Hello All,

New member and first time poster. I am looking to get my wood floors screened and recoated. I have 1,100 sq/ft of double cross grain red oak in very good shape. It's just been ten years since a recoat and I want to keep it in good shape. I have sourced three quotes, all of which are very different.

2 out the 3 contractors are roughly in the same ballpark. Both can screen and apply one coat oil based satin finish in a day. Pricing between $1.10 - $1.75 per sq/ft.

The third contractor will take 3 days and wants to remove all my baseboards and reinstall them for an additional $800. He feels the machine will damage the baseboards so he wants to remove them. I feel it is unlikely none of the baseboards will be damaged, and I am responsible for new baseboards plus painting if damaged. In addition, I would need to provide new caulking. Not to mention pricing is over $2 per sq/ft.

Questions for folks here:

1. Are the first two reasonable and are there any pitfalls or considerations I may not be thinking about?

2. Is this third guy adding additional work that is not necessary? Plus he wants to charge me 2-3 times more per sq./ft. as much as the first two. What am I missing here?

Thanks in advance. Yes, I'm a newbie to floors and glad I found this forum full of knowable folks.

CH

If you want only a screen and re-coat you will get what you pay for. The cured finish needs to be abraded creating tooth for the next coat to adhere. Are you responsible for cleaning the floor? Worn floors can be hard to clean because of fine scratches that hold soil. Screening will help remove some of the dirt, along with oxidized finish. The directions for re-coating that I have seen on finish cans recommend 100 grit screens. Which will give plenty of tooth for the next coat to stick. The problem that I have seen is that after a "thin" coat of poly you can notice screen marks through the finish. It can take two coats to fill in the scuffing that a thorough screening can leave.
The room will require hand sanding around the perimeter which will eliminate problems from a machine rubbing against the base board.
Another coat of regular poly will add a layer of color that has been removed by aggressive cleaning or the screening process since oil based poly-urethane has an amber color. The important thing is good adhesion.