I work for a Hardwood flooring company in the Boston area. We are very successful offer dustless floor sanding with the Bona-Kemi,and have won best of Boston a couple times.I'm strictly an installer and all the sanders are strictly sanders.My boss (the company owner) will put one installer in a 5 million dollar home to install 3,000 sq. ft. ( if there is no time frame). We as installers get paid by the sq. ft. not hourly though we are not subs, we only work for him. Certain jobs that require hourly work, we get $28 an hour, But it needs to be agreed it is hourly, you cant expect a hallway to be hourly because it takes longer. We as installers at least drop 1,000 sq. ft. on a five day week. If we work saturday it is still the straight footage price, we are not forced its our choice usually if we need the money. Most all of our jobs we cut tight to base. It is not uncommon to not even hear from or see the boss during that 2 1/2 week install at the 5 million dollar house. He has a lot of trust in us and all his installers have pretty much came across everything there is on an install.

I ask this because at other jobs I've seen 3 installers doing a kitchen and a foyer being overseen by the boss. Putting filler strips in the foyer/kitchen cased opening(unacceptable in my opinion). My question is Are we just more advanced installers or the other company just does things differently? I think you only know what you are used to doing. I have had an installer say to me "you're kidding me" when I tell him I did a 5,000 sq. ft. job myself. Actually it was 5,600 and took me 28 days, with all flush mount vents. He said he would be overwhelmed. An average job which is very common would be a 1200 footer or 1000 and the GC says "just you?" Tell me your thoughts please.

I'm a flooring installer in canada. I have been in the same situation. As far as I know its still sub contracting. In Canada its depends on who pays your income taxes and WSIB (Worker Safety Board). Ask your boss if you can train a friend. Hire a young guy and pay him $10 an hour yourself. If your on an hourly job tell your boss its only going to cost him $18. Your saving him money, and jobs will get done faster.

I think it's great if you can get away with it, time frame wise. Lots of people do not understand how long a job can take with one guy or they have a deadline. I work alone but when an employee was forced to work with a helper and train them. I hated training helpers.