Hardwood Floor Refinishing Cost in Burlington (2026)

Hardwood floor refinishing in Burlington runs $4-$9 per square foot as of 2026. A standard full job - sand to bare wood, stain, two or three coats of polyurethane - sits at $4-$6 per square foot, with premium restorations reaching $6-$8 and simple recoats dropping as low as $2-$3.

Put against real houses: a 1950s Roseland bungalow with 900 square feet of oak strip typically refinishes for $4,000-$6,500; a two-storey with 1,400 square feet of wood runs $6,000-$11,000. Stairs price separately at $50-$125 per step, and most quotes exclude 13% HST.

The comparison that matters is replacement. New solid hardwood costs $8-$15 per square foot supplied and installed before tear-out, so refinishing typically delivers a like-new floor for about half the money - when the boards deserve it. Refinishing sits alongside installation in our Burlington flooring service.

Every worn floor lands in one of three tiers, and the difference between them is thousands of dollars.

Screen-and-recoat, $2-$3 per square foot. The existing polyurethane gets buffed and fresh coats go on top. Right for floors that are dull and lightly scratched but not worn through - the finish still beads water. Done every 5-7 years, a recoat can postpone full sanding almost indefinitely.

Full refinish, $4-$6 per square foot. Sanding to bare wood, optional stain, new finish system. Right when scratches have reached the wood, traffic lanes have gone grey, or you want a different colour. This is the tier most Burlington calls turn out to need.

Restoration, $6-$8 per square foot. Everything above plus board replacement, repairs, custom stain matching, or oil-based and specialty finishes. Dustless equipment adds its own band at $4.50-$7, and hardwax oils like Rubio Monocoat run $5-$8.

The honest diagnosis takes minutes in person and cannot reliably be done from photos - finish wear and wood wear look similar on a phone screen and cost very different amounts.

Burlington's older neighbourhoods - Aldershot, the downtown core, Roseland - hold housing from pre-war through the 1950s and 60s, and the original oak in those homes is usually excellent lumber worth saving. It just needs honest repair work before the big sander touches it.

What seventy-plus years leaves behind: pet stains that have soaked deep and gone black, water marks at patio doors and radiators, gouges from furniture generations, boards cut and patched by old heating retrofits, and top-nailed repairs that must be countersunk before sanding. Individual board replacement is routine - we weave new oak into the existing floor and stain to blend - but it belongs in the quote up front, not as a mid-job surprise.

Seasonal movement deserves a word too. Lakeside humidity in summer and forced-air heat in winter cycle these floors every year, so hairline winter gaps in an older Burlington home are normal. Wide gaps, cupped boards or peaking are a moisture problem to solve before refinishing - our answer on why hardwood floors cup and gap explains the difference, because sanding a cupped floor flat while the moisture source remains just guarantees a repeat.

Sanding is the labour; what goes back on decides the final look, the price, and the schedule.

A clear-coated natural oak floor is the baseline. Adding stain adds a day and a cost premium, and dark stains - still popular in Burlington's updated mid-century homes - are the most demanding option on the menu: every sanding imperfection shows through espresso stain that natural oak would forgive. Going light-to-dark is straightforward; taking a previously dark floor back to Scandinavian pale takes extra sanding passes and sometimes a bleaching step.

On topcoats, water-based polyurethane dries fast, stays clear rather than ambering, keeps odour manageable in an occupied house, and modern commercial-grade product is durable enough for family life. Oil-based costs slightly less per coat, ambers warmly, and stretches the schedule with longer dry times and stronger fumes. Hardwax oil is the premium outlier at $5-$8 per square foot - matte, natural, spot-repairable - with more owner maintenance in exchange.

Sheen is free but consequential: matte and satin hide dog scratches and dust; gloss showcases every one of them. We steer most Burlington families to satin.

The arithmetic favours refinishing more often than showrooms suggest. Refinishing at $4-$9 per square foot versus new solid hardwood at $8-$15 installed - plus tear-out, disposal, and new transitions - means restoration usually costs 40-60% of replacement for the same room.

Refinish when the boards are sound, thick enough to sand (solid strip takes two to five sandings over its life), and you like the species and width. Original old-growth oak in an Aldershot or Roseland home is routinely better wood than new stock; keeping it is both the cheaper and the better outcome.

Replace when boards are structurally gone - deep rot, flood cupping that will not settle, black stains through the full thickness - or when the floor has been sanded to its limit and tongues are showing. Replace, too, when the design brief simply cannot be met by the existing floor: no refinish turns 1950s 2-inch strip into wide-plank white oak. In that case our hardwood installation service can quote replacement alongside a refinishing price so the premium is a known number, not a guess. For the broader market picture, see our flooring cost guide.

Plan for a main floor to be out of service for roughly 3-5 days on a full refinish. Day one and two: furniture out, repairs, sanding. Then stain, then finish coats with drying time between. A screen-and-recoat compresses to one day plus overnight drying.

With water-based finishes you can walk through in socks about 24 hours after the last coat, return furniture after 2-3 days, and lay rugs after a couple of weeks of curing. Add a buffer if you choose oil-based or if humid summer weather slows drying - and in winter, keep the humidifier running afterward so freshly finished boards do not gap over their first heating season.

Most Burlington clients sequence the work around a long weekend away, which neatly covers the smelliest days. If refinishing is part of a larger renovation, floors go near the end - after drywall, painting and cabinet work, before final trim touch-ups. We have sequenced that work since 2004, and every project carries our 2-year workmanship warranty with full licensing, insurance and WSIB coverage. Request a free quote or call (416) 995-7855 for a firm assessment of which tier your floor actually needs.