the adhesives.

After the carpet is installed, be sure to ventilate the room as well as possible until the odor goes away. The Environmental Protection Agency advises 72 hours of ventilation after the carpet is installed. Open up windows in the room, turn fans to their highest setting and run the air conditioning to ventilate the room as much as possible. If possible, taking a quick vacation for a few days after the carpet is installed could also be a beneficial situation for the homeowner.

If carpet is being installed during a new construction or remodel, it’s best to wait as long as possible for the carpet to be put down. That keeps it from absorbing any more VOCs from paint or dirt tracked in that could be emitted later.

Other Reasons for Carpet Smell

If carpet isn’t maintained well throughout its lifespan, it can start to smell as it goes sustains normal wear and tear. The most common reason for a musty smell is water damage in carpet. Any water that gets on the carpet should be cleaned as soon as possible or it risks creating a long-term impact. Other problems can be dirt or even food that gets stuck in the carpet.

When you first notice the odor, it’s important to act and begin the cleaning process. You need to check the carpet and the pad beneath it to ensure the problem can be fixed.

Cleaning Can Help Limit Carpet Smell

After carpet is installed, keeping it clean throughout its lifespan is an important way to keep your home free from VOCs.

A household vacuum cleaner can limit some of the VOCs from becoming embedded in the carpet. The Carpet and Rug Institute invented a label that combines the standards of carpet cleaning effectiveness and indoor air quality into one platform, known as its Seal of Approval program. While deep dust and VOCs can get stuck in the carpet, vacuums with this seal are designed to clean out the harmful substances.

Besides vacuuming, here are some other tips to limit VOCs inside your home:

  • Increase ventilation by opening windows on opposite sides of the house for 10 minutes each day.
  • Get houseplants. Having plants inside of your home can help filter harmful chemicals from the air.
  • Take your shoes off when inside the house. Shoes can track in harmful particles.
  • Avoid using cleaning products that contain VOCs and could embed in the carpet

The Speedy Floor Removal team can help you avoid the frustration that comes with a floor replacement. We stand behind our advanced, dust-free technology so strongly that we’ll pay for your cleaning bill if there is any dust created. Feel free to request an estimate for our services.

How to Keep Your Carpets Clean

It’s the holiday season and for some that means an increased amount of entertaining guests. For people with carpeting, the thought of high foot traffic and possible spills on your warm and inviting flooring may cause your heart to beat a little faster. Don’t fear! We’ve compiled a list of the top three ways to keep your carpet looking fresh and stain-free. Carpet cleaning experts all agree – to keep your cozy floors long-lasting, time and effort are needed.

Here are three tips to help you keep your carpets clean:

  1. Dust and Vacuum Often – As soft and welcoming as your carpet does look, it is home to allergens and dust particles that collect in all of your living spaces. The more you neglect to dust and vacuum, the more dust bunnies and their small friends take up residence in your carpeted home. So stop the migration of unwanted guests and start small. One way that you can slowly change your routine and help your carpets last longer, is to focus on the high-traffic areas. These areas would be a great place to focus after entertaining guests for the night. But if the thought of dusting and vacuuming regularly is not appealing, consider asking for help. You could seek a flooring professional’s opinion on switching to a low-maintenance base like laminate and investing in a washable throw rug. Or you could hire a cleaning service, especially over the holiday season. In order to maintain great looking carpets, there’s work to be done.
  2. Treat Stains Quickly – Most stains are here today and gone tomorrow if your response time is swift. Whether from food or liquid, make sure to pick up the soiled area of any material and quickly spray with a stain remover. Don’t scrub! After reading the stain remover’s instructions, as different solutions may have differing information, blot the moisture away with an absorbent white cloth. Continue to do so until the stain no longer appears on the carpet. After the allotted time, use water to remove the solution with a dampened cloth. This is important because many solutions can leave a residue, which can then later attract dirt to its specific location. Also, remember to keep the liquid on the carpet to a minimum as excess moisture can cause damage to the carpet backing. After the area has been cleansed with water, do not let the carpet air dry. Depending on the type of carpet, this can cause unsightly rings. Instead use another absorbent cloth and cover the entire dampened area. Place a weighted object over the cloth, helping to ensure that the entire area is relieved of any lingering moisture. The next day, simply vacuum the specific area, and voilà, your area is completely restored.
  3. Leave it to The Pros – Hire a professional to give your carpets a good deep cleaning twice a year. Some carpet warranties actually require it, so you can bet it’s a great practice to keep those comfortable areas plush and radiant.

