Hardwood flooring cost

Dylan W. said:
Lol
Trust me, we've worked together several times...I promise we could make a good show..lol
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Didnt yall already do that and make ..what, 10 movies?

Get out of my room is highly under rated
 
The rooms are connected by a 3' doorway so they could start on opposite ends and see how it looks when they get to the doorway.

On a serious note how big of a pain would it be to put down the wood then sand and finish it instead of pre finished? How long to sand and finish and wait for it to dry?
 
The LL formaldehyde controversy has been around for a few years before the official report I thought? China doesn't care about health (yours or theirs), they just care about making money.
Buy your wood from this country or Canada, which is better for more reasons than just formaldehyde.
 
obullfish said:
On a serious note how big of a pain would it be to put down the wood then sand and finish it instead of pre finished? How long to sand and finish and wait for it to dry?
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600 sf would sand in about 1-2 hrs max. Then maybe an hour for cleanup. A note to the hardwoodsman on here, I use a leaf blower after I sand with doors and windows open. :) And THEN the shopvac and then final damp cloth on my hands and knees. Speeds it up alot. Then I wear thick wooly socks (no shoes) for polyurethane / staining. They are wonderful when you come across that hair or paint chip you missed to scratch up and wipe on. Factor in the equipment and sand paper as another $100+.

Then it all depends on humidity and you don't want to pay a hired hand to babysit a wet floor. So 1 day for first coat. half day each coat after. I go 3 coats. And don't forget the fine scuffs in between.

You would be responsible for all the rest of the cleanup after everything is dry and done. That includes dusting every piece of trim, walls and light fixtures. Pretty much everything that isn't sectioned off by a sheet of plastic will have dust on it.

2-3 days for my experiences...
 
6BangBronk said:
600 sf would sand in about 1-2 hrs max. Then maybe an hour for cleanup. A note to the hardwoodsman on here, I use a leaf blower after I sand with doors and windows open. :) And THEN the shopvac and then final damp cloth on my hands and knees. Speeds it up alot. Then I wear thick wooly socks (no shoes) for polyurethane / staining. They are wonderful when you come across that hair or paint chip you missed to scratch up and wipe on. Factor in the equipment and sand paper as another $100+.

Then it all depends on humidity and you don't want to pay a hired hand to babysit a wet floor. So 1 day for first coat. half day each coat after. I go 3 coats. And don't forget the fine scuffs in between.
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Interesting, I figured that would take longer than that for sanding. I'm assuming you still have to move through multiple grits, etc.?

About the dust: ZipWall.

Except for the benefits (arguable, probably) of the really hard zinconium oxide or whatever coatings that everyone seems to be doing for pre-finished, I think site-finished sounds like the way to go. I really hate the beveled edges on normal pre-finished flooring, and the only pre-finished stuff with the micro edges is usually out of my price range. And I want nice matte finish...

How is the touch-up ability on the site-finished stuff, in case of scratches, etc.? I'm assuming you can just do a little spot repair to protect any exposed wood after minor damage?
 
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Fabrik8 said:
Interesting, I figured that would take longer than that for sanding. I'm assuming you still have to move through multiple grits, etc.?

About the dust: ZipWall.

Except for the benefits (arguable, probably) of the really hard zinconium oxide or whatever coatings that everyone seems to be doing for pre-finished, I think site-finished sounds like the way to go. I really hate the beveled edges on normal pre-finished flooring, and the only pre-finished stuff with the micro edges is usually out of my price range. And I want nice matte finish...

How is the touch-up ability on the site-finished stuff, in case of scratches, etc.? I'm assuming you can just do a little spot repair to protect any exposed wood after minor damage?
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Sanding time I mention is for everything on-site. This is rather rushing it maybe a tad? You are correct for it is VERY important to go from 80 (if necessary for lower quality mills) down to 220 grit without missing a step. Same with edger. If you miss a grit the product isn't near as good. 220 being the most important of all.

I have no experience but polyurethane. LOVE it. It's one of the most durable and if you scratch the floor, simply scuff and recoat and walla fixed. But you have to do the entire board without touching another board. So a tad tedious. You just have to live with deep scratches so hardwoods ain't for the over-do-ers.

But the style NEVER goes away. 1950's to today is all up-to-date besides the finish. Finishes are much better / more durable now days though.

Another note from that, you have to know what you are doing when refinishing for some of the old varnishes were water based and don't take new oil base too well without prep products.

I used sand-and-seal one time since my ex-father-in-law swore by it but it spotted and I had to re-sand the entire thing. Straight poly for me from then on with excellent finish.

His reasoning for sand-and-seal was that it raised the grains resulting in a longer lasting surface. With the grains flat, it results in more scuffs (from what he said)???

I guess if you know something I didn't pick up on, a pre-sealer maybe the way to go???
 
6BangBronk said:
His reasoning for sand-and-seal was that it raised the grains resulting in a longer lasting surface. With the grains flat, it results in more scuffs (from what he said)???

