My Personal Tips for Saving Money on Hardwood Flooring

Hardwood flooring is all the rage. While other options are still common, such as tile and carpet, a growing number of people are installing hardwood thanks to the rich appearance and variety of options.

I recently got on board, purchasing roughly 1,000 square feet of engineered hardwood flooring for my home. Although I considered other options, after crunching the numbers and comparing the pros and cons this was my final decision.

If you have ever looked into the cost of hardwood flooring, you know one thing to be true: it is all over the place. This is due to several factors including but not limited to:

• Quality of the product
• Type of product: solid hardwood, engineered, or laminate
• Installation: do it yourself or hire a professional?

When I first began to compare the cost of hardwood flooring to other options, I will admit I was scared away. The cost seemed a bit high and I knew there would be hidden expenses along the way, such as underlayment and new trim.

Over time, however, I began to dig up more information on hardwood flooring. The more I dug the more resources I found. Soon enough, it was easy for me to see that there were a few ways to save big money.

How I Saved on Hardwood Floors

When everything is said and done, you may find that you are able to save enough money to buy hardwood for your home. Or you may find that this is still too expensive. What matters most is that you put yourself in position to get the best deal possible, allowing you to decide how to move forward.

Here are three tips I followed that allowed me to save, by my estimation, more than $1,500.

1. Shop online, not locally. Like many, I started out by checking out what Home Depot had to offer. I had recently applied for a store credit card, so I figured this was a good place to start.

I was wrong.

While there were plenty of nice options, all of them were overpriced as far as I was concerned. At the time I didn’t know it, but simply shopping online would allow me to save roughly $1/square foot.

After some extensive research, I decided to do business with Hardwood Bargains. The name put me off at first, as it had me believing that the quality would be poor. After talking with others and reading online reviews, I realized there was nothing to worry about in the quality department.

For those who are wondering, I went with the 5″ Hand Scraped Espresso Birch.

2. Take advantage of store offers. Local stores are not the only ones that run promotions. Hardwood Bargains was having a 10 percent off sale when I purchased, which knocked another $.30 off per square foot.

Additionally, I received the discount on everything else I purchased on the same order. This included underlayment as well as transition pieces.

Not every store is going to have a promotion when you are looking to buy. Your job is to find out where you can save the most money, and then decide if everything else suits your needs.

3. Installed the flooring myself. Although I consider myself handy to a certain extent, I had never installed hardwood flooring before this project. To say I was a bit worried is an understatement.

With the help of YouTube and a little bit of trial and error, it didn’t take me long to catch on. Soon enough, I hit my groove and was flying through the job.

It takes time to install hardwood flooring yourself, especially if you don’t have any experience, but it is going to save you a lot of money.

The only quote I received for installation was $1.99/square foot. For my home, this would have been an extra $2,000. No thanks, I would rather save the money and do it myself.

Final Thoughts

I was able to save a lot of money on my hardwood flooring, and with the tips above you should be able to do the same.

If nothing else, be patient and consider all your options before forgetting about hardwood and opting for another type of floor that you may not enjoy nearly as much.

At first, I didn’t believe hardwood was affordable but soon enough things turned for the better and I was able to work this project into my budget.