As one of the experts in the field, Speedy Floor Removal prides itself on delivering exceptional flooring for every home, while offering friendly customer service and advice. Please don’t hesitate to call our top-notch team with any question regarding your carpeting or other flooring needs. We’re here to help.

Happy Holidays from the team at Speedy Floor Removal!

A New Floor For The Holidays – The Easy Way

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?

A Plan for Removing Different Types of Flooring

Comparing of the DIY Strategy and Professional Services

Remodeling is a great way to give your beloved house a much-needed update while preserving the setting of the memories that make your home so special. For a house, remodeling is like getting a new wardrobe or a facelift: it brings the space into modern times while revealing your home’s personality in a fresh new light. Many homeowners go through a remodel at least once, and with the help of the Internet, more homeowners are choosing to tackle some of this major task on their own.

The DIY route can be extremely economical, practical, and empowering for some families, but certain projects are still best left to the professionals. In the discussion of whether or not to do it yourself or hire the pros, the job of removing old flooring and installing new flooring has the potential to receive mixed opinions, and therefore, Speedy Floor Removal is here to provide the facts that will help make the decision easier for everyone. With our intention of serving Florida as a resource for helpful and useful information, Speedy Floor Removal shares what it takes to remove different types of flooring from the home should homeowners choose to do this themselves, and we also reveal the benefits that expert floor removal services can provide should homeowners opt for their assistance instead.

The Methods for Removing Different Types of Flooring DIY Style

Linoleum and Vinyl

When wanting to replace a linoleum or vinyl floor with new flooring, there is the option of placing the new flooring on top of the old linoleum or vinyl. However, the old flooring will have to be very smooth still, or it will have to be smoothed with a patching material. Furthermore, placing the new flooring on top of the old will raise the height of your floor noticeably, and this change in height can lead to lessened clearance under toe kicks, difficulty sliding out your appliances, and tripping hazards for guests or residents, especially the elderly. Therefore, removing your old linoleum or vinyl may be your best option, and depending on the type of subfloor beneath it, the manner in which you remove the old flooring may alter.

If your linoleum or vinyl floor is attached to a plywood subfloor, then you could choose to either scrape off the flooring and the glue, or you can just cut out the subfloor and the flooring as one piece. If you decide to scrape the resilient flooring away, you should start by cutting the vinyl or linoleum into six-inch wide parallel strips. After using a utility knife to cut the strips, break the linoleum or vinyl loose with a putty knife or brick chisel that you insert beneath the flooring and tap with a hammer. After loosening the flooring, pull up the strips to expose the glue, and when the old flooring is completely pulled away, use a paint scraper to remove the glue. Directing a heat gun at the glue to soften it can make this process easier, or if the adhesive material is tar-based, then applying mineral spirits softens it.

When removing vinyl or linoleum from a hardwood floor, use this same method of cutting the resilient flooring into strips, but determine first which way the wood flooring runs by peeling away the vinyl or linoleum flooring in a corner. Once you know which way the wood is running, cut your strips in the same direction as the wood so as not to cut across the grain. After peeling away the resilient flooring, use a heat gun to help scrape away the glue, but be careful to not gouge the wood. Sand away the remaining glue before refinishing the floor. The same process of cutting the flooring into strips to be peeled away and using a heat gun to soften the glue can be used on concrete slabs as well.

If you prefer to remove the subfloor and the flooring together, drill a hole into the floor to determine its thickness, then adjust your saw blade to cut a 1/8-inch deeper than the thickness. Cut the floor into three to four foot long sections if you can manage them, and use a reciprocal saw to cut flush with the walls while avoiding the floor joists.

Carpet

Removing carpet is an easier task when you do not intend to save the carpet. When there is no need to preserve the entire mass in a big roll, then carpet can be cut with a utility knife into smaller sections that can be taken out one at a time. The woven backing of the carpet will give your knife less trouble than the plush side, so fold your sections back to access that woven backing as you cut the sections. Cutting a border of four or five inches around the room before removing large pieces of the center section simplifies the process as well, and after lifting out the center section of carpet, you can pull up the border and then take out the underlying tack strips along the edges of the room.

