Hi, I am moving into a new house next month in South Philly (close to 12th and Passyunk) and am looking to rip up the carpets and refinish the hardwood floors and was wondering if anyone can reccomend a relaible, cheapish firm or person that could perform this service.

Thanks.

I'm looking too, anyone?

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that's a good idea.

BTW...It's not terribly hard to refinish hardwood yourself. I just helped a friend do it. You can rent the equipment at Home Depot/Lowes.

On second thought, I love doing home repair myself.

American Hardwood Floors
Dennis & Helene (they are married and Helene is the woman who answers the phone)
12 Stoneshire Drive
Glassboro, NJ 08028
856-863-8887
888-830-9663

these guys just refinished all of the hardwood floors throughout my house and did a fantastic job. there were also quite a few spots that needed repairs or replacement planks and they matched it up really nice. i just bought a house in fishtown and the floors were in terrible shape -- i wanted them to do all the work before i moved in so they wouldn't have to negotiate all the furniture and stuff. they were efficient, friendly, and i feel i got a very fair price ($2750 for 764 sq. feet, 12 stair risers & treads, and all the repair work).

chris

that sounds kind of expensive. I think the usual pricing is around $1-$1.50 per sq ft. my house in SF was 1050 sq ft and cost about $1200 with a decent size repair job.

i got quotes anywhere from $1.75 to $3.00 per sq. ft -- these guys did it for $2.50 and i had a recommendation from a friend -- so i went with 'em.

I highly recommend Tran's Hardwood Floor. They have done two of my houses (Baltimore Ave. and Osage Ave.) and I have nothing but praise for them. They sand and put 3 coats of polyurethane on the floors with a buffing process in between the first two coats. They were willing to sand each parquet square along the grain using a handheld sander for a nominal extra charge when others wanted to tack on 50% more. They make sure to get everywhere and are meticulous - filling in cracks and doing handrails and the front curve on steps by hand.

It's family run and operated - hardworking Vietnamese immigrants. In my first house the entire family from grandfather to grandson did 2800 square feet. They charge around $2 per square foot - fast and professional.

Tran's Hardwood Floor
215-744-4563
5902 Castor Ave.

Depending on what kind of shape the original hardwood floors are in you may want to consider putting luan(a thin sheet of wood) down over them, use it as a subfloor and have brand new prefinished hardwood floors installed. It may end up being cheaper and it will probably look nicer especially if the original planks are in bad shape. Both home depot and lowes post the price of installing the floor per square foot so you could at least determine if its more cost effective.

Sacrilege.

I did my own, and I don't think "easy" is a proper description. Sanding is certainly fine to do by oneself (however sand more than you think you need to) but I'd never attempt to polyurethane by myself again--I say pay to have it done when you're on vacation for a week.

Arch--I will definitely call your people in a few years when I want mine redone!

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Resident of Fishtown, Moderator of Fish/No. Libs/Kenzo forum, Real Estate Agent-Prudential Fox & Roach

All this hardwood finishing talk has me thinking...
My apartment is basically 2 rooms, and I have nowhere to put all my stuff...

Could I rent the stuff do one room one weekend, and then rent the stuff again and do it the next weekend? Or is that just a really bad approach?

Also by doing it myself, am I looking at spending 500-700 bux for about 750 sq ft?

If I can get someone to do it for 1.50-1.75 per sq ft, I'd rather have someone else do it.

Decisions....Decisions.

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