So, you want to have your floors refinished, and you're trying to figure out how much it costs. Well, there are a lot of blog articles out there that are not written by real hardwood companies, and they're wildly off on price, usually on the cheap side. So let’s answer this question once and for all.

 
So, how much does it cost to have a pro come in and refinish your hardwood floors? To have a professional hardwood contractor come in and refinish your wood floors is going to cost between $5 to $8 per square foot. Anything below $5 per square foot is probably going to be of questionable quality. Let's get into the factors that affect the cost of having your hardwood floors refinished.

 

Factors That Affect Floor Refinishing Cost

Freshly refinished pine wood floors. Finished natural with no stain and a water based finish in Elkhart Indiana.

Species

The common American hardwoods are red and white oak, pine, maple, walnut, and hickory. There are plenty of rare species too that we don’t see as often like Brazilian cherry, ash, and Brazilian walnut. Some species are considerably more work to refinish than others, so let’s do a quick breakdown of each species.
 

Red & White Oak

The two different types of oaks are your standard American hardwoods. They are the most common in the United States. Most refinishing companies' base rate is calculated of sanding and refinishing red and white oak. Expect to pay $5 to $8 per square foot for refinishing.
 

Maple

Maple is less common inside of houses, but you see it a lot in commercial spaces like gyms and exercise rooms. It is a very dense wood and it is much harder to sand than red and white oak. Your refinisher will likely have to do one or two extra sanding passes on a maple floor. You will pay $1 to $2 per square foot more for maple refinishing.
 

Pine

Pine is a very gummy and sappy wood. It clogs up your refinisher's paper, requiring them to have to change it more frequently. They also will have to start with a lower grit of sandpaper in the beginning, which results in an extra sanding pass. You will pay $1 to $2 per square foot more for pine refinishing.
 
Newly refinished white oak church stage at Village SDA Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
 

Hickory

Similar to maple, hickory is another very dense, very hard wood. It takes a lot more effort to sand it. It will also take 1 to 2 extra sanding passes. You will pay $1 to $2 per square foot more for hickory refinishing.
 

Walnut

Walnut is a softer wood that is not very hard to sand. However, it's considered very luxurious and because of this, refinishers often take extra care to get it perfect. Expect to pay up to $1 per square foot more for walnut refinishing.
 

Exotic Woods

We run into Brazilian cherry, Brazilian walnut, and even tiger wood from time to time. These are all very red woods and often require more sanding passes and extra attention to detail to get them right. Plan to pay $1 to $2 more per square foot.
 

Rare American Hardwoods

There's also your rare American species. This includes ash, American cherry, birch, and more. These all are going to require a little bit more work to get just right. Plan to pay $1 to $2 per square foot more to have these hardwoods refinished.
 

Project Layout

If you have lots of little rooms with little closets in each of them, this creates a huge amount of detail work for your refinishing contractor. On the other hand, if you have one massive open room, the detail work is very limited. Expect to pay a premium if your space is tight and enclosed, and expect to pay a little bit less if it's wide open.
 

Project Size

This is a point that often frustrates customers. If you have a small one-room project you want refinished, it comes with a lot of inefficiencies for your contractor. They will still have to come out to your house for two to three days to sand stain and coat your floor. In that same time period, they could do a project that is four or five rooms. You are going to end up paying much higher rates per square foot for small projects. Because of this, we have a project minimum of around $2,000 at Lumberjack Hardwood Floors for any type of job that requires refinishing work. We simply will lose money on the job for any less. If the job is very large (say 3,000 square feet or larger) you may get a small break on the price because your contractor can work there for a very long time without having to change locations. It will make them more efficient allowing them to charge slightly less.
 

Finish Type (AKA Polyurethane, Varnish, Sealer)

There are lots of different options available to finish your hardwood floor with. Each comes with its own price tag and its own labor cost. Let’s look at each of these options.
 

Water-Based Finishes

These are also known as latex-based by the paint industry. There are two different grades of water-based finishes.
 

Commercial Grade Water-based Finishes

These are your top-of-the-line two-component finishes. They are the best overall option for your floor. They resist scratches, and chemicals, and wear quite well. Your most popular examples would be Bona Traffic HD and Berger Seidle Green Star. Most reputable floor companies will use a commercial-grade water-based finish. These finishes cost around $150 per gallon to purchase and are slightly harder to work with. Expect to pay $1 to $2 more per square foot for these finishes.
 

