“Time is of the essence”…a statement so important that it’s written on a real estate contract, as you all know. Truth is, that statement holds true even after the real estate deal has been consummated. After the contracts have been signed there will be more work to do, the work that will make the house look like home. These big renovations have a lot of moving parts and can be a lot to coordinate. There is always a timeline involved which makes it essential for all the trades to adhere to the timeline they give the home owner. So how long is is going to take to do the hardwood floors?
No one wants the other contractors messing up a brand new hardwood floor or newly refinished hardwood floor so we should be in last. That puts a bit of pressure on us to stick to a firm timeline as many times furniture is on it’s way and people are eager to move in to their new homes. The way we handle this pressure is by working efficiently and maintaining communication with the home owners so there are no unnecessary delays. We stick with a system that keeps us on point and ensures that we work in a timely fashion while still delivering exceptional results.
So how long to do a hardwood floor? An installation from 600-1200 sqft would take 2-3 days to complete. Figure 3 days if there is an existing floor to demo. Installs from 1200-2000 sqft would take 3-4 days to complete. Anything larger would most likely be 4-5 days. One factor that can extend these timelines is whether or not there is furniture in the house.
Refinishing hardwood floors takes longer to complete as the staining and finishing both require time to dry. If a hardwood floor refinishing project is within 600-1200 sqft and a stain is desired, the project will take 3 days to complete. One day to sand and stain, two days to apply the urethane finish. Jobs 1200 sqft and up will take 4-5 days to complete. Again, these timelines would increase if there is furniture, existing flooring to remove or repairs.
Many times in the summer months on very humid days the stain does not always dry in time to coat the floors with finish on the next day, thus causing a delay. The same can happen with the urethane finish. Now, there are finishes like acrylic and Bona that dry much faster and would result in being able to complete the work sooner. With those finishes, a 3 day job can be completed in 2 under ideal conditions.