Most flooring companies bill dust extraction as an extra. On every Milton, MA job it is already in the price. And if you need to stay in the house while we coat, Bona Traffic HD has your furniture back in three days, where an oil-based finish keeps you out for fourteen.
Free EstimateDustless sanding by default with HEPA 90-95% dust protection.
0% financing available for up to 12 months.
Certified by Lagler, Loba, Wakol, Bona, and American Sanders.
Dedicated project managers, in-house showroom, fully insured.
If part of your Milton floor is worn through or covered in tile, you probably don't need new wood in every room. We sand and refinish the boards that are still sound and lay new ones only where the old floor is gone. Refinishing costs $4 to $9 per square foot, about $3,600 to $8,100 for a 900 square foot first floor. The new boards go down first. Then old and new are sanded together and get the same finish.
That is how one of the two Milton jobs further down this page went. The kitchen had dark tile. We took up about 200 square feet of it and laid 2 1/4 inch red oak, the same strip as the rooms around it. Then came 1,350 square feet of sanding and 12 stair treads. One coat of Bona NaturalSeal and three coats of Traffic HD Satin went over all of it, so the kitchen now reads as part of one floor.
Milton houses are big. The median home has 7.2 rooms, and 75% are detached single-family houses. With that much floor, you don't have to do everything at once. Start where the wear is, usually the kitchen and the main living rooms, and leave bedrooms that see less traffic for another year. Doing a whole floor in one visit keeps every room on it the same color. The stairs can go with either part.
If your house is across the line in Quincy or Canton, those towns have their own pages.
Finished floors from the Milton, MA area and beyond, photographed on the job rather than bought from a stock library. Refinishing, new installation and stair work.
See the wood species in person or online. You can browse the showroom online or visit us at 800 Boylston St, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.
Our own photographs, taken on site.
Milton Refinishing
Dark, worn patches ran across the boards in the kitchen and the wood-stove room. Sanding took them out, and the floor stayed. Loba Transparent, an oil sealer, went under Bona Traffic HD Satin, which kept the wood warm in color.
Milton Installation
Dark tile covered the kitchen, and the oak in the office had gone yellow and glossy under its old finish. The tile came up, and new red oak strip went down to match the rest. Then the whole floor and the stairs were sanded and finished pale with Bona NaturalSeal under Traffic HD Satin. The kitchen now runs into the living room as one floor.
In both Milton houses, the finish set the color. In the house with the new kitchen oak, the old finish had turned the red oak yellow and glossy; the office photos on this page show it. One coat of NaturalSeal, a water-based Bona sealer, under three coats of Traffic HD Satin took the floor back to a pale, close-to-raw look. With white cabinets and a wall of glass doors, a light floor suits that house.
In the second house the finish went warm. Its boards, in the kitchen and a room with a wood stove, had dark, worn patches. We sanded the patches out, sealed the wood with Loba Transparent, an oil sealer, and put Bona Traffic HD Satin on top. The boards came out an even, deep tone.
Pale or warm is mostly a question of light and of what the floor sits next to, like the cabinets and the trim. If neither sealer gives you the color you want, stain can.
In a large open room, ask about our High-end sanding option. It adds the Lagler Trio, which we use most on big open floors, and it takes out the straight and chatter marks the belt sander leaves. All three options are on our refinishing page.
More About Refinishing
In the first Milton house, new wood meant the kitchen. About 200 square feet of dark tile came up, and we laid 2 1/4 inch red oak in its place, the same width as the strip in the rooms next to it. The new oak got the same NaturalSeal and Traffic HD coats as the old floor, so nothing shows where the tile used to stop.
New wood only where the floor is gone costs less than a whole new floor, and the rooms still match. If a few boards are broken rather than missing, our repair work replaces just those and blends them in.
When you add wood next to an old floor, the board width matters more than the color. Color comes from the finish, which old and new boards share. Width does not: a board even an inch wider than the 2 1/4 inch strip beside it shows in every row, however well the coats match.
