hardwood floor refinishing

[alf17]

Can anyone tell me how much it costs to refinish hardwood floors per square foot?

[lessel]

Note that these are 2019 pre-pandemic prices, but we had a water leak that damaged some of the kitchen floor. He had to rip some wood out, put down new wood with the existing, and then refinished the larger area to blend it all together. Looking at the quote, this is what it said about the refinishing portion of the job:

Sand, stain and 3 coats polyurethane.
$300.00
Kitchen 220 square feet.

[definitelyO]

My quote for next month is $6/sqft   (……… so about 6x as much as lessel, eek!)

broken out:
$4/sqft for sanding and 2 coats of polyurethane
$1/sqft for stain
$1/sqft for extra top coat due to dogs and humans who wear shoes in the house.

[libbygrl109]

Our project involved removing 3 layers of flooring and laying about 100 sq. ft of red oak, sanding and 2 coats of water-based poly on about 500 sq ft - $4300. This was the lowest of the estimates we got.

[Wallflower]

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

[icedcoffee]

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

I'm wondering this too.  Because our first floor has all the same flooring we will need to do the whole first floor all at once.  It sounds so daunting.  WTF would everything even go!?!

[wildrice]

May 5, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

I'm wondering this too.  Because our first floor has all the same flooring we will need to do the whole first floor all at once.  It sounds so daunting.  WTF would everything even go!?!

Agreed. Well, we don't have the same flooring in the whole space, but the space that is tile is our kitchen and there is no way our living room furniture would fit in there. I really don't want to drag things up and down stairs.

I assume we'd have to move it, though.


The more daunting part IMO is that I think you can't be in the house for a couple of days? We would have nowhere to go. I am thinking we might be able to get by staying in our basement (there is a full bathroom down there and it opens to the backyard) but it's not exactly ideal.

[icedcoffee]

May 5, 2022 12:16:34 GMT -5 wildrice said:

May 5, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I'm wondering this too.  Because our first floor has all the same flooring we will need to do the whole first floor all at once.  It sounds so daunting.  WTF would everything even go!?!

Agreed. Well, we don't have the same flooring in the whole space, but the space that is tile is our kitchen and there is no way our living room furniture would fit in there. I really don't want to drag things up and down stairs.

I assume we'd have to move it, though.


The more daunting part IMO is that I think you can't be in the house for a couple of days? We would have nowhere to go. I am thinking we might be able to get by staying in our basement (there is a full bathroom down there and it opens to the backyard) but it's not exactly ideal.

Yeah we could probably stay in our basement, but I'm assuming they do it in sections and just move furniture from one side of the house to the other, but that means your first floor could be inaccessible for quite a while. 

And this is why we have stuck with chipped tile in the kitchen and really scratched hardwoods.  Ha.

[orval]

May 5, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

I'm wondering this too.  Because our first floor has all the same flooring we will need to do the whole first floor all at once.  It sounds so daunting.  WTF would everything even go!?!

We got new carpeting last year and really needed it about 8 years ago because of moving everything.  I don't know about hardwood refinishing but
The installers moved large furniture from room to room as they went -- 4 rooms upstair with landing, hallway.  We did have to empty our closets and pack crap like we were moving.  It sucked but we finally did it!  We were proud of ourselves.  
We piled closet stuff in the bathrooms and any small pieces from dresser tops etc.  Filled our tub with shoes!  

[libbygrl109]

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

The first we had ours done was before we moved in - nothing in yet to worry about. This time, we had to have everything cleared out before they started.

[af1212]

May 5, 2022 11:49:36 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

I'm wondering this too.  Because our first floor has all the same flooring we will need to do the whole first floor all at once.  It sounds so daunting.  WTF would everything even go!?!

We had our entire house done in 2008 so I’m not helpful with pricing.

But they did it in stages - moved everything into dining room and did the other rooms then moved it all out and did dining room. Did all bedrooms except one and moved everything into that one and then did that one later.

We got quotes from probably 5 places and some moved the stuff themselves and some did not. My husband is very particular about our stuff so he packed and moved most things himself but the reason we chose the company we did is because they were willing to move our player piano. That thing was HEAVY!! And would make dents in the floor if you rolled it. So we obviously didn’t want to do that after refinishing them.

As for staying in the house - I really don’t think you could. The fumes are so strong.

[caddywompus]

We recently had our floors redone. Approx 2000 ft, and he had to replace a section about 4x6 due to pet damage. He stripped the floors, replaced the section, stained and then sealed the floors. Total cost was about 9K. We had to live in the basement the whole 2 weeks, and then you can’t lay down any rugs or solid bottom furniture for 3 months, while it cures, or the color could change.

[MrsDarcy]

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

I’m a sales rep for a flooring company. For a full sand and finish, you have to move everything, including appliances off the floors. The whole process takes 3-5 days. You can’t be in the house unless you have a shut off area. We usually have the homeowner arrange the moving, but we can hire someone to do it.

[MrsDarcy]

I’m a sales rep for a flooring company. Including commission, but not tax, I would charge around $2/sf for a sand and finish job. This includes 2 coats of poly. This does not include moving furniture or replacing shoe molding/quarter round.

Our guys want all furniture and appliances moved out for the whole time. Most people move it all into a garage or rent a pod. We do not go room by room because it’s better to apply the stain in all one go so it’s even.

[alf17]

May 5, 2022 7:12:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

This is something on my list, so I'm commenting in part just to follow but I also have a question - do the folks doing the refinishing work move your furniture or are you responsible for clearing the room before they arrive?

Some companies charge to move the furniture. We use to move our own, but are getting older and we either pay or they will move the big stuff for us. This is an insurance claim for us, so they will be moving most everything.  I will pack some breakables and my china and move it.

[alf17]

Thanks everyone. Ours is mostly an insurance claim. We came home from vacation and our dishwasher leaked and buckled the floor in our kitchen. There was not enough wood left to sand down, so they have to rip up the floors in our kitchen, foyer and dining room. That was the original floor when we built the house 33 years ago. In the last few years we added wood to our family room and living room. It never really matched perfectly, so we are paying them to sand down and stain those rooms to match. I think they are charging too much for that, but we don't have much of a choice. We know they will do a good job.

[definitelyO]

We will move our furniture -
for us it's just a living room and dining room

we're selling our DR table so will just have couch/loveseat, chair, rugs, coffee table, etc... and we'll move to the garage and we have a great room in the basement we'll hang out in.