Sanding & Refinishing
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Franklin Mills, Philadelphia
Sand the old finish off, repair what needs repairing, and put a new finish down. The floor you already own, made new. In Franklin Mills, Philadelphia the median home dates to 1968 and 1.0% of the housing predates 1940, which changes what Deco Hardwood Floor expects to find before the work starts.
Refinishing a factory finished floor
Much of the wood flooring in Franklin Mills was installed prefinished, and whether it can be sanded depends on the wear layer and on the bevels between the boards.
A factory finish is harder than anything applied in a house, so removing it takes more abrasive and more time than removing an old site finish. Sanding also takes off the small bevel at each board edge, which changes how the floor looks: it comes out flat and continuous, like a site finished floor. Most people prefer that, and it is worth knowing before the work rather than after.
If the floor is engineered, the real wood on top gets measured first. With enough of it there is room for a full sanding. With too little, the right job is a screen and recoat or a replacement, and we say which before quoting.
Before you get a quote
A recoat over a factory finish fails when the surface is not abraded properly first. The new coat sits on top instead of bonding, and it peels in the traffic lanes.
How the housing in Franklin Mills compares
Of the 1,558 housing units in Franklin Mills, roughly 20 were built before 1940 and approximately 1,000 before 1978.
That makes the housing here newer than the 132 Philadelphia neighborhoods in our data taken together, where approximately 82.8% of 733,961 units predate 1978, and above the 60.5% figure for our whole service area. By the share built before 1940, Franklin Mills ranks 130th of those 132. The full table is published as open housing data.
Within Philadelphia, the oldest housing in our data is in Cedar Park, with a median year of 1925, and the newest is in Kensington, Old, at 1997.
| Place | Median year built | Built before 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| Franklin Mills | 1968 | 1.0% |
| Millbrook | 1965 | 3.7% |
| Parkwood Manor | 1964 | 4.4% |
| Modena | 1965 | 5.0% |
| Normandy Village | 1967 | 0.0% |
| Morrell Park | 1967 | 3.4% |
| Academy Gardens | 1961 | 6.2% |
For refinishing, the pre-1940 share is the figure to watch. Those are the floors most likely to have been sanded before, and the ones we measure most carefully before quoting.
What is usually under the floor here
Prefinished solid or engineered wood, and whether it can be sanded at all depends on the wear layer.
Housing from the 1980s and 1990s brought factory-finished floors and engineered construction into the mainstream. Both look like wood because they are wood, and both behave differently under a sander than the site-finished floors that came before.
Engineered flooring has a real wood layer over a plywood core, and that layer can be anything from a generous four millimeters to under two. Under two, sanding is not on the table. This gets measured, not assumed, and the answer decides whether the conversation is about refinishing or about replacement.
Worth knowing here
Factory finishes are usually aluminum oxide, which is harder than anything applied on site. It does not accept a new coat without proper abrasion, and skipping that step is why recoats peel.
Whether the federal lead rule applies depends on the house
Approximately 67.1% of the homes here predate 1978, so it comes down to the specific address.
This is a place where the housing stock straddles the 1978 line the EPA rule draws. Roughly half the addresses are covered and roughly half are not, which means the answer is per house rather than per town.
Where it does apply, the rule governs how the sander is set up: containment and a HEPA vacuum collecting dust where it is generated. We check the age of the house before deciding how the work is staged.
How hardwood floor refinishing runs
We look at the floor
We measure remaining thickness, check for movement, and find what is under any covering before quoting anything.You get one number
Labor and any material in a single figure, with the finish specified by name.The room comes out
Furniture and coverings out, work area sealed, vents covered.Sanding in passes
Coarse to fine, then edger and hand work at the perimeter.Finish goes down
Coats applied on the cure schedule, not on ours.We walk it with you
In raking light, before anything goes back in the room.
What is included in hardwood floor refinishing
The job covers the inspection, the sanding in passes, the finish in coats and a walk through at the end. Color changes, board repair and moisture problems are separate work, and we say so before the quote rather than after.
Included
- A visit from the owner to look at the floor and measure the wood left above the tongue.
- One figure for labor and material, with the finish specified by name.
- Sealing the work area and covering the vents before the machines start.
- Three sanding passes from coarse to fine, with vacuum extraction at the machine.
- Edger work at the perimeter and hand work in corners, around radiators and under the toe kick.
- Finish applied in coats on the cure schedule, then a walk through with you in raking light.
Not included, or quoted separately
- Stain or a color change. That is its own step, decided on samples, and it adds to the job.
- Replacing rotted, split or missing boards. Board repair is scoped once we see what the floor needs.
- Fixing a moisture problem. Gaps that never close and cupping get diagnosed before anyone sands.
