If you are shopping for hardwood flooring, one of the first things you will need to find out is how much that hardwood flooring is going to cost you. We’ve prepared some vital information here which you should read if you are researching hardwood flooring prices. Once you’ve finished reading it, check out our site to get a price for the exact hardwood flooring you are looking for.
Hardwood Flooring Price Variations
Probably the first thing you will notice once you have started shopping for wood flooring is the drastic variations in hardwood flooring prices from one flooring dealer to the next. You may find a particular Bruce hardwood floor at The Home Depot for $3.49 per sq. ft. and then find that same exact Bruce Hardwood Floor at Carpet One or some other retail flooring outlet for $5.99 per sq. ft. Perhaps what is most confusing is when you go online and find that same Bruce Hardwood floor for only $2.89 from a reputable online hardwood flooring dealer.
Hardwood Flooring Prices by State
Your hardwood flooring cost does not have to be determined by where you live, even though the price of a particular wood floor will vary drastically from one state to the next. For example, hardwood flooring in California may cost significantly more than hardwood flooring in Florida. That is the nature of any product you may be shopping for. However, for those of you who just happen to be shopping for hardwood flooring in California, or perhaps if you’re researching hardwood flooring prices in New York, there is one way to shop for hardwood flooring in another state where you can not only find that hardwood floor for a much lower price, but you can also buy hardwood flooring tax-free… online!
Hardwood Flooring Prices Online
Hardwood flooring prices online will nearly always be lower than those of local dealers and specialty stores. The web simply allows an online dealer to reach more consumers than ever before, giving the online hardwood flooring dealer a higher volume of customers. While most reputable online flooring dealers do have a showroom to maintain, they are able to service hundreds, or thousands of customers each year from that one location, therefore reducing the effect of the real estate’s impact on the dealer’s bottom line. Simple economics tell us that if the online hardwood flooring dealer has less costs associated with each customer, that dealer is able to offer a better price to the consumer.
Hardwood Flooring Prices Online Tip #1: Know What You Are Looking For
Once you set out to find hardwood flooring prices online, the process will go very smoothly if you know what hardwood floor you are looking for. If you started out looking at a local store, hopefully you remember the manufacturer, the model, and the manufacturer’s item number. Having those three important pieces of information handy will make your search for hardwood floor prices online go very smoothly.
Know how much hardwood flooring you need for your project. Many online dealers will have a different price for the same product based on how much flooring is being purchased at one time. For example: Over 1,000 Sq. ft = $3.99… Under 1,000 Sq. ft. = $4.29. If you need help figuring out how much hardwood flooring you need for your project, here are a few easy tips to help you measure each room and calculate your total:
To find the total square footage of a square room: Just measure one wall in the room. Now take that number and multiply it by itself. Ex: If one wall in your square room is 11 feet long, then multiply 11 times 11, to get a total of 121 square feet.
To find the total square footage of a rectangular room: An example of a rectangular room would be a living room that is 13 feet wide and 21 feet long. In this example, you would simply multiply 21 times 13, to find the total square footage of that room is 273 square feet.
If you have a room that is triangular shaped, or some other shape, like a circle, or an octagon, we will leave that up to the pros at Calculator Pro.
Hardwood Flooring Prices Online Tip #2: Find Out the Total Price Including ALL Costs
Probably the cost that is most often overlooked is the cost to get your new hardwood flooring delivered to your home. Many online hardwood flooring dealers will have hidden costs that will surprise you at the end of the purchasing process. One example of a hidden cost is shipping. Hardwood flooring, and even laminate flooring for that matter, is very heavy. Many online flooring websites are small, low volume sellers, and therefore do not receive discounted shipping rates from the freight carriers. Other flooring dealers simply do not have the technology to provide a shipping quote on their website. And even other online hardwood flooring dealers will simply try to hide the shipping costs from you until you have already started the buying process.
If you are comparing hardwood flooring prices online, you will inevitably come across one or two websites that offer “free” shipping, or some low, flat rate shipping. Anything free is always great, but do your homework first to make sure that they didn’t just hide the shipping costs into the price of the materials.
The bottom line is that it is inevitable that shipping costs will be a factor in hardwood flooring prices, there’s just no way around it. It costs money to ship something very heavy from one place to the other. Just make sure to find out what the TOTAL cost of your hardwood flooring order will be. And don’t forget that not ALL hardwood flooring that is purchased online is exempt from sales tax. Remember, if you buy hardwood flooring from a dealer that has a location, or even a business entity, located in your state, then that dealer is required by law to charge you sales tax, if you live in a state that has a state sales tax.
