Service 02 / 04
Hardwood floor refinishing
A full refinish spends one of the floor’s six to ten lifetime sandings. That is the real cost, and it is why we test before we quote. When a sand is the right call, we take the floor to bare wood under HEPA dust containment, repair it board by board, and build the finish back properly.
Image slot · svc-refinish-hero · 1600×2000 · Old-growth fir, second cut at 80 grit — Uptown Port Townsend
- On site
- 5–8 days for 1,200 sq ft
- Dust
- HEPA containment, 95%+ captured
- Walk on
- 24 hours after final coat
- Rugs back down
- 14–21 days
The most useful thing we do on a refinishing call is often to talk somebody out of it. A ¾″ solid floor has a finite amount of wood above the tongue — six to ten sandings, if each is done with a light hand. Spend two of them in a decade and you have thrown away thirty years of floor.
When a full sand is right
- The finish is worn through to bare wood in the traffic lanes.
- There is grey or black staining, meaning water reached the fibre.
- You want a different colour, or you want the boards flat after cupping.
- The floor was waxed, oil-soaped, or coated with something that will not accept a recoat.
- Boards need replacing, and the patch has to disappear into the field.
If none of those are true, read the screen and recoat page first.
Dust
“Dustless” means the dust is captured, not that none is made. What there is: a HEPA-shrouded belt machine that pulls over 95% of the dust at the drum, a shop vacuum on the edger, zip-wall containment on every opening, and a negative-air fan pulling the room toward a window. It is the difference between wiping down a bookshelf and repainting a ceiling.
Old-growth fir
Half the floors we sand on this peninsula are Douglas fir laid before 1940, and fir does not behave like oak. The early wood is soft and the growth rings are hard, so a heavy cut leaves a washboard. It burnishes, it drinks stain unevenly, and it carries a century of patina that most owners want kept rather than erased.
So we sand fir lighter and slower, finish coarser than we would oak, and accept some of the history. A fir floor sanded to look new looks wrong. Sanded to look cared for, it is the best floor in the county.
Finish systems
- Waterborne two-component urethane
- Our default. The hardest wear layer available, clear rather than amber, low odour, walkable in a day. Best for kitchens, dogs and rentals.
- Swedish finish
- The traditional Northwest choice: very hard, warm-toned, and the one many older Peninsula floors already carry. Strong fumes while it cures, so plan to be out of the house.
- Hardwax oil
- Penetrates rather than films. Matte, close to the wood, and spot-repairable without recoating a whole room — which on an old fir floor matters more than outright hardness. Wants an annual refresh.
Sheen is a real decision, not an upsell. Matte at 5–10% hides dust, footprints, and the scratch you will put in it in March. Satin at 25–35% shows more grain and more of everything else. We bring samples on your boards, not on a plywood card.
Colour
Stain is sampled in the room, in the room’s light, on the floor itself — three or four candidates in a closet doorway. Fir and maple both blotch, so those are water-popped or sealed first. We will not mix a colour we cannot repeat in five years for a repair.
The sequence
01
Test
We meter the wood, check finish adhesion, and look for grey and black staining — water that has already reached the fibre. A sample patch in a closet tells us how the floor will take colour.
02
Sand
Belt machine at 36, 50 and 80 grit with an edger and hard plate following each pass, then a 100–120 grit buff. Corners and stair returns by hand. Containment up, negative air running.
03
Repair
Split and cupped boards replaced from matched stock; knots and gouges patched with dutchmans cut to follow the grain. Pet-stained boards come out — oxalic acid rarely earns its reputation.
04
Finish
Water-pop for even colour if you are staining, then two or three coats with an abrasion between each. We leave a maintenance sheet naming the exact product now on your floor.
Where we do this work
Refinishing across all three counties.
Refinishing is the bulk of what we do and the reason for the long drives. Local housing stock decides the work: fir tongue-and-groove in Port Townsend and Port Angeles, oak and maple in Sequim, wide plank on Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap waterfront.
Next step
Send a photo of the worst three feet.
It is usually enough to tell whether you are looking at a recoat, a sand, or a floor that needs a season of humidity control first. We will tell you which, at no charge.
We walk the floor, take moisture readings, and send a written scope with a fixed number. No pressure, no same-day discount.