Flooring company in Manhattan
Manhattan floors, planned around your building
Plankora Flooring Manhattan installs carpet, vinyl plank, tile, laminate and hardwood in co-ops, condos, walk-ups and townhouses, and works through the board paperwork, the service elevator and the hours your building sets.
- 5Boroughs covered
- 7Floor services
Why Plankora in Manhattan
In Manhattan, the floor is half the job
A Manhattan floor job is as much about the building as the room. Before anything is installed there is usually an alteration agreement to sign, an insurance certificate to send the managing agent, a service elevator to book and a window of hours when noise is allowed. We handle that side of the job with you, so the day we arrive the building already knows we are coming.
Inside the apartment, the floor underneath is often older than anyone living in the building. Prewar co-ops have parquet or strip oak over wood subfloors, postwar buildings have concrete slabs, and townhouses have a century of patches. We look at what is there before we price what goes on top.
- We prepare the certificate of insurance your building asks for
- We book around the service elevator and the building hours
- We protect the lobby, the elevator and the hallway
- We carry everything out at the end of each day
We read what your building sent you, from the alteration agreement to the house rules on floor covering, and prepare the insurance certificate the managing agent needs. Where the building wants to approve the materials first, we send what it asks for.
On the day, we protect the route from the lobby to your door, take up the old floor and check the base. Prewar floors often need leveling, and a slab may need a moisture check before anything goes over it.
We lay the carpet, planks or tile inside the hours the building allows, fit the thresholds, and leave the hallway as we found it. Then we walk the floor with you before we go.
What we do in Manhattan
Floors for Manhattan apartments
Carpet is what most Manhattan calls are about. Every other floor we install is here too.
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Carpet in Manhattan
Wall-to-wall carpet that meets your lease and keeps the neighbors below happy.
See carpet in manhattan
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Luxury vinyl plank
A water-tolerant wood look for kitchens and baths on concrete or wood.
See luxury vinyl plank
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Floor tile
Porcelain and ceramic for bathrooms and kitchens, on a flat, stiff base.
See floor tile
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Laminate floors
A hard-wearing wood look for dry living rooms and bedrooms.
See laminate floors
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Hardwood floors
Engineered and solid wood chosen for the building it goes into.
See hardwood floors
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Floor restoration
Prewar parquet and oak brought back rather than covered.
See floor restoration
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Wood floor repair
Leaks from upstairs, cupped boards and gaps, repaired to blend in.
See wood floor repair
Manhattan buildings
The rules your floor has to meet
Most Manhattan co-ops and many condos ask for an alteration agreement before a floor job starts, and many ask the contractor for a certificate of insurance naming the building and the managing agent. Buildings set their own work hours inside the city limit of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and those hours are often shorter.
Many co-op proprietary leases, and many apartment leases, also say how much of each room must be covered with carpet or rugs. The figure used most often is 80 percent, with kitchens, bathrooms and halls left out. It is a building rule, not a city law, and it exists because sound travels.
If you want a hard floor in a bedroom or living room, read that clause first or ask your managing agent. We will help you choose a floor, and the underlayment under it, that your building will accept.
City construction hours on weekdays
For every floor we lay
Boroughs we work in
Floor services, one call
Board approval coming up? Start with a visit.
Call or send the room sizes and what your building sent you, and we will plan the job around it.
Choose by building
What suits your Manhattan apartment?
The building decides a lot about the floor. Start with where you live.
Prewar co-op
Parquet underneath, a covering clause on top
Prewar apartments often have parquet or oak worth saving, and a lease that asks for most of each room to be covered. Restored wood with rugs can meet it, and carpet settles it outright in a bedroom.
Postwar or new condo
A slab and a sound rule
Buildings on concrete slabs suit floating or glued floors, and many condos set the sound rating a floor and its underlayment must reach. We choose the underlayment to meet it.
Walk-up
Stairs, old joists and no elevator
Walk-ups mean carrying everything up by hand and floors that have settled over a century. Light, quiet floors suit them best, and hall stairs often want a runner.
Townhouse
Several floors, several jobs
A townhouse is often wood on the parlor floor, carpet upstairs and tile in the kitchen and baths. We plan them as one job with one schedule.
How it works
From the first call to a finished floor
Tell us about the apartment
Which rooms, roughly how big, what is down now, and what your building has sent you about floor work.
Visit and paperwork
We measure and check the base, and prepare what the building needs from us.
A date the building accepts
You get one estimate and a start date inside your building's hours and elevator schedule.
Installed and handed back
We lay the floor, clean the hallway and walk the finished rooms with you.
Across Manhattan
Floors from downtown to uptown
Manhattan changes from one neighborhood to the next, and so does the floor job.
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01
The Village and SoHo
Old row houses and converted lofts, from the townhouses near Charlton Street to cast-iron buildings with wide open floors.
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Chelsea, Midtown and Murray Hill
Postwar and new condo towers on concrete slabs, with strict rules on underlayment and work hours.
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03
Upper West Side and Upper East Side
Large prewar co-ops with parquet and oak, board approvals and covering clauses.
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04
Harlem and Washington Heights
Brownstones, walk-ups and prewar apartment buildings with original floors under later layers.
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05
Lower East Side and the Financial District
Tenement walk-ups on one side and new condos on the other, each with its own kind of job.
Beyond Manhattan
Plankora in the other boroughs
Manhattan is where this site works. Plankora Flooring covers the rest of New York City too.
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01
Manhattan
Every neighborhood from the Battery to Inwood, served from this site.
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02
Brooklyn
Brownstones, two-family houses and new condos across the borough.
Plankora Flooring Brooklyn -
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Queens
Attached houses, co-op complexes and family homes with basements.
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Bronx
Prewar apartments, row houses and two-family homes.
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Staten Island
Detached houses with stairs, basements and open living floors.
Questions
Manhattan floor questions
How much does a new floor cost in a Manhattan apartment?
It depends on the floor, the rooms and what is underneath, and in Manhattan also on access: a walk-up, a small service elevator or short building hours all add time. We measure and check the base first, then give you one estimate for the whole job.
Does my building need an alteration agreement for a new floor?
Many Manhattan co-ops and condos ask for one, along with a certificate of insurance from the contractor. Some use a shorter form for flooring. Ask your managing agent what your building needs, and we will prepare our part before we book a date.
Can I put a hard floor in my bedroom if my lease has a covering rule?
Often yes, with rugs that cover the share of the floor the rule asks for. Wall-to-wall carpet meets it outright. Read the clause in your lease or house rules first, or ask your managing agent.
What hours can you work in my building?
Inside the hours your building sets, which are often shorter than the city limit of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. We plan the noisy work for the start of the window and keep the rest quiet.