Residential Grade Water-based Finishes

This is also a water-based finish, but it's more budget-friendly and easy to work with. They also are one component, meaning you don’t add a hardener to them. They don’t resist scratches or chemicals as well as commercial-grade finishes. Common examples of this would be Bona Mega One or Berger Seidle Smart Home. Two-component commercial-grade water base, and then Bona Mega One is a single-component residential water-based finish. You generally should not be charged extra for the use of a single-component water-based finish. They are industry standard.
 

Oil-Based Finish (Classic Polyurethane)

The actual material cost of an oil-based finish is much cheaper. You are looking at $50 to $70 per gallon. However, oil-based does have its challenges. You have to buff the floor between every coat and it takes forever to dry. In many ways, it's harder to get a nice final product with oil-based. While the product may cost less, many refinishers are going to charge you just as much money to use it because of the extra time and headache that it brings.
 

Acid Cure Finishes (Swedish Finish)

This is an incredibly tough and toxic product. It also smells terrible. You're not going to find many companies willing to use it due to its toxicity. If you do find someone who agrees to use it, expect to pay a premium. We will not use this product at Lumberjack due to the health and safety risks of it.
 

Penetrating Finishes

You may hear these referred to as hard wax oil, penetrating oil, or Rubio (a popular brand). These are finishes that you buff into the floor and nothing sits on top. These require a high level of detail in the sanding process and a lot of skill to get right. You're going to pay the most for these finishes. Expect $2 to $3 per square foot extra for a penetrating finish.
 
Newly refinished red oak floors with a brown stain and water based finish, located in St. Joseph Michigan.

Stain

Stain is an optional coloring of the floor. It is completely different from the finish we went over in the previous section. Staining a floor requires a higher level of sanding quality as well as adding time and additional costs to the project. Expect to pay $1 to $3 per square foot extra to have your floors stained.
 

Trim

Most houses have baseboards or baseboards with a quarter-round at the bottom. Most refinishers are not going to take your baseboard off, and they don’t need to but expect some minor scuffing and damage to your base trim. If you have a quarter-round or shoe mold at the bottom, we do recommend having this replaced. To be clear it is optional, but the overall product will be nicer if you replace it.
 

Moving Appliances

If you have a kitchen or a washroom that has hardwood in it, you're going to have some big appliances that either are going to have to be moved or worked around. We do not recommend moving fridges or stoves generally unless you're planning on getting a new one. This is because it's very hard to put them back into place without ruining the newly refinished food. We've seen many floors ruined by somebody trying to put a refrigerator or stove back into its place. The best option is to remove the base plates from around them and sand up close to them while keeping them in place. If you opt to have them moved, expect to pay extra and you may need movers to do it for you.
 

Furniture

If you're handling this yourself, don’t worry about it. But the rooms must be completely empty to be refinished. You may find a refinisher who is willing to help with this, but many companies may require it to be done before they get there. If the layout of your floor does not allow for the furniture to be stored out of the work area, you're going to have to pay for storage. We generally just rent a U-Haul truck and park it outside your house to deal with this. The furniture can be stored there for the duration of the job. Now you may be thinking you just want your refinisher to do part of the job at a time and juggle the furniture back and forth. This is usually a bad idea. It will lead to stop marks on your floor and even if that's avoidable it will take your refinisher much longer to complete the entire job. If that's what you want to do, be sure to discuss this. DO NOT spring this on your contractor on the day of the refinish.
 

Additional Repairs

If you have damaged boards or holes in the floor from old heat registers, you are going to need patchwork done. This is one of the hardest and most time-consuming services we provide. That makes it very expensive. This can cost anywhere between $40 and $80 per square foot.
 

Removing Carpet

A lot of projects we come across are carpeted with hardwood floors underneath. It is not very difficult to remove, but it does take a few hours to do it right and pull all the staples. The rolls will also need to be put in a dumpster or taken to the landfill. Expect to pay $1 to $2 per square foot to have the carpet removed and disposed of.
 

Geographical Location

The area you live in will drastically affect the price of having your wood floors refinished. Some areas are much cheaper to have work done in. For example, Chicago has a large immigrant population that works for very cheap. This brings the price of refinishing down in those areas. Compare that to our location in southwest Michigan and northwest Indiana, labor costs a premium. We are more expensive than the Chicago area by a good margin.
 

Clean Up

Even with a great dust containment system, refinishing is going to leave dust in your home. There's going to need to be some cleaning. Not all refinishing companies are going to clean up after themselves. It’s good to clarify with your refinisher how much clean-up is their responsibility and how much is yours. The best companies leave their job sites very clean.
 

How Do I Know If My Hardwoods Need Refinished?

