We have some floors that need addressing too. I agree with most of the points that were made in response to your question. As someone who always tries to and wants to diy, one thing I know is that stuff will very rarely go to plan.
For me it’s usually a matter of cost though, so there isn’t really an option to have someone else do it. And sometimes the “pro” doesn’t do good work (not just talking about “house” stuff here).
Anyways. I need to either learn to redo the floor in a bedroom, or I guess another option is to sell the house “as is”, maybe. I’ve been meaning to post about this and ask some questions here for the past couple weeks, but just didn’t get to it. And then I saw your post.
Yes and no. It was a project that had financial goals that needed radical change at times.
It was supposed to be a triplex
It ended up a duplex
I realized we would run out of money and credit to turn it into a triplex but had just enough to fix it up and sell it.
It’s not for faint of heart.
As far as skills go I never ran into anything I couldn’t figure out but I did have the front professionally excavated for a new sewage tube and water connection.
And I had an electrician help me.
I’d need to know the exact scope of the work to say.
Also expect everything to take 3 times longer than you think.
I think, as others have said here, it depends on your ability and tool collection (and willingness to build such as needed), the state of the house currently, and your goals for the final state of the floors. If you’re going to just tear up a layer of laminate planks or linoleum and then refloor with an engineered product and some matting, or a carpet and padding over plywood, that’s not the hardest project even for a newbie, if you do your research and prep. If you’re going down to joists or beams and putting in a whole new subfloor, that’s exponentially harder and something you might want to get a pro for, since that starts getting structural. If I were looking to cut costs but ensure good work, I think I would do the demo myself, maybe with the help of an experienced handyman, hire a pro to do the structural wood, and put down the flooring and finish it myself.
One note to the “you don’t know what’s there until you look” point: don’t be surprised in an old house if you take up the floor and find an older (maybe nicer!) floor underneath. I’ve seen a ton of carpet (sometimes many layers) over perfect hardwood parquet, linoleum over incredible old 12” planks, tons of folks just throw the new floor over the old one.
Floor installer here, 29 years, hire pro’s if you can afford it, if you can’t, and you try to do it yourself… be very careful, razor scrapers/ knives are extremely dangerous, I’ve been cut literally hundreds of times and closed a lot of bad wounds through the years. Not to mention saws, never been cut with a saw, do you have any trade experience?
I would say it depends on the floor type youre looking to install. I’m 1000% an amateur. Ive done enough laminate that I can do a pretty damn good job at it. And ive also fucked up a couple of tile jobs.
Yea I should probably have said that! My dad owned a carpet store, though we didn’t do the installing ourselves, but I spent my teenage years cutting area rugs for the floor and for customers and install jobs for the Irish guys in the van. Goddamn do those razor blade cuts never close, you gotta keep duct tape around to hold them shut, or super glue! Something about how clean the cut of an oiled carpet razor is keeps the surfaces from sticking together to heal, I don’t miss that at all my dude!
I carry super glue at all times, a carpet blade is the sharpest blade in the trades, they’re absolutely dangerous, NEVER lay it on the floor, always back in your pouch.
No kidding. I remember using carpet blades in my utility knife. They dulled quicker, but when new look out! I may still have a couple of boxes in the garage.
I’ve been in the home remodeling business for over 20 years. There are a few things I don’t do. Cabinets, windows, and flooring. I’m not proficient at that stuff. I installed about 600 SQ ft of 3/4" hard wood in my house. It took me well over a week. And I’m pretty sure I fractured my forearm by hitting the nailer with the mallet like it was a circus game. Not looking forward to doing it again downstairs.
It really is, people don’t realize how different they are from a normal utility blade. These are the ones we used, the thinnest you can get at 0.015” STOCK THICKNESS, which means a behind the edge thickness after grinding of 0.0075” or 1/5 of a millimeter, with the edge basically disappearing into infinity after you strop a new blade once or twice on an old belt. Inconceivable amounts of pressure per square inch when you touch that edge, it’s like it isn’t there.
WOW!!! There are the answers to @yarikir question!!! All you other OGer’s hit it spot on.
As a part business owner, window installer, storefront, curtainwall and door specialist, about the only thing I haven’t done is flooring. I have pretty much every tool imaginable, including “stupid” tools (ones that you only need in particular circumstances) I would STILL need to buy tools for flooring. IMO, flooring/tile work is an art, and one that I probably could do, but won’t. 24 years of window, door, and storefront installs have taken their toll. I can get down there to do the work, but it’s getting back up that’s the hard part, shattered tibia and a bad knee don’t agree with the up, down, up, down of flooring work.
