Sanding & Refinishing
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Hunting Park, Philadelphia
Sand the old finish off, repair what needs repairing, and put a new finish down. The floor you already own, made new. In Hunting Park, Philadelphia the median home dates to 1932 and 60.8% of the housing predates 1940, which changes what Deco Hardwood Floor expects to find before the work starts.
Refinishing a floor in housing this old
In Hunting Park the first question is how much wood is left, because most floors here have already been sanded at least once by somebody.
Refinishing an original floor is a different job from refinishing a postwar one. Narrow strip oak laid over joists has no subfloor to hide behind: loose boards, old face nails and gaps that open every winter all have to be dealt with before the drum sander goes on, or the machine finds them for you.
So the visit starts at a heat register or a threshold, where the edge of a board is exposed, and the wood above the tongue gets measured. When there is enough, the floor is sanded in three passes and finished. When there is not, the honest options are a screen and recoat, which removes no wood, or replacing the boards that are spent and blending the new ones in.
Before you get a quote
Floors this old were often finished with shellac or wax, before polyurethane existed. A new coat does not bond over wax, which is why a recoat that looked like the small job can peel, and why we test the surface before recommending one.
How the housing in Hunting Park compares
Of the 6,943 housing units in Hunting Park, roughly 4,200 were built before 1940 and approximately 6,600 before 1978.
That makes the housing here older 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, Hunting Park ranks 26th 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hunting Park | 1932 | 60.8% |
| Franklinville | 1936 | 54.3% |
| Nicetown | 1928 | 69.5% |
| Feltonville | 1932 | 60.8% |
| McGuire | 1930 | 64.6% |
| Upper Kensington | 1928 | 70.8% |
| Logan | 1937 | 52.7% |
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
Housing this old normally holds narrow strip oak laid straight over joists, and often it has only one sanding left.
In a place where a large share of the housing predates 1940, the floor under the carpet is usually the original one. That means narrow strip oak, sometimes heart pine on upper floors, nailed straight to the joists with no plywood in between. It also means the floor has probably been sanded before, possibly more than once.
Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, roughly a quarter inch on a traditional floor. A floor that has already given up two of those sandings is a different job from one that has given up none, and the difference is not visible from standing height. We measure at the edge of a board before quoting.
Worth knowing here
Parquet and herringbone turn up under carpet in this stock more often than people expect, and they sand differently: the grain runs in two directions at once, so a drum sander used the normal way tears them.
The federal lead rule applies to most of the housing here
Approximately 94.8% of the homes here were built before 1978, which is the line the EPA rule draws.
Paid work that disturbs painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing falls under 40 CFR Part 745, and floor sanding reaches painted surfaces more often than people expect: the edger runs to the baseboard, the shoe molding and the door casing, and in older housing those carry many layers.
The part that matters for the equipment is 745.85(a)(3), which prohibits high speed machines that strip a coating on painted surfaces unless they carry containment and a HEPA vacuum collecting dust at the point of generation. That is a description of how the sander has to be assembled, not a suggestion about tidiness.
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 Hunting Park
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 Hunting Park 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 Hunting Park
What should I do before the crew arrives to refinish the floor?
Empty the rooms as far as you can and decide where you will live while they are closed. For hardwood floor refinishing the floor has to be completely clear, closets included. Take small and breakable things out yourself, and settle at the estimate who moves the heavy furniture. Plan a route through the house that avoids the work area, and tell us about any board that moves or squeaks.
Is hardwood floor refinishing safe with pets and children in the house?
Yes, as long as they stay out of the work area from the first sanding pass until the finish has cured. During hardwood floor refinishing the rooms are sealed, the machines are loud, and a wet coat holds every paw print. In a house built before 1978 the dust from painted trim is the real concern, which is why the federal lead rule sets how the sander runs there.
How many times can a hardwood floor be refinished?
Four or five times over the life of a traditional solid floor, because only the wood above the tongue can be sanded. Engineered floors depend entirely on their wear layer, and some cannot be sanded at all. We measure before quoting.
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.
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.
My house is from the 1920s. Can the floor still be sanded?
Often, but it is a measurement rather than an assumption. Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, and a floor that has been refinished twice already may have one pass left. We check at the edge of a board before quoting.
Hardwood Refinishing near Hunting Park
Send a photo and we will tell you what you are looking at
Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Hunting Park 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.
