Savvy shopper bags £290 wood flooring for £70 and this is how
- Ellen Humphries, 56, bagged her wood flooring for £70
- The trick is to ask for opened packets of wood flooring in different shades
- Ellen says as long as it’s from the same manufacturer they will all fit together
Buying and fitting wood flooring can be one of the priciest parts of renovating your home.
But one genius bargain-hunter has revealed a clever way to bag wood flooring on the cheap.
Ellen Humphries, 56, a retired mum-of-one from Glasgow, shared her top tips with Facebook community Latest Deals, Extreme Couponing & Bargains Group, where she got over 3,000 likes and 450 comments praising her bargain-hunting.
Ellen revealed that she wanted to redo her dining room and kitchen floors, but buying new packets of wood in one shade would have cost £290.
However, Ellen asked the shop’s manager if they had open packets in the back that she could choose from, and ended up bagging 18 square metres of wood flooring for just £70.
Ellen told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "I need to find as much as I can on sale or come up with ways to afford what I want and need.
"To buy this floor from any walk-in shop would have been £290. I didn't have this. So, I was thinking outside the box.
"I wondered if the shop had any open packets as scratch and dent is a speciality for me. I realised the shop would not have enough of the same colour so I thought I would ask for different shades of the same wood.
“I told my family and friends but they didn't think it was a good idea.
“I then had a word with the joiner that was going to fit it. He just said, ‘It's vital that it is all the same manufacturer as the click system would need to be the same’.
"Off I went to the local shop. I didn't think a big company would do this. I asked the manager could I have a look in his stock room. We found more than I needed in pallets that were open or broken, so we made up 18 square metres.
"I told the joiner to make sure he picked up a different board from the one before and use all the cutoffs too. I even had enough left to do the risers on my stairs too!”
Ellen says the most important thing is to make sure you buy from the same manufacturers so all the bits of wood fit together.
“Go around different shops asking about broken packets, but they must be the same manufacturers,” she advises. "Think outside the box and ask for older stock. And remember, free samples of carpet can do smaller spaces! I haven't done it but you can also carpet your stairs with free carpet samples.”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, says: “Wooden flooring is a luxurious part of any home, but finding the wood can be an expensive process. Ellen’s tips are fantastic: all you need to do is find a friendly manager who will let you rummage in the back room of the shop and you can install wood flooring in your house for a fraction of the cost!"
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