Worked case: a screen and recoat in a Creekside condo — what happens and what it costs

The scenario

Picture a second-floor condo built in the 2010s with engineered oak planks over a sound subfloor. The finish is dull in the traffic paths and shows light scuffs, but nothing has worn through to bare wood.

The floor measures about 450 square feet across the living area, hall and two bedrooms. The wear layer is thin, which makes sanding a poor choice, so a recoat is the answer to refreshing it.

Before anything is ordered, three water drops on a clean spot bead up, and a test patch shows that the new coat bonds. No wax or polish has been used on the floor, which would have made the recoat unreliable.

The condo's association requires notice for contractor work and limits hours. The owner also wants to know whether the work can be finished in a day; for a floor like this, a recoat is often a day or two, and the day people can walk on it follows the finish maker's data sheet.

What the job involves

1. The floor is cleaned and the water-drop test and a small test patch confirm the finish will bond.
2. Furniture is moved out of the work area and the baseboards are masked.
3. A buffer with a fine abrasive screen scuffs the surface evenly, and the dust is vacuumed and wiped.
4. One or two coats of finish are rolled on, with the drying time between coats set by the data sheet.
5. The rooms stay closed until the data sheet allows people, then rugs and furniture, to return.

Materials and tools

• Floor buffer with a screen pad
• Vacuum and tack cloth
• Water-based finish
• Masking tape and plastic sheeting

Add-ons often paired with this job

• Moving furniture out and back — +$150–$450. Moving furniture out and back is a flat line.

Why it is done this way

A recoat is the lightest of the refinishing jobs. It restores the top of the finish without removing wood, which is why it fits a thin wear layer and why it costs about half of a sand.

The calculator uses the same arithmetic as every other floor: a per-square-foot rate for the service, a surcharge for the condition of the floor, and flat options. A floor in good condition adds no surcharge.

The water test and the patch matter more than the machine. They answer the question every recoat depends on: will the new finish bond.

Condo floors add a layer of paperwork that houses do not have. The board of a typical association wants notice of the work, a contractor's insurance certificate and an elevator reservation, and some require the floor to stay free of strong odor in shared halls. Choosing a water-based finish, which has less odor than an oil-modified one, helps with that.

Time is the other thing owners ask about. With a thin wear layer the plan is to recoat every few years as the finish thins, never to sand, so the floor's life is stretched by maintenance rather than by one large job.

What would change the price

• The patch fails and the floor needs a full sand.
• The floor has had wax or polish applied.
• A second coat is added.
• Scratches through to bare wood need spot repairs.
• The floor is larger than 450 square feet.