When the top coating starts to wear out, it will become dull and scratched. If you have a very old floor, it may begin to flake and peel. These are all signs that it's time for a refinish. When the top coating becomes compromised like this, it’s going to allow chemicals, dirt, and water, all to work their way down into the wood grain. Once this starts to happen your floor will break down very fast turning gray in the worst areas. When you see these signs, call a refinisher. Ideally, your refinisher should recoat your wood floors every year for maximum lifespan.
 

How Much Does Stair Refinishing Cost?

Stair refinishing is not charged on the square foot. Usually, just the treads (the part you walk on) need refinishing. This costs on average $150 to $200 per stair tread. It's very time-consuming and back-breaking labor. If you have risers, skirt boards, or any other parts of the stairs that also need to be refinished, you will pay handsome sums for this. They require even more handwork than treads.
 

How Much Dust Is There Going To Be?

This depends on how good your contractor's dust containment system is and how well they clean up. No matter how good the system is, there will still need to be cleanup. We have very good dust containment systems, but we still wipe things down when before leave. A little bit of fine dust is always going to escape the dust containment system. If you hire an old-school contractor who does not have a dustless sanding system (this is pretty rare these days), expect large amounts of dust cleanup.
 

How Much Does It Save To DIY Refinish Hardwood Floors?

If $5 to $8 a square foot sounds like a lot to you, then maybe you want to do it yourself. We encourage it! Most of the cost to refinish hardwood floors is labor. We find that our actual material cost on the job comes in at between $1 to $2 per square foot for your average refinish. That includes sandpaper, floor finish, and stain. Rental sanders will run you several hundred dollars on top of that. You might be able to save between $3 to $5 per square foot by DIYing your hardwood floors. It will probably take you three to four times longer than a professional refinish.
 

How Long Does It Take To Refinish Hardwood Floors?

A pro hardwood flooring crew is going to be able to sand and refinish 1,000 to 2,000 square feet per week. The average crew has two guys in it. Many factors will play into that rate. To DIY your hardwood floors plan on three to four times longer to get the job done.
 

How Long Do Refinished Hardwood Floors Last?

We find that a refinished floor with a high-grade finish applied at a proper thickness will last between five and ten years. Many factors play into this, however. Getting a yearly maintenance coat done will extend the lifespan of your floor massively. Big dogs, kids, shoes, and water will all reduce the lifespan of the floor as well.
 

How Many Times Can A Wood Floor Be Refinished?

On average, a standard American hardwood floor can be refinished five to seven times. This makes the average floor's lifespan 50-70 years. Softer woods like pine will often have deeper damage that must be sanded out with each refinish. This drastically decreases the number of times they can be refinished.
 

How Do You Know If Your Floor Can Be Refinished?

Real hardwood floors are ¾” thick. The top ¼” is known as the “Wear layer.” When this has been sanded off, the floor is worn out. You can check the wear layer by putting something thin into the cracks on your floor to see how far it goes before it hits the tongue. You can also look in a floor vent.
 

How Much Does It Cost To Replace Hardwood Floors?

Ripping up your old hardwood and replacing it is much more expensive than refinishing. While many factors affect the price, on average it costs $20 to $25 per square foot to replace hardwood floors.
 

Questions You Should Ask Your Hardwood Contractor

Disputes between hardwood contractors and homeowners are very common due to the nature of the work. The right expectations must be set before the job begins. Here is a short list of questions to go over with your contractor at the estimate. Remember, you don’t want to come off too picky, or else they are going to charge you extra or not send you an estimate at all.
  1. Are your sanders dustless? While there will be dust to clean up at the end of the day, a good contractor will have a dustless sanding system.
  2. Does this price include stain? (Or any other specific options you want.) Don’t rely on your contractor to price out all the options you're envisioning unless you are very clear. If you want a stain or a specific type of finish, be sure to specify.
  3. What type of finish do you normally use? While we recommend going with commercial-grade water-based finishes, you don’t want your contractor learning how to use a finish he is not familiar with on your job.
  4. Are you going to remove the shoe molding (quarter round)? It doesn’t necessarily have to be removed, but a plan needs to be in place for how it will be handled.
  5. Are you bonded, insured, and licensed? Many states don’t require licensing or bonds for residential flooring work, but your refinisher should be insured and carry workman's compensation insurance for the employees. If you feel the need to ask this question, this may be a sign that the contractor you're talking to is not very professional. You would never feel the need to ask this question to a reputable company that you trust.
  6. Will you be showing me the stain colors on the floor so I can choose? We always show our clients what the colors look like on the floor after it’s sanded. A stain chart is just not the same.

If you need help with your residential hardwood floor in southwest Michigan or northern Indiana, please fill out a contact form or give us a call!