Wood

Your approach to removing old wood flooring will again depend on whether or not you intend to reuse the wood planks in some way. If you do not have plans for your old wood flooring, then the quickest manner in which to remove it would be to work with smaller sections of the boards. To create these sections, use a circular saw to cut lines perpendicular to the direction in which the wood is running. In this way, you can form sections of wood that are one to two feet wide that you can then pry up with a pry bar and mallet. After prying up all of the planks, use a nail claw and curved vice grips to pull out all of the staples that remain in the subfloor. Use a large magnet to collect all of the pulled-out staples.

If you would like to salvage the wood planks, you will have to be more careful in the process of detaching them from the subfloor. This procedure would involve prying the boards up slowly by inserting the pry bar beneath the board and lifting the board about 1/4 of an inch, then moving farther down the board and lifting that section as well. After you have pried the board up 1/4 of an inch along its entire length, you must go back along the board and pry it up another 1/4 of an inch. Trying to pull up too much of the board at once could cause you to split the board or damage the tongue, so this method is much more meticulous and involved.

Tile

The first step to removing tile is to locate or create a starting point, which can often be found at the bare edge that meets cabinets, vanities, or other semi-permanent fixtures. If the tile runs unbroken from wall to wall, then a hammer and chisel are necessary to break out one tile to form the starting point for prying up the rest of the tiles. Depending on how the tiles are attached, pulling them up may be easy or may require great effort. However, no matter how much effort goes into removing the tiles, you will need a hammer, chisel, pry bar, or pole scraper to get them all up. After you detach the first tile to make your starting point, you will continue to pry up the tile from there. Once you have pulled up all of the tiles, you may also need to remove the underlayment if one is present in order to reach the subfloor. At the subfloor level, all of the exposed nails must be removed, and all debris must be cleaned up.

The Benefits of Removing Different Types of Flooring Using Floor Removal Services

While these instructions for removing different types of flooring may not sound too complicated, that does not mean that they are truly simple or easy to accomplish. In reality, they are still quite cumbersome and time consuming. Alternatively, employing the floor removal services of a professional floor removal company such as Speedy Floor Removal achieves the same basic task of removing the floor but does so in a way that is much more beneficial to the homeowner. The benefits of removing your floor with professional floor removal services include:

  • No dust: removing flooring such as wood and tile produces pounds of dust that can spread throughout your house faster than you realize when removing your floor takes hours or days upon end. Cleaning up and recapturing all of that dust on your own is near impossible, as the dust is airborne immediately and will still be settling around your home even a month or so later. However, the professional floor removal services of Speedy are virtually dust-free, so not only will you avoid the grueling hassle of cleaning up all the dust, but you will also dodge the dangers to your family’s health and safety that come with so much dust.
  • No glue: Once you have removed a room or a house worth of tile, linoleum, or vinyl, you still have to scrape away all of the glue or thin set. This is just more backbreaking labor that must be finished in order to install your new floor. To accomplish this, you may have to buy very specific tools and spend an uncomfortable amount of time on your hands and knees. Yet, the patented, specifically-designed machines used by Speedy Floor Removal effectively remove 100% of the glue or thin set correctly, which means that your subfloor remains undamaged and is perfectly primed for the superior preparation and installation for your new flooring.
  • No danger: if you choose to remove your own floors, you have to worry about protecting the rest of your house at the same time. You will be responsible to guard furniture, appliances, walls, and other flooring that cannot be moved, and that can be a headache of a chore in itself. Furthermore, the job of removing the floors will generate a lot of waste that could present problems to your home and your family if not disposed of properly. Therefore, professional floor removal services manage both of these complexities, and our lengthy experience equips us to do so with the greatest of ease. We have the skill to protect all of your other valuable investments by taking special precautions with permanent fixtures and by eliminating the waste in the safest possible manner.
  • No time (practically): depending on the demands of your current lifestyle when you undertake the job of removing your floors yourself, the entire process could take days if not weeks. To remove tile, carpet, linoleum, vinyl, and wood requires so much cutting and prying that you may not finish in one allotted weekend, and after you removing the flooring material, you still have to go over the entire space again at least twice to pull out all of the nails and staples and do as thorough a cleaning as you are able. With our powerful floor removal machines, Speedy Floor Removal can remove the floors from your space, even from your entire house, in just one day. Therefore, the savings of time is incomparable to the DIY style.

