Refinishing hardwood floors: what it costs, how long it takes, and whether your floor needs it

Refinishing hardwood floors means sanding the boards back to bare wood, then building a new finish up on top, and US industry cost guides put professional work at $3 to $8 per square foot with a three to five day timeline for a typical job (This Old House). Most floors do not need it. If the wood underneath is sound and only the top coat has gone dull, a recoat costs a fraction of that and leaves the timber alone. We refinish and recoat hardwood floors across Greater Victoria, and the first job on any quote visit is working out which of the two a floor is actually asking for.

That distinction is the whole decision, so the sections below take it in order: what the work is, what it costs, how long you are out of the room, and the three tests that separate a recoat floor from a sand-back floor.

What hardwood floor refinishing actually involves

A full refinish runs in five stages. The floor gets cleared and prepped, loose or damaged boards get dealt with, the surface is sanded through progressively finer grits until the old coating and the damaged wood above it are gone, the edges and corners are worked separately because a drum sander cannot reach them, and then stain (if you want a colour change) and two or three coats of finish go down.

A recoat skips the sanding. The existing finish gets scuffed so a new coat will grip, the floor is cleaned, and fresh finish is rolled on. Nothing is removed from the wood itself. That is why cost guides separate the two: recoating sits at about $1 to $2 per square foot against $3 to $8 for a full refinish (Bob Vila, updated May 2024).

What refinishing hardwood floors costs

Nobody can quote a floor from a blog post, but the market ranges are public and they are consistent across sources. Two US industry cost guides both land on $3 to $8 per square foot for professional refinishing, with dustless refinishing at the upper end, $5 to $8 per square foot, because of the containment equipment (Bob Vila). Species moves the number too: oak refinishes for about $3 to $5 per square foot, pine for $4 to $7, on the same source.

Those are US figures in US dollars, so treat them as the shape of the market rather than a local price. What they are good for is sanity-checking a quote. A number far outside that band, in either direction, is worth asking questions about. Repairs sit outside the refinishing line item entirely: deep gouges and loose boards have to be sorted before sanding starts, and that work is quoted separately.

Estimates vary with floor area, board condition, stairs, and access. A real number comes from a site assessment.

How long the job takes, and what you can walk on

Plan on three to five days for a full refinish, and expect floors to be refinished roughly every seven to 10 years over their life (This Old House). The finish is the slow part, not the sanding. Coats need time between them, foot traffic waits at least 48 hours after the last coat, and furniture waits several days beyond that while the finish cures hard (This Old House). Rugs go back last, because a rug laid on a green finish traps solvent under it.

Two things about the environment matter during that window. Canada's VOC Concentration Limits for Architectural Coatings Regulations cap a general varnish at 350 g/L, while a clear acid-curing conversion varnish for wood flooring is permitted up to 725 g/L (Justice Canada, SOR/2009-264). That is a real gap in what goes into the air of your house, and it is a fair question to ask about any finish before it is chosen.

The other is dust. Wood dust is classified as carcinogenic to humans, Group 1, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the ACGIH exposure limit for most species is 1 mg/m3 as an eight-hour average (CCOHS). That is the argument for real containment and for staying out of the house while a floor is being sanded, whether the sanding is ours or your own weekend rental.

Three tests for whether your floor needs a refinish at all

The water test. Put a drop of water on a worn traffic path. If it beads, the finish is still doing its job and a recoat will hold. If it soaks in and darkens the wood, the finish is gone and you are into a full sand-back.

The colour test. Even tone across the room, with dullness but no bare patches, points to a recoat. Grey or black patches, dark stains, or gouges that catch a fingernail are in the wood, and only sanding removes them.

The flatness test. Boards that are cupped, with edges sitting higher than the centres, are telling you about moisture rather than wear. Health Canada recommends holding indoor relative humidity between 30% and 50% (Health Canada), and floors that swing outside that band cup. Sanding a cupped floor flat locks the problem in, because the boards flatten later and leave gaps under a brand new finish. The moisture source gets fixed first, then the floor settles, then it gets sanded.

One local caveat. A lot of Greater Victoria character homes have old-growth Douglas fir rather than oak, which is softer, thinner, and sands away faster, so a fir floor that has been sanded once or twice already may not have the timber left for another pass. That is a measurement, not a guess. Our guide to fir and oak floors in Victoria covers how to tell which one you are standing on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is hardwood floor refinishing the same as a recoat? No. Refinishing sands the wood back to bare timber; a recoat only adds finish on top of what is there. The price gap reflects that, roughly $1 to $2 against $3 to $8 per square foot in industry cost guides (Bob Vila).

How often can a floor be refinished? It depends on the wood left above the tongue, not the age of the house. Cost guides put the normal interval at seven to 10 years (This Old House), and a floor that has already been through two sand-backs may only have room for a recoat.

Can I stay in the house during refinishing? Sanding fills connected rooms with wood dust that IARC classifies as a Group 1 carcinogen (CCOHS), so staying elsewhere during sanding and the first coats is the sensible plan, particularly with anyone in the house who has asthma.

Does dustless refinishing really eliminate dust? It reduces it substantially by pulling dust off the machines at source. It does not make a house dust free, and it costs more, about $5 to $8 per square foot rather than $3 to $8 (Bob Vila).

What about a few damaged boards rather than the whole floor? Board-level damage is handled first as repair or water-damage restoration, so the floor is one continuous surface before any finish goes down.

Get a quote on your floor

Send a few photos of the worst traffic path and the rough room dimensions through the quote form, and you will get a straight read on whether the floor looks like a recoat or a refinish before anyone comes out. Estimates vary, and a real number comes from a site assessment.