Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale has more different kinds of house per square mile than anywhere else we work. A 1950s ranch off Bayview and a 2019 tower unit in Flagler Village are not the same job, and we do not quote them like they are.
Four boxes. We call you back to set a time.
The midcentury houses
Pull the carpet in a Fort Lauderdale ranch built between about 1955 and 1970 and you will often find terrazzo underneath. Coral Ridge, Imperial Point, Lauderdale Isles and the streets around Poinciana Park are full of it, and it is the first thing the person who comes out looks for.
Terrazzo changes the conversation in a good way. It was poured, it is dead flat, and it is bonded to the slab, which makes it close to an ideal substrate. In decent shape, vinyl plank or tile can often go straight over it with minimal prep, which saves a demolition day. Some homeowners decide they would rather polish the terrazzo and keep it, and we will tell you honestly when that is the better call for your house.
What we do check for is old adhesive, cracks that run with a settlement line, and height at the front door and the sliders. Those are the three things that turn an easy job into a longer one. A recent Fort Lauderdale install of 900 square feet, old laminate out and new plank in, ran three days for exactly that kind of reason.
Victoria Park, Sailboat Bend, Colee Hammock
The bungalows east of Federal in Victoria Park, Sailboat Bend and Colee Hammock are the oldest housing stock we work in, and they are the ones where measuring matters most. Rooms are not square. Door openings are narrower than modern standard. Baseboards are original and worth saving. There are height changes between the main house and a Florida room that got enclosed in 1970.
A floating floor handles a lot of that gracefully as long as the transitions are planned, and planning them is why our estimator laser-measures in person rather than working off a listing. A guessed square footage on a bungalow with six doorways and a bay is going to be wrong.
Plenty of these homes go hardwood, because the architecture supports it and the owners want it. In this climate that means engineered construction and a moisture-tested slab, not solid boards.
Flagler Village, Las Olas, the beach
Fort Lauderdale added a lot of vertical housing over the last fifteen years, from Flagler Village and downtown up along the beach. Just about every one of those buildings has a flooring policy, and above the ground floor it nearly always involves sound.
Expect a required acoustic underlayment with a minimum IIC or STC rating written into the building rules, which is simply the score for how much footfall noise your floor passes down to the unit below, and expect the association to want the product spec before work starts. Older beachfront buildings tend to be the strictest, and several restrict work to certain hours and require the service elevator to be reserved. Get us the building flooring document at the estimate. We will quote to that spec and plan install day around their hours rather than discovering them at 7 a.m.
Tile in particular gets scrutinized, because it transmits impact noise straight down. Our tile page covers the membranes and uncoupling mats we use for that.
Why a lot of these jobs exist
A meaningful share of the Fort Lauderdale floors we replace are going in because water got into the old ones. Neighborhoods east of Federal sit low, the stormwater system gets overwhelmed in a serious rain event, and the older housing has plumbing to match its age.
That is the practical reason waterproof rigid-core vinyl has taken over here. It will not stop water coming in, but it does not swell, delaminate, or grow anything the way carpet, laminate, or an engineered floor with a fiberboard core will. When it does get soaked, it usually dries and stays.
If you are replacing a floor after a water event, tell us at booking. The scope is different when there has been standing water, and the slab may need drying and testing before anything goes down.
Also nearby
We are up and down the coast constantly, including Pompano Beach to the north and Miami to the south, plus Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Plantation and Davie. Here is the full service area.
Book the visit
Free in-home visit anywhere in the city, houses and condos both. We measure and give you the price in one appointment. Projects 400 square feet and up.
Contact us
Four boxes, or one phone call. Someone from our team comes to the house, walks the rooms with you, and gives you the price standing in the room.
We call you back to set a time.
