There is no doubt about it oak flooring is beautiful but it can be expensive to buy the wood and get an oak floor installed. If you have set your heart on oak wood flooring but you don’t have a huge budget here are some tips to save money on your purchase
1. Get a Trade Discount
If you hire an installer before buying the wood you may find that you can get a better deal than by buying the wood yourself and then trying to find someone to install it. Often carpenters and floor fitters know someone in the trade and can get you a great deal even if it means they take a bit of commission themselves. You will often see advertisements for flooring supplied and fitted. Explore a few of these to see if you can find a winning combination of a great installer who also offers a good or great price on wood.
Mohawk Forest Oak Flooring (Autumn)
2. Go to a Timber Merchant Yourself
Sometimes you can talk your way into a discount if you are friendly and polite and you ASK for it! I did this when doing a joint remodeling project on a house with my sister and a solid oak hardwood floor was ours for little more than the price of good quality laminate. The merchant had so many different types of oak to choose from we were genuinely a bit lost, asked for advice and got a lot of help as well as the discount. I will definitely go back there when I am ready to install oak floors in my dining room and hall.
3. Look at Engineered Oak Flooring
If you want a cheap price forget about genuine oak parquet flooring laid block by block and think of a more modest alternative. Although you may not want to go so far as buying oak laminate flooring (which is not real wood at all) you could look at engineered flooring which is a bit cheaper than normal solid oak flooring. The difference is that with solid oak flooring you have a floor that is made of solid oak boards whereas with engineered oak flooring you have boards produced by bonding together a layer of solid oak to a (cheaper) plywood base. What you see on the surface is solid oak and if you buy quality engineered flooring you will have a thick layer of oak on the surface that can be sanded a few times if necessary to remove imperfections and scratches from the surface of the wood.
4. Buy Your Solid Oak Floor Online
If you can’t find an installer who will buy the wood for you at a discount or a local timber merchant, shop around online for some great prices. A number of sites will send quality wood right to your door. (Remember to include the cost of shipping and sales tax when doing your calculations).
5. Buy Ends of Lines / End of Season
To get an oak wood floor at a discount hit all the usual places at sale time. Carpet stores and warehouses (which often sell hardwood flooring too) are great for special deals in January and July (and these days they often have sales every few weeks so keep an eye on the ads). Specialist hardwood flooring stores have sales too. You can generally get something that will suit your floor but you may need to be prepared to negotiate if the particular oak wooden flooring you want is not in the sale. Sales are the best time to buy very expensive oak hardwood floors as even a 10% saving can make a great deal of difference. As oak hardwood flooring is a classic and traditional product you are less likely to find it as an end of line but it does no harm to keep your eyes open, particularly if a store is reducing its lines.
