Pricing
Hardwood Floor Refinishing Cost Calculator
August 5, 2026 7 min read By Fort Worth Flooring Co
You can get within a reasonable distance of a refinishing quote yourself in about fifteen minutes. Here is the method, worked through on a real floor plan shape common in this county.
The example house
A 1980s Colleyville house with solid red oak through the main living areas:
- Living room: 18 by 22 feet — 396 sq ft
- Dining room: 12 by 14 feet — 168 sq ft
- Hallway: 4 by 30 feet — 120 sq ft
- Bedroom one: 14 by 16 feet — 224 sq ft
- Bedroom two: 12 by 14 feet — 168 sq ft
- Two closets: roughly 74 sq ft combined
Total: 1,150 square feet.
Measure room by room and write them down separately rather than totalling as you go. It matters for the next step.
Step one: the sand-and-finish rate
Typical North Texas market ranges put a three-coat sand and finish at roughly $3 to $6 per square foot. These are market ranges rather than quotes.
Where to sit inside that band:
Toward $3. Open rooms, standard red oak, natural finish or a light stain, no repairs, house empty.
Toward $6. A lot of edge work relative to field, harder or older timber, a dark stain, a fourth coat, and an occupied house needing real dust containment.
Our example house has 120 square feet of hallway and two closets against 956 square feet of rooms — that is a meaningful proportion of edge work, so it is not a bottom-of-band job. Call it $4.50.
1,150 x $4.50 = $5,175.
That is your base figure. Now the additions.
Step two: is it three coats or four
Three is standard. A fourth belongs on the hallway, the living room and anywhere that connects them, because that is where wear happens and because recoating a hallway later means recoating whatever it opens onto.
If you want the fourth coat, add roughly the cost of one coat over that area. In this example, applying it to the living room and hallway — 516 square feet — is a modest addition against the value of not doing it again in six years.
Step three: are you staining, and is it red oak
If yes to both, water-popping is required rather than optional.
Red oak has an open, uneven grain that takes colour blotchily. Water-popping opens the grain evenly across the whole floor before the stain goes on, and it is the difference between an even colour and a floor that looks patchy in afternoon light.
It is a full extra pass over the entire floor. If a quote for a dark stain on red oak does not mention it, ask whether it is included — because if it is not, you are being quoted a different result from the one you were shown.
Step four: board repairs
This is the number you cannot estimate from your armchair, and it is the one most likely to move a real quote away from your figure.
Board replacement, matched and woven in, typically runs $100 to $400 per board. The spread is about matching rather than fitting: finding a board that reads correctly beside forty-year-old red oak is straightforward, and finding one that reads correctly beside hundred-year-old longleaf pine is not.
Walk the floor and count. Look for split boards, boards with deep staining rather than surface marks, boards that are cupped or crowned, and anywhere a previous repair was done badly. Multiply your count by $250 as a working middle figure.
Ten boards at $250 adds $2,500 to our example, which is why this line matters more than any other single variable.
Step five: the check you must do before any of this
Remaining board thickness.
A three-quarter inch solid board has roughly six to ten full sandings in it across its life, and previous refinishers spent some of them. Pull a floor vent or lift a board at a threshold and look at the edge in section. What matters is the thickness above the tongue.
If you can see fastener heads at the surface anywhere in the room, the floor is at the end of its sanding life and no estimate above applies.
The worked total
Base sand and finish at $4.50 across 1,150 sq ft: $5,175
Plus a fourth coat on the living room and hallway, plus water-popping if staining, plus board repairs at whatever your count comes to.
For a clean floor with no repairs, natural finish, three coats: around $5,175 is a realistic expectation. For the same floor with a dark stain and ten boards to replace: closer to $8,000.
That is the range real quotes will land in, and knowing which end you are at before anyone arrives is what lets you read three bids properly.
The ranges in one table
Everything above, gathered in one place. These are typical North Texas market ranges rather than our quote.
Refinishing, repair and preparation
| Item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Sand and refinish hardwood — 3 coats Species, how many previous sandings the boards have left in them | $3 to $6 per sq ft |
| Screen and recoat — no sanding Only worth it above bare wood; winter heating also opens gaps a recoat cannot fill | $1 to $3 per sq ft |
| Dustless sanding surcharge Containment matters more in an occupied historic home than an empty one | Usually folded into the sq ft rate |
| Board replacement — matched and woven in Matching a 1920s longleaf pine board is the expensive part, not the labour | $100 to $400 per board |
| Water damage repair — after a burst supply line How long the water sat, and whether the subfloor delaminated | $400 to $1,800 per room |
| Subfloor repair or replacement Joist condition in a pier-and-beam house is only knowable once it is open | $3 to $9 per sq ft |
| Slab grinding and flatness correction How far out of tolerance the slab reads against the material's spec | $1 to $4 per sq ft |
| Self-levelling underlayment pour Depth. A 1/4 inch skim and a 1.5 inch pour are not the same job | $2 to $8 per sq ft |
Typical North Texas market ranges, gathered from published contractor pricing. Not a quote.