It is definitely possible to remove your old flooring on your own, but it is not always feasible for your family. In order to elude the inevitable pain, unknown problems, and potential dangers of removing different types of flooring from your home, consider the professional floor removal services of Speedy Floor Removal. To learn more about how our services can simply your remodel, contact us today.

All About Laminate: The Best Qualities of Laminate Flooring

Learning Everything There is to Love about Laminate Floors

While there are dozens of flooring options to choose from today, it may seem at times that certain types of flooring specialize in only one or two worthy features. Some are extremely durable but also pretty difficult to install. Some feel great underfoot but are hard to keep clean. Others are economically priced but do not offer a wide range of styles, and a few kinds are environmentally friendly but not family friendly. In these flooring situations, it seems that you have to choose your preferred characteristic and settle on the rest.

However, there is a flooring alternative that does not place homeowners in such a compromising position. This flooring material is both durable and stylish while still being easy to afford, easy to install, easy to clean, and easy on the environment. It may sound too good to be true, but this is the reality of laminate flooring. The winning qualities of laminate flooring designate it as an outstanding flooring choice for any home, and Speedy Floor Removal is here to share more about these winning qualities of laminate flooring with you.

The Best Qualities of Laminate Flooring

Durability

With a core of high-density fiberboard, laminate floors are exceptionably durable and resistant to wear and tear. In fact, laminate floors are virtually immune to stains, spills, and scuffs, and they can actually be five times more scratch resistant than hardwood floors. Therefore, laminate floors can look just as elegant as hardwood without instilling nearly as much worry in homeowners. Laminate floors are even sealed with a tough melamine wear layer, so they can last longer than hardwood, vinyl, or carpet all while remaining impervious to cats, dogs, kids, and high heels. Additionally, most laminate flooring comes with extensive warranties that supply protection against fading and moisture damage. You can install laminate floors just about anywhere in your house: they work great in bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, dining rooms, playrooms, and entryways. If you need a durable floor that does not demand much maintenance, laminate floors are the ideal choice that can handle all of your high-traffic areas.

Style

Laminate flooring comes in a significant variety of styles, colors, and patterns, so the design possibilities with laminate are practically limitless. Laminate stands as such a versatile flooring type because of its composition: laminate planks or tiles are made of layers of plywood or compressed fiber backing topped off with a photograph covered with a plastic coating. The fact that realistic photography is incorporated into this flooring means that laminate can be visually indistinguishable from real wood as well as stone, ceramic tile, and stained concrete. The technology of laminate flooring enables you to imitate most any kind of flooring in your home for a much lower price. Furthermore, the feel of laminate is a major plus: its soft, warm surface provides a corresponding experience underfoot to hardwood and an improved experience over ceramic or stone tile.

Price

Laminate is certainly one of the cheaper flooring options available today. With a lower price point than hardwood for an extremely similar look and feel, it affords considerable value to hardwood lovers. Laminate is also a particularly economical option when buyers consider its durability and longevity as well.

Installation

Most types of laminate flooring can be floated over the existing floor, which literally makes installation a snap. Without the use of glue, nails, or staples, floating floors involve individual planks that lock together with a tongue and groove system that joins securely while avoiding the need for attachment to the subfloor beneath. Tearing out old floors is unnecessary because laminate flooring can lie directly above dry concrete, wooden subfloors, and many other non-textile flooring types. A low clearance space height also enables laminate flooring to more easily enter older homes with thicker floors. The simplicity of installation that laminate flooring allows saves homeowners a lot of time and money and creates a flooring type that can be uninstalled and replaced in a quick and uncomplicated manner.

Maintenance

As laminate floors are so resistant to most kinds of damage, they are easy to clean and maintain. Laminate floors can be cleaned with a vacuum, a damp cloth, and most household cleaners. Removing stains is simple with laminate flooring: even heavy marks and stains wipe away with acetone or other solvents containing alcohol. Cleaning and keeping laminate is definitely not a hassle with its low maintenance material: the unique surface of laminate avoids the need for waxing or varnishing. With their hard, smooth exterior, laminate floors do not allow dust to accumulate the way that carpet fibers do, so they are actually a hypoallergenic flooring choice that is safe for people with allergies as they preserve healthy indoor air quality. In order to protect your laminate floors from dents and scratches, place felt protectors or nylon pads under your heavy furniture and replace hard plastic rollers with soft rubber rollers.

