Hardwood Floors in Tiverton, RI

Expect $4,000 to $5,500 before stain, at the $4 to $5.50 per square foot that sanding and refinishing runs everywhere Weles works, Tiverton included. A single floor of a shore cottage near Stone Bridge usually stays inside the $1,500 to $6,500 that most one-level jobs cost; taking a Four Corners farmhouse down to bare wood on every level runs $6,000 to $12,000 and up. Stain adds 3 to 5 working hours per 1,000 square feet, and stairs, sanded tread by tread with an edger, are priced separately.

Often, yes. Installed hardwood runs $10 to $22 per square foot for material and labor, so 1,000 square feet lands between $10,000 and $22,000, but houses built before 1950 frequently need $2 to $10 per square foot of subfloor repair or overlay first, or $900 to $3,000 for a whole floor. That describes much of the older stock along the Sakonnet River and around Tiverton Four Corners; the median house in the Tiverton and Little Compton area dates from 1970, though, so a ranch of that vintage off Main Road usually has plywood underneath and skips the line.

Two different causes. The slope is the frame: sills and joists under the 1700s and early 1800s houses that make up the Four Corners historic district have settled over two centuries, and sanding cannot correct that, only leveling from below. The gaps are the boards: wide pine planks move far more across their width than modern 2¼-inch strip, so with indoor humidity near 50 to 60 percent in August and 20 to 30 percent once the woodstove runs, seams that close in June open again by February. Sanding a floor that old is a decision, since each full pass removes another 1/32 to 1/16 inch of wood.

The salt itself does not, but the moisture that travels with it does. A cottage on the Sakonnet shore or facing Mount Hope Bay breathes humid marine air much of the year, so the boards acclimate several days in the room they will be nailed into, the subfloor is metered, and nothing is fastened until wood and subfloor read within 4 percent of each other. A moisture barrier goes down over a crawlspace or slab, the fasteners are chosen so they will not oxidize and snap in damp air, and any board wider than 3¼ inches is glued as well as nailed so the seasonal swing cannot lift it.

The showroom at 800 Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill is the place, open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and about an hour and a quarter from Tiverton by way of Route 24. The stock there is prefinished engineered white oak, ash and oak, 9/16 inch thick in widths from 5 to 8-1/8 inches, sold by the square foot to homeowners as well as installers, and the same material can be delivered to a Tiverton job. Financing runs up to 12 months at 0%, and three project managers answer seven days a week at (617) 618-8395. Details are on the showroom page.