Missouri flooring guides

What these guides cover

Four questions come up on nearly every flooring job in Missouri, and the guides here work through them one at a time.

• What does it actually cost, and which half of that moves? Material is a national commodity — a box of the same product costs about the same in St. Joseph as in Kansas City. Labor is not. The Kansas City and St. Louis metros run the tightest construction labor markets in the state, so the jobs that are mostly labor — tile, stone, stairs — vary across Missouri far more than a material-heavy job does.
• Is the floor already there worth saving? Sanding and finishing a sound floor costs roughly a third of laying a new one, and a screen and recoat is a fraction of that again with no wood removed. Whether it is even an option comes down to when the house was built.
• What is missing from the quote? Four lines decide the final bill and most quotes omit them: the per-sheet rate for replacing damaged subfloor decking, the cut-and-waste allowance, removal and disposal of the old floor, and transitions and thresholds.
• Where should a tight budget go? Into preparation, before surface. A mid-range floor over a flat, dry, solid deck outlasts a premium one laid over a bad deck — and the preparation is invisible the day the job is finished.

Nothing here is a quote, nobody from this site will call you, and there is no email gate on anything. If you want a number now, the cost estimator runs in the page and shows its arithmetic.