Resourcefulness

Finally, laminate flooring is environmentally friendly because it is made from recycled materials such as wood and wood byproducts and therefore does not require the harvesting of rare or endangered trees.

All About Floors: Speedy Floor Removal

With all of these attractive attributes, laminate flooring is the complete package in the field of flooring solutions. This sizable list of endless benefits should put laminate flooring high on your list of options for your next flooring project. Whenever you are ready to install new flooring in your home, contact Speedy Floor Removal. We can help you prepare your house for the incoming material with our floor removal and floor flattening services, and we can also assist you in locating exceptional flooring products at area flooring stores. There is so much to love about laminate, so start moving toward your perfect new floors today with Speedy Floor Removal!

Floor Removal Showdown: The Old Way vs. The New Way

What You Need to Know to Get the Best Floor Removal

So, you have decided you want a new floor, and you have therefore realized that the old floor needs to go. Sounds simple, right?

For the most part, floor removal is a fairly straightforward process and tends to be something not given all that much thought. However, when considering a new floor, it is vitally important to understand the distinction between what a flooring contractor can and will do for you and what a floor removal specialist can accomplish.

Even more crucial to understand is the world of difference between the floor removal techniques of the past and the full service, dustless floor removal performed by only a few in the present.

While full service, dustless floor removal does come at a higher price up front, by the end of the job, the old school work and old school price ends up costing about the same amount with ten times more hassle. Therefore, a more detailed explanation of the differences between the old way of removing floors and the new way reveals the clear benefits of keeping up with the times in floor removal.

Even more crucial to understand is the world of difference between the floor removal techniques of the past and the full service, dustless floor removal performed by only a few in the present.

The Consequences of the Old Way of Removing Floors

Asking your flooring contractor to take out your old floor just seems like common sense. Heck, he’s the one putting in the new floor, so it feels only natural that he would be the one removing the old floor as well. And you are right: removing the old floor is absolutely something he will do… at a cost.

What home and business owners need to remember is that the total cost of the project is not finalized with your contractor’s per square foot price estimate – not by a long shot. There is still more that you will need to pay: more money, yes, but also more time, more stress, more mess, more hassle, and headaches.

The old way of removing floors has been around since the Romans and has always involved hammers, chisels, grinders, and a bunch of guys banging away at your floor. Oh yeah, you should know: they’ll be in your house for the next few days. In the end, you will end up with a clean floor, but the aftermath may still not be what you imagined.

The truth is, the guy that wants to help you design and then install a nice and shiny new floor probably will not have much interest in the old way of removing floors. After all, it is hard, dirty, sweaty work. He knows it is a nuisance, but he also knows that it is necessary for him to be able to lay a new floor.

So, he will quote you a cheap price. He wants to make his money on the flooring and installation, not in the pain in the backside that is the old way of removing floors. He will get a bunch of guys, and hopefully, they will get the work done in the time and at the price allotted: hopefully. Please notice that “time” and “price” are the overriding factors. There is no mention of quality in this floor removal business model.

Think about this: how can you work towards both economy and quality when the intention of the task at hand is to get as many guys as you can to work as hard as they can and as fast as they can to get rid of as much flooring as they can as quickly as they can? Without luck, you can’t.

Where does the luck come in? Well, not even the best contractor knows what is under your flooring. They are also wondering: which sorts of adhesives are there? What is the construction and quality of the sub floor? Are the tiles and/or planks barely stuck down and will they come up easily? What sorts of glues and mortars were used and how hard will those be to take up? When doing this work primarily by hand, these factors dictate how many men and how much time will be required to do the job.

Harder mortar, an uneven sub floor, or – even worse— a delicate sub floor could spell increased costs and new problems for your finances. When it comes to adhesives, things could be even bleaker, because adhesives can be nearly impossible to get up by hand in some circumstances. One hundred square feet of floor glue could take one man three hours to pull up, or it could take eight.

