What to know before you refinish
Refinish, recoat or replace?
A refinish is the right call when the damage goes through the finish and into the wood: scratches you can feel, gray boards, stains, or a color you want gone. If the floor is only dull, a buff and recoat is quicker and costs less. If the boards are too thin to sand again or badly water damaged, replacing them is the honest answer.
Most floors we look at can be saved. Solid hardwood is thick enough to be sanded several times over its life, and many homes around here have original oak or maple that has only been sanded once or twice. We’ll tell you at the estimate if a board or two needs replacing.
Choosing a color and a sheen
Sanding takes the floor back to raw wood, so you’re not stuck with the old color. You can keep it natural, go lighter than the old orange finish, or go dark. Oak takes stain evenly. Maple and some other woods are harder to stain evenly, so we’ll talk through what works on your species.
Sheen matters as much as color. Lower-sheen finishes hide scratches and dust better, which is why most families with kids or dogs pick them. Glossier finishes show off the grain and also show more wear.
How long it takes and living through it
Most refinishing jobs take several days from the first sanding pass to the last coat. The size of the floor, whether you’re staining and the drying time between coats all change that, so you get a schedule at the estimate.
You can’t walk on a floor while it’s being finished, so we plan the order of rooms with you. As a rule, you can walk on it in socks about a day after the final coat, furniture waits longer and rugs wait longest. We’ll give you exact timing for the finish we use on your floor.
What affects the price
The price of a refinish depends on the size of the floor, its condition and whether you add stain. Deep scratches and pet damage take more sanding. Gray, black or water-stained boards sometimes have to be replaced before the floor is refinished.
Stairs are priced separately, by the step. For a ballpark on your own floor, answer four quick questions in our instant estimate. It also shows what replacing the same floor would cost, so you can compare.
