Pricing
How Much Does It Cost to Refinish Hardwood Floors?
March 4, 2026 8 min read By Fort Worth Flooring Co
Refinishing is the best-value work in this trade, and it is also the hardest to compare between bidders, because every quote is a single number per square foot and every contractor includes something different inside it.
Here is what that number is actually made of.
The sand-and-finish rate
The headline figure covers sanding to bare wood, filling, and applying finish. Typical North Texas market ranges put this in the region of $3 to $6 per square foot for a three-coat system.
What moves it inside that band:
Coats. Three is standard. Four belongs on kitchens and entry halls, because that is where the wear is and because recoating a hallway later means recoating whatever it opens onto. The fourth coat is a real cost and a real benefit.
Finish type. Oil-modified polyurethane is the cheaper material and it ambers over time. Waterborne two-component systems cost more per gallon, hold their colour, carry lower odour and return the room to use sooner. In an occupied house that last point is worth more than the price difference.
Species and condition. You are not buying timber, so species affects labour rather than materials. Harder species cut slower and consume abrasives faster. Original longleaf pine in a Fairmount or Weatherford house is slower again, because it burnishes rather than cuts if it is worked at modern-floor speed.
Stain, and one step people do not know to ask about
If the floor is being stained rather than finished natural, red oak needs water-popping first. Red oak has an open, uneven grain that takes colour blotchily, and water-popping opens the grain evenly across the whole floor before the stain goes on.
It is an extra pass over the entire floor. It is also the difference between an even colour and one that looks patchy under afternoon light from a west-facing window. On a dark stain over red oak — which is most of the post-war stock in this county — it is not optional if you want the result you were shown.
A bidder who has not mentioned it on a dark-stain job is either including it silently or not doing it. Worth asking which.
Repairs are a separate line, and should be
Board replacement typically runs in the range of $100 to $400 per board, and the spread is almost entirely about matching rather than fitting.
Cutting out a damaged board and weaving in a new one is straightforward joinery. Finding a board that reads correctly beside hundred-year-old longleaf pine is not, and it is why the same repair costs four times more in a Weatherford Victorian than in a 1990s Keller house.
If a quote folds repairs into the square foot rate, you are being averaged. Ask for them itemised.
The cheaper option, and when it is honest
A screen and recoat abrades the existing finish and puts fresh coats over it, no sanding to bare wood. Typical range is around $1 to $3 per square foot.
It works while the finish is worn but not breached. Once wear has reached raw timber anywhere, or there is water staining or pet damage in the boards, recoating seals the damage in permanently.
We check before recommending it, and if you are early we will tell you to come back in two years rather than sell you the bigger job now.
What can make refinishing the wrong answer
Board thickness. A three-quarter inch solid floor has roughly six to ten full sandings in it across its whole life, and every previous refinisher spent some of them. If a floor has already been sanded twice and is close to the fasteners, a third full sand is a one-way decision that ends the floor.
We measure remaining thickness before agreeing a floor can be sanded at all. Occasionally that conversation ends with a recommendation not to proceed, which is a cheaper outcome than proceeding and finding out.
Comparing three bids properly
Ask each contractor for the same four lines: the sand-and-finish rate and how many coats it buys, whether water-popping is included if you are staining, board repairs itemised separately, and what dust containment actually means in their quote.
The bid that comes back lowest on the headline rate is very often the one that has quietly answered “two coats, no popping, repairs extra, sheet over the doorway”. That is not a cheaper contractor. It is a different job.
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.