Linoleum supply & installation recommendations? San Francisco

March 23, 2015 9:35 PM

I have an estimate from an established San Francisco-based company X for Armstrong linoleum for my kitchen (@14' x 10') and bathroom (@8' x 8'). The estimate is $2400 for the kitchen and $1200 for the bathroom. Which seems high, even in San Francisco dollars. (But I don't really know.) So I'm going to get a couple more estimates. Any specific names of companies/people to ask?
posted by ClaudiaCenter to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Whoa! That's sky-high- like $20/sqft! For flooring or work that's done with a large area, usually things are estimated on a per-square-foot measure. By Armstrong's own measure, most linoleum installation is supposed to be about $3-6 per sqft, installed. I have a hard time imagining that that you should to charge much more than that much, even in SF. As a negotiating strategy I'd identify the linoleum you wanted, calculate the sqft costs based on the middle end of the figure, and call installers and say: "I have X sqft of space to cover, look at this PDF, Armstrong's average cost is Y, can you do it for Y?" And negotiate or move your cost upwards if contractors seem to think you're being totally outlandish, since after all, you're in SF and it's a small job that contractors might not want to take.

BTW- Linoleum installation is pretty straightforward, but you get what you pay for in general in terms of slow / less responsive work, so you also might just want to calculate on the higher end and say "I'll pay more than the upper limit, can you do it for $Z on the condition that you finish it by a date?", etc.
posted by suedehead at 10:08 PM on March 23, 2015

Agreed, that's very high. Especially just for flooring - on the other hand, there's a wide variety of things that could also be included, so that's maybe not unbelievably high as the cost to have a contractor handle the whole flooring process. Find out what's included in that estimate.
- Did you pick a premium material without knowing how that affected the cost? know what the cost $/sqft is for just the material, vs installation.
- You're talking true linoleum? Sheet or tile? I've only done vinyl (home DIY) but I know there's sheet vinyl (easy, but awkward), or self-adhesive vinyl tile (very easy), or premium grouted vinyl tile that looks like ceramic (not so easy)?
- Do you have an old floor that is complicated to remove, that's included in that estimate? Is your house old/wobbly/crooked, and they're adding expected cost for preparing the subfloor?
- Are they going to remove and reinstall the baseboards as part of this process?
- Is this company somehow mostly specializing in really fancy houses, and sees themselves as a high-end high-service high-cost provider?

If you wanted a quote on the other end of the spectrum, go to Home Depot, or just walk in to any flooring store; look at the materials ($/sf) and ask them about installation.
posted by aimedwander at 5:32 AM on March 24, 2015

I know this is going to sound odd, but the quotation may be high because the square footage is so low--that is, the company doesn't think the size of the job is enough to make it worth their while. (It can be surprisingly difficult to give businesses small amounts of cash...) I'd ditto going to a big box store to see what happens.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:22 AM on March 24, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks, this is helpful. I selected Armstrong sheet linoleum. It's an old apartment (pre-earthquake) and the kitchen is irregularly shaped -- sort of a rectangle with lots of Tetris going on. I think it may be that the company does not do a lot of small jobs. I think their main clients are apartment management companies. It took forever for me to get the estimate out of them -- it may be that they don't want the work or they don't usually price for this type of job. I would still love for any locals to suggest a particular company for a competing quote.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 6:41 AM on March 24, 2015

Vinyl sheet flooring is sold in cuts off a 6' or 12' roll, not by the square foot. It probably needs extra material to make sure the pattern match, Lots of small angles means lots of small cuts. Taking a s/f measure to a store will be useless--you need a diagram.

It's been a few years since I've sold flooring but your prices don't seem particularly out of line, especially if they are providing underlayment and/or removing an existing floor.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 8:44 AM on March 24, 2015

Best answer: I had about 200 sqft of commercial-grade Marmoleum installed in my 1917 SF craftsman by John Frick of Frick Flooring less than a year ago. He did a spectacular job, for a slightly better price than any of the flooring stores offered. (IIRC, it was about $3000 all together, $1250 of which was materials - vinyl, glue, underlay wood, etc.) He removed some horrible old shag, dealt with some subfloor imperfections, and installed a new threshold/transition in the doorway that almost exactly matches the 95 year old hardwood on the other side.

The new vinyl + old baseboards and threshold look period-correct, except that the floor is too nice to be 100 year old linoleum. There's some artistry involved in pulling that off.

Great guy to work with, incredibly clean and considerate, very respectful of old houses and their trimmings and details, and the final result looks better than anything I've seen elsewhere. I recommend him without any reservation.

Give him a call: 510-758-2122 or [e-mail].
posted by toxic at 11:44 AM on March 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I got a quote from a person recommended here. This person, seemingly sincere and and focused, spent time analyzing and measuring, and coming up with a bid. Without knowing I had a quote already, he gave a quote that was almost identical. Shrug, and lino installed. Moving on.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:07 PM on June 1, 2015