Refinish vs replace hardwood? Ballpark costs, flooring company recs
Hi all – long time listener, first time caller here 🙂 Thank you all so much for contributing to this forum; it’s been a very helpful resource on my home purchase/renovation journey.
We’re looking to install *or* refinish hardwood floors on the top floor and hallways of our townhouse (top floor is ~800 sq ft, so roughly 1000 sq ft total). The home’s parlor level (currently a separate apartment) has original hardwood floors in good condition, but the halls and top floor apartment (where we live) are covered with linoleum and really cheesy vinyl respectively. I presume there are hardwood floors hidden in these areas, but don’t know what state they might be in; the overall condition of the home was “below average” after being used as a rental for several decades, and a few new walls have been put up in the top floor.
Would really appreciate any/all advice on the following:
1) Suggestions and/or things to consider in deciding whether to refinish vs install new hardwood (feasibility, time required, cost, etc)
2) Related to above, and recognizing there could be a wide ran ge, could anyone provide a rough breakdown of the cost to *refinish* ~1000sq ft of hardwood floors, vs *install* 1000sq ft of new hardwood flooring? For installation, we would ideally install upper-mid quality wood (nothing too fancy, but nice looking and built to last). The job will also need to include removing layers of old vinyl flooring and subfloor, possibly asbestos tiles (and possibly asbestos remediation?), and removing/replacing quarter round on baseboards.
3) Would really appreciate any recs for affordable flooring companies – either for refinishing, installation, or both.
4) Newbie question, but the top floor is currently fully furnished, so if anyone has clever suggestions for handling furniture when doing flooring, I’d definitely be open to it!
Thanks so much in advance all!
Evan

evan
in General Discussion 4 years and 11 months ago
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cate | 4 years and 11 months ago
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Also the floors may look horrible when you uncover them but that does not necessarily mean they won’t polish up beautifully. You really need a little bit of experience to tell. Also it depends somewhat on your personal taste. Some would say our 1890s pine/fir subfloors needed replacement (holes, squeaking, weren’t meant to be seen in the first place, etc.) but we refinished them, love them and have received many compliments. Old floors come in many styles and conditions, but they all look quite different from modern wood floors.

evan | 4 years and 11 months ago
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Many thanks for the info both – agree that some excavation is the necessary next step. Appreciate the notes on refinishing cost, Cate!

cate | 4 years and 11 months ago
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Yes agree with Bob first you need to find out what is under there. Be careful with removal — make sure you don’t disturb anything with asbestos in it. If the floors are in good enough condition to be refinished, it’s much cheaper to refinish than to replace. Figure $1.5 to $3 a square foot to refinish, depending on who you hire, what exactly you want done, etc. If the floors are already painted, you can just paint again and seal. I would not do this on the parlor level but if you have no choice it can look nice in bedrooms and/or a bathroom.

RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 11 months ago
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I think you’ll need to do some exploratory surgery to determine if there’s a hardwood floor worth refinishing. If so that would be the best route IMO.