the Price of Floor Repair and Refinishing

Refinish hardwood floors in a Victorian house. There were four rooms (bedroom, living room, dining room, office) as well as a fifty foot hallway. There was also some minor repairs to the floor at the top of the stairs where a board had been worn away. The floors were in very bad shape, with a lot of dirt ground in, and random dents, gouges and scrapes. The floor service we selected did mechanical sanding of the floors, and then applied three coats of polyurethane. General dust cleanup was included in the service, and this was done on a vacant house before we moved in.

The floors looked amazing. The sanding removed all the damaged wood to expose new wood underneath, and rather than being scuffed and scraped, they were shiny and new. The polyurethane finish created a nice, medium glossy finish. The refinisher warned us that the wood would look a little pale and we should give it time to yellow. At first it was alarming how pale it looked, but the wood ambered to a nice yellow finish within a month or so. Dust removal was pretty good, but we needed to follow up with a really thorough vacuuming to get the dust out of every crack.

If you're moving into a house with hardwood floors, get them refinished before you move the furniture and everything in. It will save you money and a lot of aggravation, as you won't have to move everything around. Also, the initial color of the floors will definitely yellow, so don't get freaked out if they initially look a lot paler than you want.