Mistake 1: Not Planning Ahead
One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen when people are Las Vegas floor installation, is they do not properly plan ahead. They always under budget the amount of time it will take for the floor installation to be fully ready. Yes, a contractor can install a floor in 3 to 5 days, But that does not mean the flooring is ready yet. In the case of hardwood flooring you must wait an additional four days before you can move back any furniture back onto the floor.
Of course, the contractor won’t tell you this because they know you will flip your lid once you find out that the job will take twice the amount of time. Many homeowners simply are not willing to wait double the time, especially when another contractor promised them half the time.
Unfortunately, this leads to either damaged floors, or schedules that overrun.
Mistake 2: Hiring the Cheapest Contractor
You’ve heard the saying you get what you pay for? This same theory applies when installing flooring. You have to think to yourself, why would a contractor charge less than the average rate for a job? There must be a reason why they can charge less.
Well in the case of installing flooring, the reason they can charge less is usually because they are cutting corners and not doing the job correctly. You see, flooring installation is a pretty set process for contractors.
They pretty much know how long a job will take and how much it will cost. When we go out to price a job we usually will give you the full cost of the job knowing that we will use the best techniques and the best materials. Anything less than that would be unfair to you the customer.
Mistake 3: Doing Things Out of Order
One of the reasons you hire an experienced floor installer, is because they know the right order to do home refinishing in. One of the most common mistakes we see is when a homeowner will paint the house before refinishing the floors. Another common mistake we see is installing cabinetry before installing the hardwood or tile flooring.
The problem with scenario number one is that there will always need to be touch-ups done after you get the flooring installed. This is why you paint after the floor is done.
The problem with the second scenario, Is that the height of the cabinets are determined by the height of the flooring. So you must install the floor first so you know the height of the floor. If you install the cabinets first, you may have to take them out and then redo the flooring and redo the cabinet installation.
Mistake 4: Not Hiring a Flooring Specialist
Would you hire a dentist to fix your car? It sounds like a silly question, but many homeowners don’t realize that you can’t just hire a general contractor to do flooring. They will make mistakes because they don’t do the job day in and day out. Do not take the risk in hiring a general contractor when you should have hired a flooring specialist that would do it right the first time.
Mistake 5: Using the Wrong Cleaning Products
So you spent all this time planning your floor, buying the materials, putting in the floor, and then you go and do some boneheaded thing like use the wrong cleaning material on your precious hardwood flooring.
For some reason, homeowners will scrimp and save when it comes to cleaning materials for the floor, after they just spent thousands installing it. You do this at your own risk, and you end up damaging the flooring because you didn’t use the right materials for that particular floor.