If you’ve got the money, spend it to have it done right. I’ve seen plenty of DIYers attack a flooring job, especially in a bathroom, to have it not work out, fail, and then have to spend money to have it fixed properly. Toilets are finicky, especially old ones that have leaked over 20/30 years, and the sub structure is rotted to hell. Homeowner decides to “fix” it, doesn’t have everything set correctly, attempt to install the toilet, and “POOF” leaks like a sieve because the floor is 1/8” out and the wax seal, won’t seal.
In the window world, I can get away with a LOT, and have. Old houses can be a bear, but trim caulk and paint can make it what it ain’t, LOL
Doors are kinda the same way, I can push the boundaries, but when it’s done, it will operate smooth as silk.
And I don’t play with small doors anymore, here is the latest patio unit I just had to install on the 2nd story of a multi-million dollar lake house, and mock up doors for Ford Headquarters in Dearborn, 10 ft tall, over 12 ft wide, custom built in house, mocked up and totally functional with specialty hardware.
Haha my man. Caulk n paint will make you the carpenter you ain’t! I might make that the tag line for my company. People already laugh at my company name once I explain to them it’s not an acronym, it’s a sound.
The 9ft 11 5/8” handles were made in house.
2” custom stand-off brushed stainless.
Solid Stainless Steel, machined, assembled and brushed from bar stock.
We do a lot of custom “one offs” never the same thing twice.
If you’ve ever shopped or seen and Apple Store, there’s a 95% chance that you’ve seen or opened a set of custom doors that I’ve made the patch fittings or door rails from solid stainless steel also.
Since I started working on this house I have invested in about $2000 bucks worth of new tools, next on the list is a decent router. My best investments so far is a dewalt planner and lazer level. I used the planner to strip 5 layers of paint off the floor planking, it fucked the blades up, but they are only $40 a set and are double edged so $20 was a cheap way to do it. Also I can salvage a lot if wood that is coming out and re use it for other things with the planner as well as buy cheaper rough sawn lumber and clean it up and save a lot of money.
If I am not sure of how to tackle something I just watch several you tube vids to get the right idea and then do it.
My biggest why the fuck did you do that, is every bit of trim is nailed on with 3 inch nails lol.
In the bedroom I am just finishing I just need to do the baseboards and windows and door trim, and why I am looking for a router, as the original trim is very ornate and fancy, and 3/4 of it broke getting off.
I’m hiring my buddy do my bathroom tile after seeing how nicely he did his own house up with some local unfinished schist tiles, it’s a rock called Goshen Stone that’s popular in southern New England as a hardscaping and flooring material that looks beautiful but I’m not messing around with that in my house, I’ll do the pavers and paths outside but after seeing how clean his came out, I can recognize the skill.
Tile can be a serious challenge. With that said, believe it or not it is far easier to get it right today than it used to be, particularly on a vertical surface. Cement backer board is the difference. It makes horizontal surfaces (e.g., wood subfloor) easier too, but there is less of a difference.
Backer board is simple to install, and that alone makes the job at least 50% easier, again, especially on vertical surfaces. Imagine having to get your cement (scratch coat) mix the absolute perfect consistency to hang on the wire supporting the mix. It can’t slump even a little from top to bottom as it cures. That is a challenge I personally never even attempted. I once did a job with an old guy who had been lured out of retirement by a client (Olivia Newton John). It was a small job and he did not use backer, even though it was available by then. A guy with 6+ decades of experience knows his mix, as opposed to a guy who’s done virtually no tile. After watching him, not a fucking chance! I saw what it takes. Oh, and he never used spacers yet the grout lines aligned perfectly! Only by eye. it was a beautiful job.
Of course, he only did tile his entire life. He told me that his first job was to hold the torch (not a flashlight or anything electric, literally a torch with a flame burning at the working end) for his dad (who learned the same way from his dad) to see the work when there was no longer enough sunlight. He was ten years old when he started. He’d go from school to the jobsite. Sometimes, when it was a large job, his mom would pack an evening meal for both of them. Fuck.
I’ll also mention that he was a sad person. He had at least one son, perhaps more, and none of them had an interest in learning the trade from their dad, an absolute master tile setter. So much knowledge was lost when he passed. What a shame.
And a high quality tile saw is not an inexpensive tool.
I thought those handles might have been made in house.