*All cost estimates on this page are planning estimates, not quotes. Actual costs vary by location, project scope, materials, site conditions, and contractor. See methodology and sources.
Two hardwood floors of the same size can sit at opposite ends of the range. Most of the spread is four choices.
Hardwood is also the least forgiving floor about a flat subfloor, so a room needing leveling moves up the range before you choose anything. Diagonals and herringbone do the same, by raising the waste factor our own materials breakdown allows for at up to 15%. Then measure the room and multiply by the range above.
| Room | Floor area | Order with waste |
|---|---|---|
| 10 x 12 | 120 sq ft | 132–138 sq ft |
| 12 x 12 | 144 sq ft | 158–166 sq ft |
| Two rooms | 200 sq ft | 220–230 sq ft |
| Main floor | 500 sq ft | 550–575 sq ft |
| Most of a house | 1,000 sq ft | 1,100–1,150 sq ft |
| Whole house | 2,000 sq ft | 2,200–2,300 sq ft |
A hardwood bid should name the species, grade, board width and thickness, the fastening method, and the finish product with its coat count and sheen.
The line nobody asks for is the moisture reading. Wood arrives at one moisture content and your house sits at another, and a floor installed before those numbers meet will gap in winter or cup in summer. Ask for the subfloor and plank readings in writing, taken on install day. A contractor who records them is telling you the acclimation time on the schedule is real.
Check these appear as their own lines:
Commonly excluded: subfloor leveling, which the same breakdown puts at $1–$3 per square foot depending on the depth of the pour, plus squeak repair, doors that need trimming for the new height, and repainting the baseboard the sander touched.
Installation is the short part, usually one to three days for a room.
The wait is moisture and chemistry. The boards sit in the room first so their moisture content settles to your house. If the finish goes on in place, each coat dries before the next, then the whole floor has to cure before anything heavy comes back. Light foot traffic is allowed first and area rugs go down last of all, because a rug seals in solvent that is still leaving the finish. Waterborne finishes reach that point sooner than oil-based ones. Our flooring timeline guide breaks the stages down by material.
Both are real wood on the surface and both sit inside the range on this page. The choice is about where the floor is going.
| Solid | Engineered | |
|---|---|---|
| Build | One piece of hardwood | Hardwood wear layer over plywood |
| Usual method | Nailed to plywood | Glued, nailed or floated |
| Over a slab | Not directly | Yes, with the right barrier |
| Below grade | No | Some products; check the warranty |
| Refinishing | Several times | Depends on wear layer thickness |
What decides an engineered floor's life is the wear layer. A thick sawn layer sands like solid wood; a thin veneer cannot be sanded at all. Two products at the same price can differ completely on this, so ask for the wear layer thickness in millimetres before you compare anything else.
Hardwood suits dry, above-grade living space you intend to keep. It is the only floor on this site that can be sanded back and refinished instead of replaced. Homes with wood floors also tend to sell faster and for as much as 10% more, according to a National Wood Flooring Association survey of real estate agents.
Keep it out of wet rooms and off a below-grade slab, and think twice in a house with no humidity control, because the floor will move with the seasons and you will see it at the seams. If the floor you have is hardwood with life left in it, price refinishing first.
Within one species, three choices move the number.
Texture is the other lever. Smooth finishes show every scratch; wire-brushed and hand-scraped surfaces hide them, which matters more with dogs than any warranty does.
Floor Coverings International brings its full sample selection to your home, so you can compare flooring and carpet against your own walls and lighting before deciding. Homeowners across the franchise consistently name their local design consultant and describe an honest process, including being pointed toward a smaller repair instead of a bigger job they did not need. Installers are described moving furniture before starting and putting it back after. Local owners personally reply to reviews by name. Because each location is independently owned, ask how long the installation warranty runs and what is covered if a floating floor like LVP or laminate ever shifts.
Refloor fits luxury vinyl plank and little else: a narrow specialism, stocked, with installs often landing the day after you choose. Reviewers across its Midwest, Southeast and Northeast branches consistently name their installers and describe real care for the rest of the house along the way: furniture moved and reset, old carpet hauled off, subfloors levelled and repaired before the new floor goes down, and the site cleaned up as the crew works. The sales consultation draws the same kind of specific praise: homeowners name their rep and describe a clear walk-through of product, cost and the installation process before anything is decided. Because Refloor installs its own product, its service covers floors it originally put in; if you are finishing or repairing an existing floor from another installer, ask up front whether that is in scope. Their guarantee has four parts and is worth reading closely: the gap-free promise excludes gaps caused by subfloor movement or moisture, which is how most plank gapping actually happens, and the whole guarantee depends on completing a walk-through on the final day of installation.
50Floor brings the flooring samples to your home, so you choose in your own light against your own furniture, and quotes the whole job in one visit. Homeowners describe a consultant who laid out a wide price range without pushing a decision (walking through materials and options rather than steering toward the most expensive one) and installers come up by name for clean, efficient work. Two programs are worth understanding properly before you sign. The Gold Star Warranty covers installation-related problems, and their own materials describe its term two different ways, so ask which one applies to your contract and get it in writing. The Lifetime Love Your Floors Guarantee is a credit worth half your original price toward a replacement floor from 50Floor: a credit rather than a refund, and it has to replace all the original areas.
Express Flooring covers Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and stocks its own flooring rather than special-ordering it: the reason installs can often start within days of the in-home visit rather than weeks. Reviewers across its markets consistently name their installers, and the recurring praise is for speed: a full house of vinyl plank finished in a day and a half, a room of carpet installed the same week it was chosen. On a larger job, expect the crew to move furniture from every room at once rather than staging room by room, so ask how that will work around your household before scheduling. Their published disclaimers are worth reading before you sign rather than after: the installation warranty is limited, does not transfer to a new owner, and after the first two years the labor cost on any claim falls to you. Carpet cover also depends on documented annual professional cleaning, so keep the receipts.
National Floors Direct moves fast: many homeowners get an installation date within a day or two of choosing their flooring, and reviewers across its Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Florida and Texas markets consistently describe crews who move the furniture, work quickly, and clean up before they leave. The other strength reviewers name most is the shop-at-home consultation itself: a rep who brings samples to your house and lays out the options without much back-and-forth. Three things are worth locking down before you sign. Their price-match guarantee only holds if you bring a dated, written competing quote in on that first visit, not later. The standard right-to-cancel window is short and enforced strictly, so read that clause the day you sign. And if your subfloor needs extra prep once the old flooring comes up, that can add to the price, so ask how that is handled ahead of time.
Empire Today is built around convenience: a shop-at-home consultation with installation often available within a day or two, on exclusive lines like WhisperHOME® carpet and AquaDefense® waterproof LVP. The consultation is what reviewers praise most, and specifically: they name the consultant who came to the house, describe the visit as unhurried, and often mention that the price held up well against other quotes they had already collected. Installation crews draw the same kind of specific praise: arriving on time, walking the job before starting, and cleaning up before they leave. Because flooring performance can change over the life of a floor, ask now what the warranty covers if a plank ever lifts or separates down the road, not just what is covered on installation day, and get a direct service contact in writing at the time of sale.
