How many sq. ft. of 31/4″ prefinished flooring can a 2 man crew put down per day? assuming the area is relatively open, maybe a 12 ft. hallway, great rm. and dining rm. I’m thinking 400 sq. ft. for 2 men to do in 8 hrs. Is that realistic?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
The FHB Podcast crew takes a closer look at an interesting roof.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Are the walls all parallel? Any corners, and if so, how are you doing them? One nailer or two? Length of planks? Nailing pattern? Doorways? Floor-mounted recepticals?
400 sq. ft. in a day or more should be doable if it's straight forward and you and your help have done this before. The little complications add a lot of time.
I dont install many floors but I did a 1100 square foot ranch with a helper in 12 hours.
It was 2 1/2" strip oak. Kitchen, living room, down the hall, 3 bedrooms and the closets in each. My helper was a laid off asphalt paver.
400 sq. ft. is perfectally acceptable for two guys who have good carpentry skills and little floor laying experience.
If thse two guys worked together laying floors every day they better put out about 800-1200 sq.ft. per day.
Now that I think about it revise that number to 1500 minimum. Your talking 3 1/2'" here. I'm going on 2 1/4" time.
Either way , if that's what your planning on putting down , it's certainly do-able.
Remember he said pre finished- Ya can't just beat the snot out of it , like unfinished material.
400 / day is a perfectly acceptable rate for quality work.
"I dont install many floors but I did a 1100 square foot ranch with a helper in 12 hours.It was 2 1/2" strip oak. Kitchen, living room, down the hall, 3 bedrooms and the closets in each. My helper was a laid off asphalt paver."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Supermen! I remember doing a wide open unit in a mall over plywood. 450 square feet of strip and I was a goner for the rest of the day. Bushed, freaking worn out and didn't want to do anymore. Of course this was using a manual nailer and not pneumatic AND I wasn't in my 20's.That's pretty hard to belive 1100 sf in that layout unless you skip nailed the installation or nailed every two feet. I believe the NWFA(National Wood Flooring Assoc) calls for 350-400 sf per man for each 8 hour day installing 2 1/4" strip in open areas.Don't place the emphasis on speed but more on quality. I've seen the work of guys who bragged about doing so much in one day. Floors should have been ripped out and redone.Edited 6/18/2005 7:37 pm ET by HARDWOODGUY
Edited 6/18/2005 7:38 pm ET by HARDWOODGUY
I'm not a floor guy but with two other guys we did 600 sq. of 2 1/2" cherry in a 9 hr day. The room was just a simple rectangle with a stair well in the middle.
I was the only one that had done any of this before, and that's not saying a lot.
Doug
My R.S. Means Residential Retail Costs book says that one carpenter should put down 170 sq ft of 2 1/4" prefinished white oak in a day.185 sq ft of 3 1/2"I'll be thrilled if I do half that!!Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
>>That's pretty hard to belive 1100 sf in that layout unless you skip nailed the installation or nailed every two feet. I believe the NWFA(National Wood Flooring Assoc) calls for 350-400 sf per man for each 8 hour day installing 2 1/4" strip in open areas.
So...do the math. Two guys should put down 800 sq.ft. the first day and 300 ft the next half day = 1100 sq.ft.
To be perfectly honest we hit it pretty hard, I could'nt keep up that pace day after day.
1000+ sq.ft/day....is not very realistic for 2 people. If a two person crew installs this fast I would assume they are subcontracted by the sq.ft and see nothing but $$$ while not paying attention to the details. My installers are expected to install about 500/ft per day per team (2 people). If I give them an additional helper they might put out 700/ft.
No one is claiming 1000 ft per day.
Once again...do the math
you're right , prefinished is a bit different than unfinished. You have to protect the floor as you go, we usually use the boxes that it comes in to lay down behind us. Any protection after that is the responsibility of the HO or GC.
We don't do a lot of floors, so I thought I was in the ballpark with 400 sq, ft. for 2 men per day. Now factor in the fact that I won't be there and have to rely on the speed of my employees to git'er done.....?I guess we'll do ok.
About 2 months ago we installed a little less than 6000 sq.ft. of random 3-4-5s. Best day for 3 men ( 1 racking, 1 cutting, 1 sawing) wide open rooms, was just over 1200 sq.ft. Slowest day using borders, and running on the diagonal in the field was about 300 sq.ft. for 3 men. Oh yea, forgot to mention the sore backs!
k
I'd say 400sf x 2 men in 8 hours is optimistic unless you're laying a dance floor in the middle of a stage and never have to get near a wall. I took 1½ days to lay 300sf of 3½" in a very tight environment with a crew of two carps, me and my #1.
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
I agree. I'm doing about 120ft a day myself ( six hours - rest of time I am phone calls and job management) and my two b guys are getting 250-300 between them. We do focus on grain matching, culling, and quality work tho, and have a lot of smaller spaces and cuts. The hand nailer vs the pneumatic doesn't seem to make a difference in time - just in energy level at end of day.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Another thing - most of the 3" I get is long stock, custom milled, whjereas the 2-1/4" is bundled mixe up to 6' long. The long stock is slower to place, requiring much more shim blocks to fit tight. We get more coverage per placement but it takes more labor time per foot
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I agree too, about the nailer. A hand nailer saves you effort and a bit of time in not having to drag the hose around; a pneumatic one saves you in not slowing down as the day wears on and your arm gets tired. As my Nana used to say, "It's half-a-dozen of one; six of the other...."
Gotta figure any whole floor that's only 300 sf is gonna be tight with lots of cuts, jogs, and rips. You can't start 'rocking and rolling' until you get to big open rooms that are 800-1000 sf by themselves. We don't see too many that size in residential up here.
Grain matching, culling and so forth are standard procedure...aren't they?? <G>
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.