Tile install in my market has doubled and $10 is about right. That is in American dollars in a much cheaper area than near Toronto.

Hardwood is so much cheaper to install.

$4 sq/ft tile install rate here. Large tiles >= 24x24 can get a little cheaper. Removal another story, good $$. Hardwood installation depends on details: glue on vs nail vs float; and the underlayment... Canada prices of course could be very different

Michelle D , hardwood is ranging $4-$7 for installation and finishing on site in most markets. Material is extra on top of that cost. Acacia is not an expensive flooring material.

If you go with a large format tile, make sure the installer is experienced enough to understand how to minimize lippage. Large tile covers the floorquickly but is less forgiving of imperfections/swales/humps in the concrete floor underneath. Sometimes they use a thin layer of self leveling concrete to make sure you have a truly level surface.

Bruce

Thats very good advice! There is another thread on here where the installer was not savvy on how to install larger tiles. Lots of issues.

Agreed! You wont end up having to rip everything out and start again either.

Jump on it. $15.80 CA, material and install is a bargain.

It's worth paying a bit more for someone that uses a lippage tuning system on large format tiles. The difference will show in the final product. Doesn't hurt to ask.

My tilers used T-Lock on all tiles and it turned out amazing, worth paying the extra $. Used on all floors and walls for 12x24 and 24x24 satin and polished tiles. search my posts for my finished pics. We are still not done with tiling. Use Pros if you need a job done right.

Below is pic when our foyer was being done using 24x24 tiles; don't skimp on this step

One in our master bath where we used 12x24 tiles. Similar work all over the house.

And laundry

You originally had been quoted for hardwood (engineered Acacia at $8.90sf installed).

From whom did you get the quote?

Now you have decided to go with a reasonably priced porcelain but your builder

doesn't provide transparency around the price of it?

Your post, asking the opinions of virtual strangers, seems to address more the question of whether you trust your builder. Not good.

Clients are often surprised at the difference from wood to tile. I encourage clients to have me price it the way they want it before we get into contract to eliminate surprises.

Tile has several installation steps unnecessary with wood.

Tile over a wood subfloor on the first level or all second story installations requires a substrate unless they have a poured concrete floor already. The numbers are big but also the time on job will extend. My last two changes were 1000-2000 sf of tile originally figured in prefinished wood. Added over a week of time.

For a super hot Canadian housing market (Vancouver and Toronto have the SAME HIGH COST of install) this is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL. I used to tell people the LABOUR costs for tile should run $10 - $12/sf. And that may or MAY NOT include the materials. That can be JUST LABOUR.

Your quote is 100% accurate. What you want to clarify is whether or not this includes SUBFLOOR PREP. The quote for hardwood will NOT include prep. I'm almost certain of it.

Hate to jump into an older thread, but I just ran into similar situation. My contractor was not transparent, my initial estimate was 50% of what the sub contractors bid came in at. I am looking at $27/sqft install and material for tile of around 400sqft with 6 stairs (50% of tile is over cement floor that is NOT a slab). All floor prep and demo/removal is not included in price (already done). Picking different tile brings my price to 25$ and opting to cement board vs ditraXL cuts another 2$/sqft so that would be 23$/sqft

So now I am rethinking wood, which is approximately $13/sqft installed

Midwest-seems unreasonably high.

Ahhhh....Location location location. It is all part of the price process. A $13/sf wood install is a good deal...just make sure the subfloor prep is included. You state you have both wood and cement (above grade). That complicates things.

When looking at subfloor prep in an expensive area (Midwest = FAAAAAR away from cheap human labour like Texas and California). I always suggest $2-$4/sf 'budget' for subfloor prep regardless of wood or tile.

Wood cost more to PURCHASE ($10/sf is common) whereas the INSTALLATION labour is much lower ($3/sf is common). The subfloor prep will add to that cost.

Installing over two different substrates means you need glue down install OR floating floor install (now you are working with engineered hardwood).

Sigh...this is why carpet and laminate are so common.

Contractor has taken care of subfloor so it is not included in tilers quote.

If you go with tile then I recommend you KEEP the Ditra XL. Cement board does NOTHING to add a deflection rating. The Cement board is NOT a decoupling membrane. The decoupling membrane is required to prevent the tiles/grout from cracking or breaking.

What did your wood flooring quote include?