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Hardwood Floor Refinishing, Seattle to Lake Stevens

Your floors get done, you keep living in the house, and the person sanding them is the person who quoted them.

Water-based finishes, three coats, every time. Low odor and GreenGuard certified, so nobody has to move out while we work.

In short

Refinishing sands your floor back to bare wood and rebuilds the finish, so nothing goes in a dumpster. Most jobs run about a week and get three coats of protective finish. Water-based finishes are low odor and GreenGuard certified, so you can stay in the house while we work. The estimate is free, in your home, and usually within two or three days of your call.

The honest version

When refinishing beats replacing

Refinishing is almost always the cheaper and better answer if your floors are scratched, dull, gray around the doorways, or just tired of the color they are.

Freshly refinished white oak floor in a large open living room

Refinishing means sanding your existing floor back to bare wood, then building the finish back up. The boards stay. Nothing goes in a dumpster.

There is a limit, and I would rather you hear it now than after you have paid for something. Hardwood can only be sanded so many times. After the initial sand when it was installed, you have roughly four refinishes in a floor before there is not enough wood left above the tongue to take another pass.

If your floor is already at the end of that, I will tell you, and we will talk about replacing it or putting LVP over the top instead. That is a real conversation I have on a regular basis. Sometimes refinishing is the wrong call and I am the one who says so.

Process

How a refinish runs

Five steps, about a week on most jobs. You get a real schedule with the estimate, not a range.

01Assess and containI walk the floor first and look for what is actually going on: pet damage, cupping from moisture, squeaks, a subfloor that has moved. Then we protect the house. Plastic goes over every room we are not sanding, with a zipper so you can still get through.

02SandMultiple grits, working coarse to fine, on a planetary sander. This is the stage that makes or breaks the finish, and it is the part people usually cannot see happening.

03Stain, if you want itIf you are changing the color, I put down samples on your actual floor in your actual light. You pick, you sign off on it in writing, and only then does it go down. I do not guess on color.

04Three coats of finishAlways three. Not two with a third if it looks thin. Coats go down midday so the floor is walkable by the time you get home that evening.

05WalkthroughI walk the whole floor with you before I leave, in daylight, and we look at it together.

A doorway sealed with zippered plastic sheeting and a dust extraction hose

The honest version

What "dustless" actually means

There is no dust free. It does not matter what anyone tells you.

The whole industry advertises dustless refinishing and it is not a real thing. Sanding a floor makes dust. What a good setup does is control where that dust goes, and that is a question you can actually check somebody on.

Extraction

Double-motor vacuums

Every sander runs on a commercial extractor, not a shop vac bolted to a machine. The dust that gets past it settles on the floor rather than hanging in the air for a week.

Containment

Visqueen and a zipper

Plastic over every room we are not sanding, sealed at the frame, with a zipper so you can still reach your kitchen and get upstairs. If the kitchen is in the work area, the fridge gets moved and stays plugged in.

Timing

Coats go down midday

So the floor is dry enough to walk on by evening, and you sleep in your own house that night rather than planning around the floor.

I grew up sanding floors with a vacuum in a bag and coming home covered white. The equipment is a generation better than that now. It is still not dustless, and I am not going to tell you it is.

Finishes

Water-based, premium, or oil

I price most jobs three ways: good, better and best, based on the material and the finish you pick. It comes with a sheet showing the actual durability and hardness numbers so you can look them up yourself rather than taking my word for it.

Water-based, the default

No VOCs, GreenGuard certified, low odor. You can stay in the house while we work. This is what most of my jobs get.

Bona high traffic

The premium water-based. Harder wearing, holds up against oil-based durability, priced accordingly. Worth it on kitchens, hallways and houses with dogs.

Oil-based and Swedish

Fifty years of proven durability behind them. They also mean full respirators for us and moving out for you. Still available if you want one.

I built that pricing sheet after losing too many bids on price without ever getting to explain what the price was for.

Planetary sander working a pale sanded path across a hardwood floor

The finish

Flat enough to feel

I sand with a planetary machine rather than a drum, which takes a floor down dead flat instead of leaving the faint waves a drum can put in.

