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Hardwood Floor Refinishing

A worn wood floor can often look new again for far less than replacing it.

Jacksonville Flooring Contractors HQ connects you with a local refinisher who can check your floor and quote it.

The first question is how much wood is left to sand.

Call (904) 555-0186Talk to a local flooring contractor

Drum sander halfway across an old oak floor showing bare wood next to the worn finish

Slab and humidity check

Refinishing can't fix boards that are cupped or lifting from moisture underneath. If your floor has humps at the seams, the moisture source under the house or slab has to be found first, or the problem comes back.

Can Your Floor Be Refinished?

Solid hardwood has about a quarter inch of wood above the tongue, enough for several full sandings over its life. Homes still refinish solid floors that are more than a century old.

Engineered wood depends on its wear layer. Around six millimeters handles several refinishes. Thin wear layers of one to three millimeters can't really be sanded. A refinisher can check by pulling a floor vent and looking at a board edge.

Older Jacksonville Homes

Many older houses in Riverside, Avondale and San Marco have original oak or heart pine floors, sometimes hidden under carpet or vinyl for decades. Those floors are often worth saving.

Expect some patching where walls moved or vents were cut, and old staples or tack strip to pull. See flooring contractors in Riverside and Avondale.

What the Job Involves

  1. Furniture out and the rooms sealed off from dust.
  2. Sanding in several passes, coarse to fine, down to bare wood.
  3. Edges and corners done with a smaller sander.
  4. Gaps filled and nail heads set where needed.
  5. Stain, if you want a color change, then coats of finish.
  6. Cure time before rugs, furniture, tape or heavy traffic.

Plan Around the Cure

A new finish needs time before rugs, tape and heavy furniture can touch it. Rushing that is how people end up with rug marks or peeled finish. Ask the refinisher for the cure schedule of the exact product in writing.

If you are also painting, do it before the final coat goes on. If you are adding carpet elsewhere, that goes last.

Refinish or Replace?

Refinishing makes sense when the wood is sound and has wear layer left. Replacing makes sense when boards are water damaged, badly cupped, or engineered with too little wood on top.

Sometimes the answer is both: replace a damaged section, weave in matching boards, then refinish the whole room so it blends. See water damaged floor replacement if that applies.

Cost Basics

Refinishing usually costs well under new hardwood because there is no material to buy beyond finish and stain. Stain changes, repairs and stairs add to it. Our hardwood floor installation cost page lists finishing and removal costs too.

Already set on new wood? Read hardwood flooring installation.

Ask for a refinishing estimate with the estimate form or call (904) 555-0186.

Call (904) 555-0186