Long-term Investment
Proper Installation
Moisture Regulation
Appropriate Underlayment
Species, grades and finishes from the Chestnut Hill showroom
We stock and source the species most Massachusetts floors are built from: red oak, white oak, maple, ash, birch and walnut, plus the stains, adhesives and finishes that go with them. Samples are in the showroom at 800 Boylston St, and we sell to homeowners, builders and other flooring contractors.
Most homes in the Milton, MA area built between roughly 1900 and 1960 have 2¼″ plainsawn red oak strip. If you are repairing or extending a floor rather than replacing it, width, species and cut all have to line up, or the new wood will always read as a patch. Bring in a loose board or an offcut and we will match it against stock.
The products page goes further into grades, how each species behaves underfoot, and when engineered board or luxury vinyl is the better call than solid wood.
Browse productsSquare footage and service type are enough to price the job. You get a number back within one business day, and 0% financing is available for up to 12 months.
Request Free EstimateEvery job uses dustless sanding, with HEPA extraction that keeps roughly 90 to 95% of the dust out of the rest of the house. We check moisture before fastening a board and hold the subfloor-to-wood difference inside 4%. Seven crews run the work, and a project manager answers seven days a week.
Request estimate
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Refinishing costs $4 to $9 per square foot. At today's rate, the 1,350 square feet sanded in the Milton job with the new kitchen oak would come to $5,400 to $12,150. That covers the flat floor; the 12 stair treads and the new kitchen oak in the same job add to it. For your own floor, start with the estimator. After that we come out, look at the floor and put the price in writing.
New hardwood, materials and labor together, runs $10 to $22 per square foot. For a kitchen the size of the Milton one on this page, about 200 square feet, that is $2,000 to $4,400 at today's rates. Leveling the subfloor adds $2 to $10 per square foot where it is needed, and we can only tell once the tile is up. Tile removal has no set rate, so it goes into the written estimate after a visit.
Sanded, as long as there is wood left to sand. In the second Milton house on this page, the kitchen and a room with a wood stove had dark, worn patches across the boards. That floor was sanded and refinished, not replaced: Loba Transparent first, then Bona Traffic HD Satin, and the patches are gone. Replacing a floor like that costs $10 to $22 per square foot; refinishing it costs $4 to $9. Only a board that is broken or too thin for another sanding needs to come out, and our repair work swaps just that board.
Yes. Bona Traffic HD is a water-based finish at 150 VOC, so in a two-story house you can live upstairs while we work on the first floor. Plan around the kitchen and the stairs. If the kitchen is in the job, it is out of use while it is sanded and coated, so line up easy meals for those days. If the stairs are included, they get coated too: pick the floor you will stay on while they dry.
Spring and fall are the easiest, because a Milton house is closest then to what the finish needs. Bona's data sheet for Traffic HD asks for a room between 64 and 77°F with 30 to 60% humidity while it goes on, and never below 55°F. Winter heat dries the air inside, and a humid August pushes the other way. Both seasons still work if a humidifier, a dehumidifier or air conditioning holds the rooms in range. Our seasons guide goes through each one.
Hairline gaps that open in February and close by June are seasonal. A heated New England house falls from 50 to 60 percent humidity in summer to 20 to 30 in winter, and solid oak shrinks with it. A gap still open in July is worth a call.
Read the full guide
Cupped boards that stayed nailed down usually flatten once the subfloor dries to within 4 percent of the flooring, which takes weeks rather than days. Buckled boards are replaced. Sanding too early turns cupping into crowning.
Read the full guide
With a water-based finish you stay home. Bona Traffic HD is 150 g/L VOC, dries in one to two hours a coat, and takes furniture after three days. Oil-based Woodline needs 14 days and an empty house.
Read the full guideWeles works across New England from two locations, with Greater Boston as home ground. Milton, MA is served from the showroom at 800 Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill and from the Ashland base, and one of three project managers picks up seven days a week. The map shows the Chestnut Hill showroom, where the plank stock and finish samples are kept.
Reach us at (617) 618-8395, send us an email at weles.usa@gmail.com, or simply fill out the form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