You feel it barefoot and you see it in the afternoon, when the light comes across the floor and there is nothing in it to catch. That is the whole reason the machine is worth what it costs, and it is the part of a refinish you live with every day afterward.

Stairs

Stairs on their own

Stairs are their own job. Treads, risers and nosings each take sanding differently than a flat floor does, and no machine does the whole thing, so a lot of it comes down to hand work. That is why they cost what they do.

If the stairs are the only part that needs doing and the floors are fine, that is a job I will take on its own. Plenty of people call about exactly that after a carpet comes off.

Refinished oak stair treads and risers rising from a matching hardwood floor

Licensed & bonded

L&I, employees on the books, nothing under the table.

5.0 on Google

Across every review the business has.

Estimate in 2 to 3 days

In your home, and free.

One year on labor

Written into the contract, plus the manufacturer warranty.

Questions

Questions people actually ask

The ones that come up on nearly every estimate, answered the way I answer them at your kitchen table.

How long does it take to refinish hardwood floors?

Most jobs run about a week from the day we start to the day you have your house back. That covers sanding, stain if you are changing color, three coats of finish with dry time between them, and the walkthrough. Bigger homes and stairs add days. I give you a real schedule with the estimate, not a range.

How many times can you refinish hardwood floors?

Roughly four times after the initial sand when the floor was installed. Each pass takes a little wood off the top, and eventually there is not enough left above the tongue to sand safely. If your floor is near the end of that, I will tell you during the estimate rather than after.

Can I stay in the house while my floors are refinished?

Yes, on almost every job. Water-based finishes are low odor and GreenGuard certified, so there is no reason to move out. We seal off the rooms we are not working in, leave you a zippered way through, and put coats down midday so the floor is walkable by evening.

How much does refinishing cost?

It is priced by the square foot, and the number moves with the finish you pick and the shape the floor is in. Jobs under 500 square feet are priced at a higher rate per foot because the setup takes the same time regardless. I quote the whole thing in writing after I have measured it.

Oil-based or water-based finish?

Water-based for almost everyone now. It has caught up on durability, especially in the high-traffic products, and it means no VOCs and no moving out. Oil-based and Swedish still last a long time and I will still put them down if you want one, but you will be out of the house and we will be in respirators.

Is refinishing messy?

There is dust. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. What we control is where it goes: commercial vacuums on every machine, plastic over the rooms we are not touching, and dust that settles on the floor instead of drifting through your house.

Keep reading

Also worth a look

If your floor has run out of refinishes, there are two other answers and I will tell you which one fits.

Wide plank hardwood going down in a new build, Cle Elum

Hardwood Installation

New floors in oak, fir, maple and engineered, matched to your plank width.

Explore installation

Solid core luxury vinyl plank through a kitchen and dining room, Bothell

LVP Flooring

Waterproof plank that installs over the floor you already have.

Explore LVP

The old floor and the new floor meeting in one hallway

Our Work

Photographs of real jobs: installation, refinishing and LVP across the Seattle area.

See the work

In their words

What a refinish looks like afterward

Three of the eighteen reviews on the Google listing, from people whose floors were sanded back and refinished.

“Our newly refinished floors are beautiful. Greg and his team provide an amazing service. They were polite and professional and they showed up on time. I would highly recommend this company for any flooring projects.”

Christine Aronson5 years ago on Google

“They refinished very worn 30 year old hardwood floors and restored them to their original beauty. Greg and the crew were very pleasant, professional, responsive and always on time. The final bill was exactly as estimated.”

Barbara Lloyd5 years ago on Google

“Throughout the process, we found Greg and his team to be hardworking and professional, answering our questions and taking the time to do a quality job. We are pleased with our new flooring and would not hesitate to hire this company again.”

Serene Robeson6 months ago on Google

Read all 18 reviews on Google

A refinished floor in an empty dining room, Mill Creek

Talk to the person doing the work

Tell me what your floors are doing and I will tell you what they need.

Call or send a few details. I am usually on a job site, so if it goes to voicemail leave one and you will hear back the same day.

Get a free estimate (206) 510-1037