- A sanding job that leaves nothing to clean. Extraction catches most of the dust, not all of it.
What changes the cost of hardwood floor refinishing
We set the price after seeing the floor, not before. What moves it most is the area and how it is divided into rooms, the condition of the wood under the old finish, and which finish goes down.
| What changes it | How it moves the price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Floor area and layout | More floor is more sanding and more finish. Small rooms, closets and hallways add edger and hand work that one open room does not. | One open living room goes faster per square foot than the same area split across three bedrooms and a hall. |
| Condition of the wood | Cupping, deep stains and boards that need replacing add sanding and repair work before any finish can go down. | A floor found under old carpet often has tack strip holes and staples to deal with before the first pass. |
| Finish type | Oil-modified polyurethane costs less than a waterborne finish. The product is named in the quote so you can compare like with like. | A rental turnover with a hard deadline and a family home with a dog can point to different products. |
| Stain or natural | A color change adds the sample step, the stain itself and its drying time before the first coat of finish. | Keeping red oak natural is a shorter job than taking the same floor to a dark brown. |
| Age of the house | In a house built before 1978 the federal lead rule can govern how the sander is set up, and that setup takes time. | A 1920s row home with painted baseboards gets a different setup than a 1990s house with the same floor. |
The full method, the equipment and what we will and will not promise are on the service page: Hardwood Floor Refinishing.
Also in Franklin Mills
Dustless Floor Sanding
Vacuum-extraction sanding
Solid Hardwood Floor Installation
Solid wood, nailed down over a wood subfloor
Engineered Hardwood Installation
Real wood over a stable core
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) Installation
Waterproof, quiet, and it does not care about a wet basement
Custom Stair Installation
Treads, risers, stringers and skirt board, built to a drawing instead of a catalog page
Stair Refinishing
Stairs take more wear per square foot than any floor in the house, and they are sanded almost entirely by hand
Hardwood Floor Repair
Board replacement, weaving in new wood, squeaks, gaps and cupping
Why homeowners hire Deco Hardwood Floor
Deco Hardwood Floor is owner operated: the person who quotes hardwood floor refinishing in Franklin Mills is the person responsible for it, and the material comes with the labor in one number.
Material and labor in one number
We buy the flooring direct from the distributor and pass the store price through, so you are not sourcing wood on your own between quotes.
Samples come to your house
Samples and larger offcuts come to you, so the color gets chosen in your own light instead of under a showroom lamp.
Stairs and railings built in house
Treads, risers, handrails and newel posts are drawn and built by our own crew. Most flooring crews subcontract stair work or decline it.
The owner quotes the job
The person who measures your floor is the person responsible for the work. There is no salesperson in between.
Measured before it is promised
Remaining thickness is measured at the edge of a board before we say a floor can be sanded, and no price is firm before we have seen the room.
Told straight, including the limits
Vacuum extraction catches most of the sanding dust and not all of it. We tell you that before the job instead of after.
More about who we are and what we will not claim on the About Deco Hardwood Floor page.
Questions about hardwood refinishing in Franklin Mills
How long before I can walk on it?
It depends on the finish. Waterborne products let you back on the floor far sooner than oil-modified polyurethane, and furniture always waits longer than feet. We give you the schedule for the specific product before we start.
Will refinishing fix gaps between the boards?
Not permanently. Solid wood moves across its width with the seasons, so gaps that open in winter close again in summer. Gaps that never close point at a moisture problem, and that gets diagnosed before anyone sands anything.
Can you match a new section to my existing floor?
Often, with sample boards made from your actual wood before anything is committed. Species, age and prior finish all affect it. Matching is a promise we make after testing, not before.
Do I have to leave the house?
Usually not, though you cannot use the rooms being worked on. Odor is a real factor with oil-modified finishes and much less so with waterborne, which is one reason the finish choice is part of the conversation.
Can you tell me what my floor needs over the phone?
We can tell you what is likely, and this page is most of that answer. What we cannot do is quote a floor we have not seen, because remaining thickness and what is under the covering both decide the job and neither is visible in a description.
Do you bring the material?
Yes. We buy direct from the distributor and the material lands in the same number as the labor. Samples and larger offcuts come to the house so you choose in your own light.
How do I know if my engineered floor can be refinished?
By measuring the wear layer, which is the real wood on top of the core. Above about three millimeters there is room to work. Below two there is not, and no amount of care changes that.
Hardwood Refinishing near Franklin Mills
Send a photo and we will tell you what you are looking at
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Franklin Mills starts with someone reading the house. We quote every job ourselves, with no salesperson in between, and a photo of the floor gets you a straight answer faster than a form does.
