New hardwood floors can really improve the look of your home and help to increase its value. Getting the floors installed however can be a pretty major expense, so you should know how to estimate what it is going to cost to get new floors installed. This is not all that complicated, you simply have to add the material costs to the cost of labor to have the floors installed.
The biggest factor that goes into the cost of installing new hardwood floors is the type of wood that is being used for the installation. There can be a huge variation in cost from one type of wood to another. The more common woods are obviously the cheapest while the more exotic ones will be the most expensive. In large part the type of wood that you use is going to come down to a matter of personal taste. If you want one of the more exotic woods and are willing to pay for them they can really add to the appearance of the room.
The other big factor when it comes to the cost of hardwood floors is the quality of the material that you are using. In general the quality of the material will be determined by how many knots there are in each piece and how long each piece is. In most cases you will get what you pay for so it is better to go with the best quality hardwood flooring that you can afford. The width of planks will also be a factor in the material costs however the more expensive wider planks can also be installed faster so you will save some money there.
The other big factor when it comes to installing new hardwood floors is the labor costs. Obviously you can save a great deal of money here if you do it yourself. That being said if you don't have the skills to install the floor properly you are probably going to end up spending more on material costs as you need extra material to fix your mistakes. In most cases hardwood floors can go in pretty quickly so the labor costs should be fairly reasonable. Nevertheless it is still a good idea to shop around to make sure that you are getting the best price.
One thing that can significantly increase your labor costs is if the crew doing the installation has to tear out the old floor. In a lot of cases this will take longer than it does to install the new floor so this can really add to the cost of your floor. This is one area where the homeowner can really save themselves some money. It really doesn't take a lot of skill to tear out the old floor so it is an excellent do it yourself project for the homeowner.