So, nine times out of ten, your contractor will continue to do the work for you until his costs reach the price he has quoted you. We all know that nobody works for free. Still, you might get lucky: the floor may come up easily, and then the per square foot price quoted will have been sufficient. Otherwise, your contractor – or rather, your contractor’s people – is going to leave glue, mortar, low spots, or holes in the concrete unaddressed. He will do his best to floor over it and work around it, but in the end, you will pay full price for a discount job.

And none of this is the worst part!

The Biggest Consequence of the Old Way of Removing Floors

The removal of one square foot of tile generates one pound or more of dust. One pound! The situation is not quite as bad for wood and glue, but the airborne mess is still significant. And dust doesn’t just disappear, you know. It gets all over your house: everywhere, in and on everything. Plastic and tape are not the solution. At one pound per one square foot of tile, the dust will go where it wants and may get trapped inside your home for months.

That amount of dust will join the dust that was already hiding beneath your flooring, and this overwhelming amount will quickly settle throughout your house. Trying to clean it all up will take weeks and will not be easy: sweeping is ineffective at removing the dust and actually keeps it circulating around the house. Vacuuming is better but still does not sufficiently remove the dust from soft surfaces. Furthermore, in the extended period of time that you spend trying to rid your home of those pounds of dust, nasty dust-loving residents of nature such as dust mites, bacteria, and fungi will have moved in as well. With these changes, the safety and sanitation of your house will decrease, and your own health could suffer as a result.

When your body breathes in large amounts of dust, inflammations such as rhinitis, the inflammation of the mucous membrane, and bronchitis, the inflammation of the trachea, can occur. If large particles of dust make it to your lungs, the formation of various tissues and scarring in the lungs is possible.

The Benefits of the New Way of Removing Floors

Photograph of a specialized floor removal tool that Speedy Floor Removal uses to help floor removal to remain virtually dust free.So, the old way of removing floors involves hasty work, shoddy results, and endless dust. Not the best start to your flooring project.

Now, imagine a small team of trained floor removing professionals who only use patented processes and equipment. They are quickly in and out of your house, leaving perfectly prepared floors and virtually no dust behind.

The modern and professional floor removal approach employs emission-free, battery-powered machines capable of removing floors from an entire house or building in just ONE DAY. This more efficient process also causes less damage and leaves a far superior subfloor completely ready for new installation.

 

Yet, the most crucial aspect of a contemporary, skillful system of floor removal is the capturing of all of the dust. This valuable feature is only truly accomplished when HEPA Certified Air Cleaners with vacuum suction are directed at the source of the dust as it is created. This method secures even dust unseen to the naked eye.

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself: would you use a plumber to do your electrical work? Of course not! Experience and innovation make contractors experts, and the same is true for all trades, even flooring removal.

Yet, the most crucial aspect of a contemporary, skillful system of floor removal is the capturing of all of the dust. This valuable feature is only truly accomplished when HEPA Certified Air Cleaners with vacuum suction are directed at the source of the dust as it is created. This method secures even dust unseen to the naked eye.

The Benefits of Speedy Floor Removal

Speedy Floor Removal professionals are a unique set of contractors. Our effective training, knowledge, and motivation combined with considerate client support and high moral character are ideal characteristics for enabling us to really stand out in the industry. Another top priority of ours is also a rarity: we always want you feel comfortable with us in your home.

Our team is ahead of the curve by utilizing our patented dustless removal tools and cutting-edge equipment. Our videos demonstrate the amazing dustless system of Speedy Floor Removal in action, and our reviews on Angie’s List from previous customers back up our claims about character and client support. See what they have to say about our team and then compare us to whomever else you might be considering. We are up to the challenge, and so is the new and improved way to remove floors!

The Speedy Way to Clean and Maintain Your Hardwood Floors

Cleaning and Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors: Part 2

As we learned in Part 1 of this blog series, understanding the specifics of cleaning and maintaining solid hardwood is critical for homeowners with any amount of this hardwood flooring in their home. Hardwood flooring is an excellent and enduring addition to your house, but in order to preserve its pristine condition, homeowners must take particular maintenance measures that cater to hardwood directly. Therefore, in this second installation of The Speedy Way to Clean and Maintain Your Hardwood Floors, Speedy Floor Removal will reveal how to maintain hardwood floors by sharing the three most important maintenance rules to follow, as well as the top nine most essential hardwood flooring maintenance tips.