I guess if you know something I didn't pick up on, a pre-sealer maybe the way to go???
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I don't know much about flooring, but I assume it's loosely the same as anything else made of wood. Having the raised grain means slightly more wear surface, but it's also not much more because it's only part of the surface area and those raised peaks get knocked off very quickly because all of the pressure (from whatever is causing the wear) is concentrated on those peaks. So yeah, there might be a little bit of a head start for wear once you burn through the finish down to those grain peaks. But, the actual benefit to raised grain could be that it holds more finish depth with the larger difference in min/max grain height, which could increase the durability over a smoother but thinner finish.

I tend to like the appearance of a smoother wood instead of wood with a raised grain, so I would probably choose the smoother one if I were picking out a floor finish.
 
It's noticeable that the more you wear socks, the more it self polishes. LOL Honestly!

My first floor that I learnt to do entire boards, I lived in the house and could not do the entire hall width. The finish product had an obvious poly overlap line down the middle of the hall. 15 years later that line was gone.

One sure fact I realize though, I learnt WAYYYY too much in life by mistakes...:shaking:
 
All I need now is to get the crawlspace drainage and encapsulation taken care of, and I'll be ready to think about flooring. Sucks that the flooring is the cheapest part of that sentence.
 
Sorry I couldn't read through all of this. I liked each post because I don't have time to quote and correct.


If anyone can sand 600' in 2 hrs I'll hire them today with a signing bonus of $5k.

And 220? Only for buffing final coat.

I think someone is pulling a Fuller on me:shaking:
 
6BangBronk said:
600 sf would sand in about 1-2 hrs max. Then maybe an hour for cleanup. A note to the hardwoodsman on here, I use a leaf blower after I sand with doors and windows open. :) And THEN the shopvac and then final damp cloth on my hands and knees. Speeds it up alot. Then I wear thick wooly socks (no shoes) for polyurethane / staining. They are wonderful when you come across that hair or paint chip you missed to scratch up and wipe on. Factor in the equipment and sand paper as another $100+.

Then it all depends on humidity and you don't want to pay a hired hand to babysit a wet floor. So 1 day for first coat. half day each coat after. I go 3 coats. And don't forget the fine scuffs in between.

You would be responsible for all the rest of the cleanup after everything is dry and done. That includes dusting every piece of trim, walls and light fixtures. Pretty much everything that isn't sectioned off by a sheet of plastic will have dust on it.

2-3 days for my experiences...
Click to expand...
:shaking:

6BangBronk said:
Sanding time I mention is for everything on-site. This is rather rushing it maybe a tad? You are correct for it is VERY important to go from 80 (if necessary for lower quality mills) down to 220 grit without missing a step. Same with edger. If you miss a grit the product isn't near as good. 220 being the most important of all.

I have no experience but polyurethane. LOVE it. It's one of the most durable and if you scratch the floor, simply scuff and recoat and walla fixed. But you have to do the entire board without touching another board. So a tad tedious. You just have to live with deep scratches so hardwoods ain't for the over-do-ers.

But the style NEVER goes away. 1950's to today is all up-to-date besides the finish. Finishes are much better / more durable now days though.

Another note from that, you have to know what you are doing when refinishing for some of the old varnishes were water based and don't take new oil base too well without prep products.

I used sand-and-seal one time since my ex-father-in-law swore by it but it spotted and I had to re-sand the entire thing. Straight poly for me from then on with excellent finish.

His reasoning for sand-and-seal was that it raised the grains resulting in a longer lasting surface. With the grains flat, it results in more scuffs (from what he said)???

I guess if you know something I didn't pick up on, a pre-sealer maybe the way to go???
Click to expand...
:shaking:

6BangBronk said:
It's noticeable that the more you wear socks, the more it self polishes. LOL Honestly!

My first floor that I learnt to do entire boards, I lived in the house and could not do the entire hall width. The finish product had an obvious poly overlap line down the middle of the hall. 15 years later that line was gone.

One sure fact I realize though, I learnt WAYYYY too much in life by mistakes...:shaking:
Click to expand...
:shaking:
 
GotWood said:
If anyone can sand 600' in 2 hrs I'll hire them today with a signing bonus of $5k.
Click to expand...


I was hoping you'd chime in. Ive sanded 4-5 floors in my life before I realized between equip rental and my perfectionist nature I was better off hiring a pro.
Last time I did it I spent more than 2 hours cutting in the edges before I ever fired the drum up.

I thought I just sucked at it.

Last house I paid to have done was 1050 sqft of hardwood in 5 rooms and a hall way. A team of 3 very experienced dudes and 1 gopher sanded it in just over 6 hours including first coat. One guy came back the next and did a 2nd and a buff.
 
@Ron I should have clarified...


A large enough crew with enough good equipment can make that happen, but the OP sounded like it was a one man job.

Rental equipment will not work. Period.
 
Not to hijack but I want my floors refinished. What might I look to spend a sq ft to have them done?
 
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