Cost deferential between a Fixed Solid timber floor and Floating floors.
While there are some very cheap laminate floors available, some of these have an extremely thin 0.7mm wear layer, we have seen these wear thorough in as little as three years in a lot of residences. Therefore these will most likely be seen by a lot of people as a liability rather than an asset to the premises, so for this reason they will remain out of this equation.
While you will get told that floating floors are cheap and easy the reality can be very different. Most floating floors have extremely stringent installation requirements which can add hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars to the cost of the project. As an example you have a new home and the upper level floor is particle board, can you just lay a floating floor straight down, the likely answer is NO. Although there is nothing wrong with it, your builder will have ensured it meets Australian standards, it’s just that it will probably not meet the flooring manufacturers specifications without additional work.
Firstly you will have to check how flat the floor is, this is not a check for level, just how flat. A lot of floating floor manufacturers list their standards as + or – 1.5mm deviation or 3mm over a 3 meter diameter. It is our opinion that this gives them a potential loop hole in their warranty. When a floating floor moves even a tiny amount they can squeaks or buckle, the supplier will simply say “Oh the sub floor wasn’t up to to our standard” even though the sub floor was to Australian building standard or better.
To overcome this problem you will have to level the floor with a leveling compound. Sales people will probably say something like “you just put some leveling compound down and you’re right to go.” Is it that easy? NO. Even though your floor is new it will likely have paint or oil spills on it from construction, this will have to be sanded off prior to priming for the leveling compound. So now we apply the primer and wait for it to dry, then when the primer is dry we still have to apply the leveling compound, screed it off and grind or buff the edges to feather them back into the existing floor after it starts to cure, remember our 3mm in 3 metre rule? Your screed will have to be flat! Obviously we have a large cost even before installation has started.
- Clean Sand
- Apply primer and wait to dry
- Apply leveling compound
- Screed leveling compound and wait to dry
- Buffing and feathering of the leveling compound.
- Hope it now meets manufacturers standards
Even on a relatively small area you may have paid your installer $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 to complete this process properly. Now to add to the expense you have to buy an underlay to try and stop the floating floor squeaking and grating against the sub floor.
So now you have a flat sub floor but still no floor covering. By now your solid timber floor would have been installed spanning over these minor imperfections with ease; glued and fastened to the sub floor permanently.
The reality is, an engineered floor laid floating with no leveling of the sub floor will likely be $5 per m2 cheaper than a solid fixed floor, but you will still have a floating floor.
If your sub floor requires any leveling and this is almost a certainty, it is likely that your still floating floor will cost up to $1,500.00 more than a beautiful fixed solid timber floor, and you will still have a floating floor. Bottom line, an engineered floor can cost as much or more, and probably will not increase the value of your property as much as solid timber. This is just the way it is.