Services
Floor sanding and refinishing
How long does it take to refinish hardwood floors, and can you stay in the apartment?
A typical apartment refinish takes three to five days: sanding, staining if specified, then two to three coats of finish with drying time between them. You can usually return the evening the last coat is applied with waterborne finish, but furniture should stay off for a further 48 hours and rugs for two weeks while the finish cures fully.
- Typical duration
- 3–5 days per apartment
- Finish system
- Bona waterborne, or oil-modified on request
- Cure time
- 48h for furniture, 14 days for rugs
- Dust control
- Contained vacuum sanding
We sand with dust-containment equipment. It is not dustless — no one is dustless — but the difference between contained and uncontained sanding in an occupied building is the difference between a normal week and a complaint to the board.
Waterborne finish from Bona cures faster, smells far less and yellows less over time than oil-modified polyurethane. Oil-modified still has a place where a client specifically wants the amber warmth it develops.
Screen-and-recoat is the cheaper option and it is the right one more often than people expect. If the wear layer is intact and the damage is confined to the finish, there is no reason to take the floor back to bare wood.
Not every floor can be refinished. Engineered flooring with a 2mm wear layer that has already been sanded once has nothing left to give. We check before quoting.
Where we do this work
Floor sanding and refinishing is available throughout New York County (Manhattan), Kings County (Brooklyn), Queens County, Bronx County, Richmond County (Staten Island), Westchester County, Hudson County, Essex County, Union County, Bergen County, Passaic County, Monmouth County, Middlesex County, from the showroom at 1809 NJ-35, Oakhurst, NJ.