Maintaining Your Hardwood Floors

Maintenance Rules

In order to learn how to maintain hardwood floors, the three most important maintenance rules to follow are:

  1. Wipe up spills immediately. Do not allow water to stand on the wood for any length of time.
  2. Sweep or vacuum often. Ground-in dirt can destroy wood floors. Vacuum, sweep, or dust mop hardwood floors at least once a week. If using a vacuum, make sure that the vacuum head has a brush or felt on it, or use the wand attachment; do not use a vacuum with beater bars or hard heads. To dust mop hardwood floors, use a damp, flat mop with a microfiber head that will effectively collect dust and hair.
  3. Choose the right rug. Some carpeting or rugs can stain the wood or affect the finish.

Adhering to these rules should enable you to keep your hardwood floor in exceptional shape for years. However, these other simple maintenance suggestions are also well worth your time and energy if you are really hoping to guard your investment in your wood floors. Some will mean simple additions to your home, like area rugs and entrance mats. Others can quickly become an effortless habit, such as taking your shoes off before you walk on your wood. And several of these tips need only be done on random, more rare occasions, such as when you are moving furniture.

Maintenance Tips

  1. To help keep your wood from warping, maintain a relative humidity between 35% and 55% in your home.
  2. To preserve the natural color and brilliance of your wood floors, protect them from direct sunlight with curtains, blinds, and rugs.
  3. To keep your wood floors cleaner with less work, place interior and exterior doormats on both sides of entrances. These should prevent a good amount of dirt and moisture from being tracked onto the floors.
  4. Place rugs made of breathable material near sources of moisture, such as kitchen sinks, in order to prevent moisture entrapment. Do not use mats with rubber, foam, or plastic backs, as these may capture moisture and consequently discolor the wood.
  5. Place runners and area rugs with slip-resistant backings in heavily trafficked areas and at all pivot points in order to protect parts of the wood flooring that would suffer wear and tear more quickly. To make sure that the wood under these rugs continue to match the surrounding sections, move the rugs around occasionally.
  6. If you have pets, keep their nails trimmed in order to stop their footsteps from scratching the wood.
  7. Eliminate dents and dings in your floors by leaving shoes at the door and not walking on the wood with high heels, heeltaps, or sharp objects protruding from shoes.
  8. In rainy weather, be sure to remove wet shoes and dripping coats somewhere other than on the wood floors if possible. Otherwise, remove wet items on a mat or towel and do not let them sit on the wood floors when wet.
  9. Avoid rolling, dragging, or pushing heavy furniture and appliances across your wood floor so as to stop any unnecessary abuse. Use appliance lifts or plywood hardboard if necessary to move large objects, and position furniture leg protector pads under all furniture legs. Replace any hard, narrow rollers on your furniture with wide rubber ones.

Speedy Help For Hardwood Floors

Combining these important maintenance tips with our practical cleaning tips will effectively empower homeowners with hardwood floors to protect the ageless, attractive, and advantageous qualities of their floors for years to come. To revisit those cleaning tips for hardwood floors, visit last month’s blog, and to learn about how Speedy Floor Removal can help prepare your home for fantastic hardwood floors, contact us today!

How Your Flooring Store Can Generate More Revenue This Year

Flooring Stores: Increase Sales and Save Money by Working With Speedy Floor Removal

As an innovative company offering our unique floor removal services to all of North Central Florida, Speedy Floor Removal is heavily invested in the flooring industry. Who else is so firmly grounded in flooring? Flooring stores. As a flooring store owner, you know that the purpose of your company is to assist home and business owners in finding and receiving the best new flooring for their interiors, yet these days, your own and other flooring stores may be struggling to overcome the deficit of qualified and non-qualified flooring installers that is inhibiting flooring stores from completing flooring installations and making money. In fact, your flooring store may be like the others that are several months behind due to the fact that they cannot deliver on installations fast enough and cannot sell product if they cannot install it. In the past, installers and flooring stores like yours hoped to increase their proceeds on sales and installations by providing floor removal as well, but with the lack of installers, this dream has been left on the back burner.

