Sanding Vs Screening Floor Costs

Hi Midtownite,

There was another blog with similar subject. Primer said that it usually costs $3 for the sanding job including stain. I think that was for 2 poly.

If your quote is $1950 including carpet removal. Assuming carpet removal is $150, that leaves $1800 for 450 sq. ft job for screening, sealer, stain, and 3 poly. It's $4 per sq. ft.

From what I learned, screening is supposed to cost a lot less than the sanding but don't know how much less. But $4/sq. ft sounds high to me. Perhaps being in Manhattan and smaller jobs cost more? Hope someone else can be more helpful than I.

Seems OK to me - IF the job is nicely done.

@midtownite: screen, stain and 3 coats PU should be around 3-4$/sqft so it comes to $1350-1800

Get quotes from here too to compare:
http://www.verrazanoflooring.com/verrazano/asp/sanding_refinishing.asp
http://www.pcwoodfloors.com/index.html

You may consider to remove the carpet yourself, you will need a box cutter to cut the carpet into 4ft wide strips for disposal a pair of pliers and a nail puller. Make sure no nails left after you removed the furring strips otherwise exposed nails may cut sandpaper on the sander.

Thanks for the information. We did talk down the price to something more reasonable.

Midtownite,

I would ask the super or someone in the building to remove the carpet, the floor to sand, stain and poly with three coats should cost around 1800.00, $2500 is not a bargain at all.

Do you live in an elevator building? If it s a5th floor walk up maybe it should be a little more but not $2,500.00. If you wanted the floor water popped then it should be around 2,300.00

Don't stain the floor.

primer05, is it the most busy/crazy season you have seen for renovation? do you think if it'll start to cool down soon?

Caonima,

I cant speak for everyone but busy is not the word. It has been like this for a while and I hope there is no end in sight.

Well, this project has turned into a disaster. The guy did screen it and I decided on a stain because I wanted a slightly darker floor. The stain came out uneven and when I asked them to fix it, they used Polyshade as the polyurethane over it. They never did get the color to be super even but I decided I could live with some splotchiness.

But then they messed up the final coat and there was pimpling all over the floor. We asked them to fix the pimpling and he assured us they could fix it, but the refinished part has swirls and circular scratches. And also the color is totally different now; very red and splotchier cause he piled on the Polyshade. In some parts it's pretty opaque and you can't even see the wood grain underneath it at all.

Really made a big mistake with thinking a non floor specialist could handle this job. Wish we had included that bit in the initial post, but we figured "what could go wrong with a stain and poly?". Apparently a lot! The only consolation is that we did not let him sand the floors.

I wonder if not sanding the floors WAS the problem. I'm thinking that the screening only removed part of the finish from the wood & therefore the staining came out blotchy, thus beginning the fiasco.

You didn't listen to Alan. Do not stain.

aboutready, sounds like you had a bad history with stain.

No, just doesn't often turn out well. Your stain results will totally depend on the type of wood and grain you have. You have almost no idea of how it will look one year down the road unless you do a wood sample and expose it to light. Stain is much different than paint.

aboutready, any thoughts on carpeting?

Fuck off.

To clarify, you just have thoughts on wood flooring, but not on carpeting?

Gb/hb/fc, any thoughts on the OP's question?

No? Of course not, you are just a troll.

So, if one were to search Streeteasy for threads about carpeting, there wouldn't be one on which you gave your opinion?

Would it be relevant to this thread, asshole?

Why do you curse so much?

Why are you such a nasty pedantic idiot? Why do you change handles so that you can dominate the board conversation and direction by bringing up useless older threads? Why are you so overwhelmingly narcissistic?

Which question do you want me to focus on first?

None. I'm actually not that interested. Many of the answers are a bit obvious.

Is that one of your husband's courtroom cross-examination tricks that you picked up?

No. And that's a stupid question. As it would never be an appropriate technique in such a setting, whether courtroom or deposition. Asshole.

Absolutely never?

Sorry, op, are you looking to do something more?

Sorry?

Yes. I have a good, cheap contractor who may be able to help if they want it, although I doubt they do at this point. I'm capable of feeling remorse, how about you?

Are you going to donate the lawsuit windfall you received?

Never mind. Just fuck off.

Why do you curse so much?

Midtownite,

You cannot screen and then stain. Screening the floor just takes off the poly and you then can apply new poly. You have to sand the floor before staining it. If you didn't hire a floor guy who did you hire?

You should get back all your money and hire a floor guy to do it right.

Of course Primer is right. Sounds like they tried to put stain down without getting all the old finish off. And polyshade is not suitable for floors. It is a hobbyist Minwax clear coat that dries think and dull, and cannot take floor traffic. No one in their right mind would put that on a floor.

He was a general contractor and he was doing the walls. I didn't see alan's comment about not staining before; I really wish I had but I missed it and I wasn't aware you couldn't stain after a screen. Our contractor seemed adamant that a nice stain would look great and I had wanted a slightly darker floor so we decided to go with it. We were initially backing out of having him do the floors but he was doing our walls and bathroom already and got pretty upset, so I decided to give him the chance to do the floors. Well that was a big mistake.

But even if we didn't do the stain and just did the poly, their top coat had so much debris it caused pimpling in the flooring that was very obvious. And he tried to get rid of the pimpling by sanding and now there's the swirls and circular scratches. And even the other polyeruthane besides the Minwax he was going to use also wasn't recommended for floors. We already paid him half and I'll bet he'll be upset if we don't pay the rest but it really came out poorly. He said it looked beautiful and I had told him it looked a lot better than the pimpling, but the more I look at the floor and talk to people, the more I realize that he doesn't really know what he's doing.

Midtownite,

Hiring a general contractor to perform all your tasks is fine. It is his responsibility to male it right. As I GC I have professional wood floor installers and refinishes. Your GC should have had a floor guy do the floors. Perhaps he used the cheapest floor guys he could find or decided to try to have his own men do it. There is nothing wrong with sanding and staining floors if the person who is doing knows how. I would call your GC tomorrow and demand either he gets someone else in or gives you your money back. Flooring is one of the easiest of renovations. This should not happen.

Thanks Primer. I talked to him this morning. He had his two guys who painted the walls do it. I don't think they're licensed because he was a bit shady when we were asking him questions about what licenses he had, and then later never produced them. He seemed very adamant that the job was almost done but I showed him the laundry list of things that were wrong and that he has only been making it worse when he tries to fix it himself.

He offered to not charge for the flooring, although I'm not sure how serious he is. I haven't told him yet that we are planning on getting a real flooring guy who is associated with the Hard Wood Flooring Association to take a look and fix the problem. He is still finishing the bathroom and kitchen today, which he had promised would be done over a week ago, but after today, he has to be done and gone.

Sue.

Midtownite,

I know many contractors that have licenses that are not very good and know some who don't have licenses who are good. Your only as good as you men. To have painters refinish the floor is like having your accounting fill your cavity.

It's smart to have a floor guy come in. He should charge around $3.00 sq ft to sand, stain and poly. Why a GC wouldn't just hire a floor guy is beyond me.

Midtownite, what colors were the original and the new stains?

Midtownite, I made the same mistake once - when I first started purchasing properties. I trusted my GC as well and got burned. I now go with a trusted GC who I have worked with on many of my Manhattan high-end renovations All Renovation Construction (www.allrenovationllc.com) and if I sub the floor out myself I'll use Carlos Wood Floors (carloswoodfloors@gmail.com). Good luck - live and learn my friend.

Best,
Adam K.

Any update from aboutready? If not, hopefully we'll hear back when she returns from her September vacation.