How to Find Cheap Flooring For Your Home or Apartment
Replacing the flooring in your home is generally a fairly major investment, but there are ways to cut the costs without sacrificing quality and durability. Whether you are looking for flooring for an apartment or a house, a little research, planning, and effort can really pay off for your bank balance.
Take a look at these useful tips and see how many of them could work for you.
Consider your lifestyle
You may love the idea of fitted carpeting throughout your home but is it really practical for the hall and living room if you have the muddy feet of kids and dogs to deal with? Hard wearing carpet is almost always going to be at the top end of the fee scale, so when on a budget it may be wiser to save the luxury of the deep pile for your bedroom.
Plus you have more chance of finding a bargain-priced end of roll or remnant for a smaller space.
Buy in bulk
A great cheap flooring idea is to buy in bulk. You have much more chance of negotiating a discount when you buy a decent amount of your chosen floor covering. If the outlet you shop in has secured its own discount from their supplier then this could be an even better deal for you.
Avoid special orders
Floor stock is generally always cheaper than ordering something with a custom design. You may need to look around several outlets until you can find a style or pattern you really like, but it’s worth it for the saving.
Buy something you can install yourself
Not every type of flooring is entirely suitable for DIY installation, but there are several options open to anyone remotely handy or willing to learn. There are lots of video tutorials around online which can be a useful resource.
Of course, you can always make use of ‘handy’ friends and family members too, and if special tools are needed these can often be hired for a small fee.
Haggle
Even if you are not placing a particularly big order it never hurts to ask if there is any chance of a discount. It’s worth checking you are asking someone authorized to make a deal, of course. Be polite and go for it, as at the end of the day any discount you get is money saved.
Some retailers may be more open to this if they have an incentive. For example, credit card payments reduce a seller’s final total gained by charging an extra fee. This is at least 2% of the total paid on the card, often more, so offering to pay cash could be enough to swing it your way.
Alternatively, if the total charge includes installation perhaps you could agree to remove the old flooring beforehand. If this saves the retailer money on the installer’s fee they may be open to passing it on to you.
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