Doing any form of renovation work always feels like it involves a lot of money, but there are often ways you can save yourself some cash. There certainly is when you’re changing floors in your home, and I have put together a few tips that may help you cut the costs of this latest DIY project.
1. Fit it yourself
You may be worried that installing wooden floors yourself will be a long and complicated job, but it needn’t be. You can buy floors that come with instructions on how to fit them, making your job that bit simpler.
It is obviously easier if you’re adept at DIY jobs, but the biggest things to remember are to carefully measure your room, have all the equipment you need at the ready, even the ground underneath the floor, lay down the underlay and fit the flooring on top of this. Once you have done so, you simply have to install baseboards to finish the job.
2. Enlist your friends
While installing wooden floors like those from UK Flooring Direct is a relatively straightforward job, you may still be concerned about doing it yourself. That’s why I would enlist the help of my friends. I would dress up the event as a fun, DIY venturel, and gather them together to give me assistance in measuring, sawing, carrying and finally fitting the wooden slabs on to the floor.
This can often be a lot more fun than it sounds, and having your mates round can make the whole process a lot more entertaining – and it’ll certainly help get the job done quicker. Many hands make light work, after all.
Even if your friends aren’t able to offer you their time, they might have some tools that you can borrow, such as a hammer and circular saw. They may even have extras like knee pads that you might not necessarily think you’ll need, but you’ll certainly be grateful for afterwards!
3. Choose value-for-money wooden floors
I know what it’s like when you buy redecorating products – it can be so tempting to get the cheapest option in order to save yourself a significant amount of cash. But some months on, we begin to regret our decision when that item has been damaged or not lived up to our expectations.
It is often best to avoid buying the cheapest option, and instead look for ones that offer value for money. For instance, I would look at which cheap floors come with some sort of guarantee – if you can get a warranty on a product that is slightly more expensive than a lower-cost one that doesn’t come with a guarantee, I would opt for the former.
You should also look at the quality of the product carefully. I would always say it is best to find a floor that offers everything you want at a price you can afford – buying the cheapest high-quality product is often far better than simply getting the budget option. The key is to look at cost-effectiveness over a long period of time – after all, you don’t want to buy another wooden flooring in a year or two, do you?
4. Measure, measure, measure
This might sound obvious – particularly if you’re installing the floor yourself – but you should make sure you are very precise in your measurements, so you don’t buy more material than you require. Even getting a foot or two extra can add to your costs, so I would double check figures to ensure I am able to keep the price down as much as I can.