How to Comparison Price Shop for Flooring
Buying flooring is a big decision. It’s hard to get familiar with the wide variety of options because you only buy flooring about once every decade. The dollar amounts involved can seem scary, and it’s hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison between flooring companies. Unfortunately, some flooring companies deliberately make it difficult to make those comparisons.
You might walk into two similar flooring stores, one here in Indianapolis and another across town, and find the exact same product with an entirely different name and a jaw-dropping difference in price. Why is it so convoluted? Some flooring companies and manufacturers use what is known as private labeling. For instance, maybe Dealer A calls that hardwood type Oak Melody and sells it for $5 a square foot, while Dealer B calls it Oak Sonata and sells it for $7 a square foot. This can even be the case when comparing from the manufacturer’s own website versus what you can find in the store. It all comes down to agreements between dealers and manufacturers, but it’s the consumer who may ultimately be at a disadvantage when it comes to comparison shopping.
How can you hope to do any kind of fair comparison? Get the exact specifications of the flooring, in as much detail as you can. For instance, when looking at carpet, you’ll want the yarn content and face weight. For hardwood, you’ll want the plank width, thickness and species. This way, when you ask the next dealer to provide you a competitive estimate, they’ll have a place to start and help you find a product that, if it isn’t exactly the same, is at least close enough for you to make an informed decision.
Some flooring companies want to pressure you into making a decision right now, before you’ve really had a chance to do your homework and know you’re getting a fair price. This should raise major warning flags for you. You need a flooring company who’s interested in making sure you get the right product at the right price.
That’s why we offer the Tish Flooring challenge. After we’ve come to you for a free, no-obligation estimate right in your home, we encourage you to shop around. Even check out the big box stores and see how we stack up. We’ll do everything we can to make that more convenient. We’re confident you’ll find the best price and the highest level of service with us. If not, we hope you still find flooring you love.
If you’re ready to try a new way of buying flooring, call Tish Flooring. We work with homeowners in Indianapolis, Carmel, Westfield and beyond to make shopping easy and affordable.
