Can you have your flooring installed during the construction process when the builder would of had his flooring installed?

I don't think the builder can do that legally. Ck with local city building inspectors to see if the house can close without flooring. IMO....I think the GC is just trying to make as much profit as possible. They do charge outrageous prices for 'any' kind of upgrade.

Two to Three times. Prove that please.

If your going to do that do not have them tile. The demo will be costly and its a mess! Have them lay sheet vynl or something cheap and easy to peal up

We thought about doing this. Our builder installs a brand of engineered hardwood that has a lot of bad reviews. Our initial plan was to take whatever came with the house and then pull it up and replace with solid hardwood. Then we realized we would probably have problems with clearance of dishwasher, slide-in range, and doors because of the difference in thickness. We spent a lot of time researching better brands of engineered hardwood and bamboo flooring so that we could avoid that problem. Ultimately our builder agreed to install solid hardwood for us. We are paying more than we should for a hardwood that would not be our top pick, but we feel that that the trade-off is worth avoiding the headaches replacing the floor would cause. I'd love to do a custom build to have more control over our choices, but that is not in our budget in this location.

Two to Three times. Prove that please.
Not so unbelievable.

We've done something similar, it was agreed with the contractors. But closing on the house wasn't an issue, it was an extension, and exterior area at that.

But less expensive, not just to do the flooring separately, but to have your builder do it and then redo it? That seems less likely to be a significant difference.

Only do it though, if you have the knowledge and experience to oversee it properly. If you don't, it's not as easy as it sounds. Pay the pros to do a decent job.
And if it won't cause unnecessary strain on your relationship with the builder.

When we had our house built, we had the same issue..cost was at least double. Since they didn't allow us to have the floor installed by someone else, we let them install the cheapest carpet in the entire house and after we moved in, we had wood floor installed. It took 4 days to have the floor installed in the entire house. We also were able to pick what we liked (the builder did not even offer the options we wanted).

What is the price per square foot price of the bulder's flooring, all in. and installed.? You know how many square feet you have ......you have the plan.

We did a combo of what others here have suggested.... We got the basic/included flooring in places that were easy to upgrade later. Foyer, kitchen/dining, laundry, and baths got the upgraded tile (within reason; we kept to a strict budget), but the parlor, living, playroom, and bedrooms all got the cheap carpet.

I thought I'd have to live with the carpet for about 2 years, because I wanted to get full use out of it, but after 2 months (despite vacuuming 4-5 days a week, often 2-4 times a day), it started to show serious wear, and now at 8 months old, I'm ready to rip it all out because it's really really really awful. (We are a family of 8 in 2000 sqft, so *all* areas of the house are "high traffic," lol.)

:-D

If this is a tract home then yes I believe that the cost would be 2-3x higher as that is where the tract builders make their money or at least where they charge more as when they deviate from their formula it also costs them more than the standard where bulk pricing comes in etc.

To do this shouldn't be a big deal, but I would select flooring materials that are the easiest to remove such as carpet and any floating flooring product. Vinyl is probably the next up in ease of removal but cheaper than floating floors. Can you downgrade from using the standard tile (assuming tile is standard) to vinyl without a charge?

Make sure your appliances have adjustable feet to be able to handle height differences in flooring - most do except fridges so make sure you have enough clearance to the cabinet above to be able to choose a different floor thickness.

Jan, ha! Would you like to see my actual quotes? The most recent one we got was less than HALF what our design center quoted us. Not sure what I'd gain by lying about this - hilarious.

Thanks everyone! We've gotten a few quotes back and I'm still shocked at the price difference. I'm not entirely sure why our builder's flooring mark up is so remarkably high (a lot of others building in our neighborhood are choosing this same option). After doing extensive research this week, I found a reputable reference from a designer/contractor friend of mine. This company will demo, and install the SAME floor we picked out at the design center for less than half. They've done some really great work that we've checked into so we are so relieved! It's been a bit of a stressful process finding them but we are so happy to save nearly $20K! We plan on having the builder do the tile in the bathrooms and laundry. This quote isn't nearly as high as the Armstrong Laminate we need about 2000 square feet of. Thanks for your help! You've give me a lot of great things to think about. :) Glad there are others in the same boat.

Thanks, Diane. I wish we weren't required to close with floors, but it's a must for the builder. I love your idea and wish we could implement it! Their "standard" is tile and carpet.

Carey, ck with the local inspection dept. It probably isn't required. The GC is trying to take advantage of you to increase their profit. IMO, don't let them do this!

I installed flooring after closing on new construction about 15 years ago. The bank held back money to cover the flooring costs. Once the floor was installed, the bank paid the flooring installation company directly.