I often get e-mailed the question pertaining to the costs of laminate flooring. By now most people already know that laminates are less expensive than oak hardwood floors but what is the actual savings?

There is an excellent article called Laminate Floor Basics that talks about this subject in depth but what I found out is that your typical laminate will go from $3.50 a square ft all the way to $5.00 a square foot.  The typical cost for oak hardwood is $10 per sq ft on the low end to $12 a square foot on the high end.

Now according to the National Association of Home Builders the standard home in the United States is 2,000 square feet with two full bathrooms, three living rooms, a dining room, two general purpose rooms, basement, garage, and fireplace.

Now obviously you are not going to have to upgrade the floors in all parts of the house like the basement so when doing the numbers I would say that a typical house will require 1000-1400 feet of laminate flooring.

This means that for the majority of the homeowners it will take $3500 to $4,900 if you install average quality laminate in your home by yourself or $5,000 to $7,000 if you install high end laminate in your home, again, by yourself.

You save a lot if you do all the work yourself and can expect to pay a couple thousand more than the prices I just calculated if you get a contractor or someone else to do it.

It is really is not that hard to DIY but you it does help if you have some sort of construction aptitude if decide you want to install this flooring in your home yourself.

I am going to tell you that Pergo makes the easiest to install.  They make their pieces to be installed like you would a puzzle and you just wet the dry glue on them and lock them into place.

Back to the costs.  I have found that if you really look around whether locally or on the internet you can get some decent laminate for even under $3.50 a square foot.

You have to remember that we are in a recession and there are way more houses on the market than people wanting to buy them.  Remember 2003-2007 when houses were springing up all over the place.

Large chains like Home Depot and Lowes could not keep this item on their shelves just a year and a half ago.  Now they are trying to unload it as fast as they can.

I have seen some laminate going for $.99 a sq ft on some sites.  That is bone cheap and I would avoid those sites.  That seems just way bellow market value and I doubt the quality at those prices.

Nevertheless if you look around the web you can find some decent stuff for $1.59 per piece without shipping.  Some will offer free shipping so I would check.

Hope this answered those e-mails I got.  Thanks.  Remember to read the article I just wrote about the pros and cons of going with this type of material as there are indeed negative aspects of laminate that follow the many positive things.