I work in one of the six metro areas that has exclusively 5/16" x 2" square edge, and it's top-nailed. So our repairs are easy if we have to lace into an existing floor. T&G is used in new housing, but it's very rare in older houses in the nine-county area.

I've got a T&G lace-in estimate coming up. I've maybe done four of them in 35 years, so it's not like I deal with this very much. I'm aware that most of the rest of the you do T&G repairs all the time. Does any one have a formula price for lace-ins--so much per square foot on the labor?

If I have about 35-40 lines of lacing it would take from me and one more guy about 5-6 hours for prep-work and about one extra day to install. So I calculate from the time I'm going to spend for it. So it's like twice more price from your regular installation I would say. There is no formula for it. You just have to remember that it's going to be at least 2 times longer than you would do a regular installation.

Thanks for the reply. Right now that's how I calculate it, is figuring out how much time it's going to take me, and coming up with a price based on that.

I'm realizing that I don't end up doing that many lace-ins on the top-nailed flooring, either. I price regular repairs on 5/16ths at roughly $15 per square foot labor, and that formula gets me in the ballpark of what a repair is going to cost. Then I fine-tune it. But for a lace-in on that same flooring, it's going to be more per square foot than the regular rate. Even with top-nail, it takes more time to lace-in.

Yes, with lacing it's hard to say what would it take from you. sometimes I think, oh, it's going to be easy, 10 lines - come on! and then as soon as I pull out all boards from the existing floor it gets too tight to put new boards in, just because it's rainy day outside and humid is high, or the new material has different t&g level, and then it becomes a nightmare.... So, good luck with your lacing! I wish you a good dry weather while you do it (it's important)

Roman K.

Typically we charge $20 per board up to 3ft long for lacing in or doing any patching.

It helps to have these kinds of price guides. I want to get away from having to re-think through all the steps each time I have to bid something like this. I recently revised all my install and refinishing prices. It had been some time since I'd done it, and I was having to mentally adjust for changes every time I did a bid.

If it's 2.25" oak, I charge $18 per linear foot in addition to what the installation is plus one extra foot past the beginning lime to allow for average removal. I did two this past week. Usually 6'-8' per hour is the amount I can get prepped for install.