In the next six months or so, I intend to have all the carpet in my house removed and had hardwoods laid down. I'm just looking for people with experience doing this in their own home so I know roughly how much I'll have to spend.

Details:

Living space is about 1575sf; perhaps 1200sf is carpeted with the remainder being vinyl tiles. I want all of the flooring removed, and a uniform wood throughout the house. The carpet is by no means in bad shape, I'm just tired of vacuuming cat hair out of it (so it may in fact be resellable).

Is there any way I could have this done professionally for under $3k?

I just had new carpet in 70% of my house and engineered wood in 20% of my house with ceramic tile and vinyl in the remaining. The carpet and tile were sold and installed by the same people. The final bill is at work but the quote was $3.35 per square foot for the wood, plus cost of a couple of pieces of trim, plus tax. Installation to remove the old carpet and install the wood in an empty house was quoted at 2.50 a foot. However, we had them move the furniture and that cost something more. I do not remember how much, .25 per sq ft of floor or thereabout. So, something more than $6 a foot for the wood when it was all done.

We are about to tear up everything in our house as well. Everyone we have talked to recommends Budget Floor Store and Floor World (http://www.floorstoresok.com/index.php). I don't know exact prices and installation costs but they are the cheapest and have the biggest selection.

We used Davis Carpet in Yukon. A+

(We're live in west OKC. I assume they work all over the metro.)

I have a 2350 sf home four bedrooms three baths. i had carpet removed from all four bedrooms and living room and closets in thats over 1100sf replaced with wood floors. The total for wood floors, glue, moving furniture around and install cost a little over 8,000.00.

We replaced all the carpet in our home with laminate wood flooring over the last several years. The livingroom is about 520 square feet and was the first room we did - about 8 years ago. Still looks like new and 1/4 of it even flooded once when we had tons of rain and the koi pond overflowed. We assumed it would buckle up and have to be replaced, but it didn't. We did it all ourselves and was pretty inexpensive and has all held up very well. Solid wood is nice and would probably be my first choice if I was never going to move. But it costs a whole lot more and is a much bigger pain to install.

Thank you all for your replies. I considered laminate flooring, but I know there are concerns about air quality safety due to the fact that it's constructed of melamine resin, which is made with formaldehyde. I wouldn't consider it too much of a threat, but I'll have a little baby (and kitties) crawling all over it, so I don't want to take the chance. Plus, hardwoods boost the resale value of a home quite a bit, so I think that not only will I be more satisfied with it while I live at the house, I'll also get more out of it when/if I decide to sell. $8k is pretty far beyond my budget, I'm afraid, especially for a $90k house. I'll inquire with the link provided by diggyba (thanks); hopefully I can find a happy medium.

Thank you all for your replies. I considered laminate flooring, but I know there are concerns about air quality safety due to the fact that it's constructed of melamine resin, which is made with formaldehyde. I wouldn't consider it too much of a threat, but I'll have a little baby (and kitties) crawling all over it, so I don't want to take the chance. Plus, hardwoods boost the resale value of a home quite a bit, so I think that not only will I be more satisfied with it while I live at the house, I'll also get more out of it when/if I decide to sell. $8k is pretty far beyond my budget, I'm afraid, especially for a $90k house. I'll inquire with the link provided by diggyba (thanks); hopefully I can find a happy medium.

I would not go with laminate unless it a rent house. I just think that for a home you will be living in laminate just give it a cheap look.

I would not go with laminate unless it a rent house. I just think that for a home you will be living in laminate just give it a cheap look.

I'd venture to say that's either just a personal taste comment or you haven't see good laminate installed correctly. Personally, I'd never install laminate wood flooring in a rent house as it is not nearly as durable as solid wood and renters would most assuredly tear it up. We don't have to take special care with ours, but we do make sure and wipe up any spills right away and you wouldn't want to drop any sharp edged object on it (it will chip if struck just right). Plus, repairing laminate flooring is not as easy as solid wood.

This is our living room and we get compliments on it all the time and its 8+ years old. I personally like a darker more textured laminate, but the wife won out when we went to pick it out because she thought the lighter made the room look even bigger and wanted the same color throughout the house. There also were not as many choices 8+ years ago. The choices today are extremely nice. Some of the new condos downtown have some beautiful laminate floors in them.

I'd agree if you don't mind spending the money that solid wood is VERY nice and adds value, but laminate can look as good at a fraction of the price.

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/9287/screenshot20120917at723.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23/screenshot20120917at723.png/)

I had about 1000 SQ ft. of porcelain tile installed in my house just over 2 years ago for about $5000.
I like it a lot.

That is a fine looking living room.

I had about 1000 SQ ft. of porcelain tile installed in my house just over 2 years ago for about $5000.
I like it a lot.

Love porcelain tile. We did our master bathroom in porcelain tile we bought at that discount builder's supply on NW 10th (around Council). 12" beige textured tiles. We demoed the bath ourselves (down to the studs). Bought the materials and had a crew of two brothers come and do the concrete board and tile. We grouted it. Tiled the floor, entire bath and up the walls to counter height. Even with decorative tile trim and some polished steel corner rounds, it was only about $2,500 to do the entire bath. We did two estimates with 'professional remodelers' and they wanted $7,000 - $10,000.

We did granite with travertine accents in the kitchen. Ceramic tile in the guest bath - the wife demoed and did all the tile work in there herself and it was less than $1,000 and looks awesome.

Our next project it to tackle the covered back patio. About 500 square feet and I want something like a slat out there. We are going to do it ourselves.