However, floor removal can still be a great way for your flooring store to start to pull ahead in your profits if you choose to tap into the floor removal expertise of Speedy Floor Removal. Speedy Floor Removal wants to be involved in the flooring sales process by offering several significant advantages to flooring stores and installers alike. By aligning with your flooring store, Speedy Floor Removal can help you accomplish three things:

  • Sell more products
  • Reduce expenses and liability
  • Increase customer satisfaction

Please allow us to share how we can reach these goals and revitalize the financial success of your flooring store in the process.

Sell More Product

Through our interactions in the flooring industry, Speedy Floor Removal has seen how sales can suffer at a flooring store when installations cannot be completed within the buyer’s timeline. We know that your flooring store may be loosing customers because you cannot provide flooring fast enough, and therefore, you lack the installers, the equipment, and the time to perform floor removal as well. Speedy Floor Removal is the solution that results in more product sales because of our rare mastery of floor removal.

We can get old floors out of there in no time — usually, just ONE day — and by quickly managing this task ourselves, we can free up installers to bring floors in faster for clients. The ability to guarantee to customers that their flooring will be delivered in a speedy and easy fashion will allow your flooring store to move through the sales process faster, and you can thereby sell more product overall. Speedy Floor Removal can also help you sell more products by marketing for you when we work with our customers. With Speedy Floor Removal, your flooring store will have a better reputation, and a better reputation will lead to an increase in sales.

 

Reduce Expenses and Liability

With our custom-made, patented machines and streamlined floor removal process, Speedy Floor Removal eliminates all of the hassle from floor removal and spares your store any unnecessary responsibility and costs. With Speedy Floor Removal working with flooring stores, there is no damage liability because we are doing the work, not the your installer subcontractor. You avoid liability as we work with and bill the homeowner directly, not as a subcontractor.

floor-removal-handheld

You also save money by allowing Speedy Floor Removal to handle the floor removal, as your store will not have to spend money on:

  • The management required to remove floors
  • Any warranty work that would cover the incomplete or improper removal of old glue, paint, or thin set
  • Any cleaning bills

Speedy Floor Removal achieves a completely dustless floor removal with our high-tech equipment and extremely skillful technique, so you will never have to backtrack on our work. Flooring stores like yours will have no additional liabilities or expenses to worry about with Speedy Floor Removal.

Increase Customer Satisfaction

By allowing Speedy Floor Removal to meet your customers’ floor removal needs, your flooring store can make your customers much happier. Your store benefits from Speedy’s ability to do our job quickly and effectively because the time, availability, and integrity that you acquire can all be directed back towards customers. Customers will be more than satisfied with our work, so we can produce more word of mouth business for your store with these elated customers.

When we have completed our jobs, Speedy Floor Removal has a plan in place to point our customers to your store. As we are finishing their floor removal, Speedy Floor Removal will ask home and business owners to fill out an Angie’s List form on our iPads while signing the work order and invoice. With this electronic form, the customer can share their positive review right away, and Speedy Floor Removal can distribute that same form through our social media accounts and the “Review” page on our website. This form will include your flooring store’s information and website link, so people can be directed to the your flooring store when they submit a review for Speedy Floor Removal’s work. This link placement will help drive more traffic to your website and provide the your flooring store with free advertising in the process. Speedy Floor Removal is also willing to assign a CallRail number to your store that, when distributed by your employees, will supply us with referrals and will give us the opportunity to send our new customers back to your flooring store for flooring and installation. All of these efforts will empower your store to regularly gain and gratify new customers for free.

A Perfect Match: Speedy Floor Removal and Flooring Stores

As a fellow partner in the flooring industry, Speedy Floor Removal is inviting flooring stores like yours to live in a flooring world where you can:

  • Avoid cleaning bills and damage liability
  • Spend less of your hard earned money on warranty work covering improper preparation
  • Know that most floors will be removed in one day
  • Interact with happy installers

As we offer both residential floor removal and commercial floor removal services, we work with both residential and commercial flooring providers, and we are offering incentives for referrals. Your customers can receive free estimates on our services by filling out a very simple form on our website, and our site also presents much more information about our services. To learn more about this great opportunity with Speedy Floor Removal and start increasing sales, reducing expenses, and satisfying customers right away, contact us today!

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