Hardwood Flooring Concord MA | Install & Refinish

Yes, and the decision that matters is color. The 1952 Koch houses were built on 24 by 32 or 24 by 40 foot frames with open, multi-level plans, so one floor reads as a single surface and any amber cast shows everywhere at once. A water-based sealer in Nordic or Natural under Bona Traffic HD keeps the wood pale, and that finish does not change color over the years the way oil-based Woodline does. The level changes are edged and finished by hand where the big machines cannot reach.

Ask for the contractor's lead-safe certificate number in writing before any sanding starts. Harvey Wheeler built the 51 worker houses on Old Bridge Road, Cottage Street and Crest Street in 1889, and the Damon Mill cottages nearby are older still, so painted baseboards, thresholds and stair risers in West Concord may carry lead that an edger will disturb. Federal renovation rules and the Massachusetts lead law lay out how that dust is contained and cleaned up, and mill housing of this age is exactly what they were written for.

Sanding and refinishing runs $4 to $5.50 per square foot, which puts 1,000 square feet at roughly $4,000 to $5,500 before stain and a typical single floor between $1,500 and $6,500. Whole-house work on a Nashawtuc Hill scale runs $6,000 to $12,000 and up. Concord's noise bylaw allows work from 7am to 8pm on weekdays and Saturdays and 8am to 6pm on Sundays, so a crew can keep a full schedule without asking for a variance. The estimator converts your footage into a written figure.

Pine is soft, so it comes off fast under a 36-grit belt and we stop a grit earlier than we would on oak to keep the boards thick. Wide planks also move more than strip flooring: interior humidity in a heated Concord house drops to 20 to 30 percent in winter from 50 to 60 percent in August, so the gaps between wide boards open around February and close again by June. That seasonal movement is normal and is not a reason to fill the joints.

New flooring runs $10 to $22 per square foot with materials and labor, so 1,000 square feet lands between $10,000 and $22,000. Labor alone is $3 to $10, with straight-lay at the low end and herringbone or chevron at $8 to $10 and above. Any Concord structure 50 or more years old goes through the Historical Commission's demolition review, which is one reason older houses here get renovated rather than replaced, and their board subfloors often need $2 to $10 per square foot of flattening or overlay before the first strip is nailed.