Does this sound right? - LVT flooring

[Paintinsanity]

I've just had a local company round for a quote...

New-ish build flat so subfloor is plywood and in great condition
58 sq metres
Underfloor heating (although I forgot to mention this - have sent him an email)
Looking at tiles around the £20 / sq metre mark, definitely not Amtico level.

Ballpark figure he gave was £5k for glue down supplied and fitted, not including 'other things' like disposal of old carpet and I'm not sure what.

He said that fitting involves another layer of plywood over the subfloor (or something along those lines), and that installation would be extremely noisy as they have to use a compressor to tack stuff down. Installation would take 4-5 days apparently??

I've been googling and it seems on the pricey side? And I was surprised the subfloor would apparently need so much prep as my kitchen came with glue down Amtico which appears to have been fitted directly to the subfloor.

If you’re looking at tiles around the £20 sq mt price point and you have 58 sq mts then that’s £1160 for tiles, if he really does need to put more ply down I would think it would only be a 6mm sheet just to smooth things out, I put this down at £15 a sheet. 20 sheets needed call it £300. He will need glue, cost of getting rid of old carpet and any other cost so let’s be generous and say another £300.
That’s comes to £1760 for materials leaving £3240 for labour, divide that by his 3 to 4 days, let’s again be generous and say 4, that’s £810 a day for labour. That’s good day’s pay in anyone’s book. Ok so it’s not as cut and dry as that he does have other overheads which have to come out of that, his van, tools, insurances etc. If you looked at it another way, take the £3240 divide that into an hourly rate, so, 4 days 8.5 hours a day equals 34 hours dived into the £3420 gives a figure of £100 per hour. Again, that’s one hell of an hourly rate!!! You also mentioned under floor heating and nailing down the plywood…….Hope he doesn’t put a nail through one of the pipes.

Is it not just easier to get alternative quotes for it ?

People on here can say whatever they want, but it is whether you can actually get someone in to do the job at that price that counts.

I don't know about plywood subfloors, but I do know that you need the floor to be flat. Removing glued down flooring doesn't see like an easy job to me, either to do or to make sure the surface is in good shape for relaying afterwards.

It maybe if he has not seen your floor he has just included the plywood as a standard floor prep levelling charge.

In my experience one of the big issues of laying floors is getting a good finish round the edges. So removing the skirting, sawing off the door jambs etc. In a flat you probably have a smaller floor space, but more doorways with respect to that floorspace. So you think it is less hard but is actually just as difficult as a big house. When I did my first floor I picked the floor with the least area, because I thought it would be easiest. But it was actually the hardest work because it had the most doorways (4) in an area of less than 4m2 ! Laying stuff in the big room was far quicker as covering up area in the centre of the room was easy.

Also, is he doing stuff like beading or removing the skirting boards ?

The breakdown is really helpful, thank you. From what I've read online, if you have underfloor heating you shouldn't have an additional layer of plywood anyway as it will reduce the efficiency of the heating.

@GasPanic Is it not just easier to get alternative quotes for it ?

I'm asking because if £5k sounds about right then it's a waste of time as I can't afford it. I also have to be home for the appointment.

Removing glued down flooring doesn't see like an easy job to me, either to do or to make sure the surface is in good shape for relaying afterwards.

I should have said in the OP, they wouldn't be removing any glued down flooring. It would just be ripping up carpet which was laid when the flats were built. Current LVT is in the kitchen which is fine.

It maybe if he has not seen your floor he has just included the plywood as a standard floor prep levelling charge.

He pulled back a corner of the carpet to check the subfloor and said it all looked fine, that he didn't anticipate any problems.

Also, is he doing stuff like beading or removing the skirting boards ?

He didn't say anything about skirting boards. He did talk about beading but only in response to me asking about click. He said he doesn't recommend click as it doesn't last as long and because you have to have the beading round the edges. I don't care about either of those things as I don't intend to stay here long term, and I think the beading looks fine.

There's moths in the building and my carpet has been destroyed over the years. I treat everywhere, hoover constantly, steam the carpets regularly, but after a few months they always end up coming back because neighbours have them. It's driven me to the brink of insanity. Pest control say there's no point treating as they're getting under the carpets, and even if it were effective they say they'll just find their way back in. They advised hard floors as the bastards can also eat synthetic carpet, especially when there's pet fur around.

Beading is absolutely horrible. Why spend all that money for a sub standard job. Honestly - getting this floor done it a big job. To get a decent finish, it Kent be cheap. I would take up all ply and start again. New ply, new floor and skirting boards.,

We’ve just had quotes for the same. Looking at lower to mid range LVT (£30sqm) with plying and feathering/screeding and laying in herringbone pattern (slightly more time consuming) we have prices for supply & fit from £75-98 per square meter.

so id say for 58sqm that seems average.

this is in NW by the way. The expense of laying can be far higher than the product itself.

as for the boarding, i believe it needs to be a certain thickness and quality to withstand the feathering or screed without blowing with moisture.