If you were hire someone with flooring experience to lay 500 sq. ft of Allure planks, what would you consider a reasonable labor cost per sq. ft?

As you know, 500 sq.ft of Allure times $1.69/sq.ft = $845.00 plus tax. Would you expect your hired out labor cost to be more or less than $845.00? Assume all floor prep has been done and all the installer has to do is lay it, trim it where needed and roll the seams.

I pay by the job. Some are trickier than others. I don't like "hourly" pay since that provides incentive for the laborer to take as long as possible.

Roy,

Sid, do you caulk the trim to the floor?

Sid,

Brad20K at one time said he was paying like .50/cent a square ft. I wonder if that is still true today?

Shaun: From what I have read, anytime you can get your labor cost at below your material cost (any job), your getting a real bargain since most labor cost tend to run at least twice the material cost. Would anyone agree with this?

Based on my own 15 years of hiring jobs out, if I hire licensed/insured pros (electrical, plumbing, roofing, flooring etc), the labor cost is definitely greater than the material cost. With unlicensed/uninsured handymen types, my labor cost are usually less than my material cost.

Vee,

@Busy... we don't caulk to attach to the sub-floor, but as you said to keep the creepies in the wall. Plus, I don't have them pull the trim to tuck underneath it. We just go right up next to the trim then run a bead of caulk around the perimeter and smooth it flat. Looks surprisingly nice and clean! And the floor still floats like it is supposed to. Also helps with the water proofing.

I do handyman work, and as some have said I won't quote just by the square foot because sometimes you get rooms where the floors aren't flat or there are many unique cutouts that need to be made...but if it's a "simple" 500 square feet I'd charge about $700 to do that amount.

If you'd want baseboard installed or other similar finishing work, there'd be added cost.

In our houses, what we do with baseboards depends. If they are in decent shape and we're not painting walls, then we just run the new flooring as close to the baseboard as we can and install shoe molding to make a nice clean look. If the baseboards are in bad condition and we are going to paint walls, we replace baseboards. If we are painting but the baseboards are in good condition, then it varies...sometimes I remove baseboards and then reinstall...it's so much easier to paint that bottom section of wall without the baseboards on...I can do it with a roller sideways.

Roy, some of the large landlords/ flippers who have crews might sub out their crews as well... keep their guys busy in between flips and such.

Roy,

50 cents/sf by my regular helpers. I know that's low but they still want the job. I think $1 would be plenty for part time helpers. Carpet installers want $3 /sf for Allure.

$20 per room to paint and install quarter round.

PS

That 50 cents is usually part of an entire turnover project. We also pay by the room for painting and use set prices for many tasks on the list.

$10 per wall/ceiling to paint

$10 per room to paint trim

$3 per blind

$1 per bag of mulch

$5 per light fixture

$3 replace doorknob

$50 base cleaning plus $10 per appliance and second bathroom

It's AMAZING how fast things get done compared to hourly!