Hardwood Flooring in Rochester, NY

Hardwood flooring in Rochester is, more often than not, a restoration job. Census survey figures for 2019 to 2023, compiled by Point2Homes, put 56,089 of the city's housing units, or 53.7%, in buildings from 1939 or earlier, with another 8.2% from the 1940s and 10.2% from the 1950s. Houses of that age were built with solid wood floors, and many still have them, sometimes under carpet, sometimes under linoleum, sometimes under decades of wax and worn varnish. Before anyone talks about new boards, we want to know whether the old ones can be sanded and finished again. Usually they can.

Neighborhoods with original wood

The city's own history explains why so many rooms here have oak, maple or fir underfoot. Homes in the 19th Ward are known for gumwood trim, leaded glass, fireplaces and hardwood floors, and the neighborhood has four historic districts on the National Register: Arvine Heights, Chili-West, Inglewood and Thurston, and Sibley-Elmdorf. Corn Hill, the old Third Ward, is full of Victorian houses restored from the late 1960s onward. Browncroft, laid out on the grounds of the former Brown Brothers nursery, has many Tudor and Colonial houses. Maplewood's old mansions have largely been converted into multi-family buildings, which means one house may have three or four sets of floors in very different condition.

How we decide between refinish, recoat and replace

An old floor gets inspected before it gets quoted. We pull a floor register or check a threshold to see how much wood remains above the tongue, because every past sanding took some of it. We look for exposed nail heads, which tell us a floor has been sanded thin, and for dark stains near radiators, sinks and doors.

• Screen and recoat suits a floor whose finish is dull and scratched but not worn through to bare wood.
• Full sand and refinish takes the floor back to fresh wood and is the right call when the finish is gone in traffic lanes or the color is uneven.
• Board replacement handles the spots that sanding cannot fix, such as rotted boards by an old radiator or a pet stain that went deep.
• New installation is for rooms that never had wood, or where the old floor is simply too thin to sand again.

Painted trim and lead dust

In a house built before 1978, the baseboards, shoe molding and door casings next to the floor may carry lead paint. Under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, fully effective since April 22, 2010, work that disturbs lead paint in pre-1978 homes is supposed to be done by EPA- or state-certified firms using lead-safe practices. Sanding a floor is not the same as sanding trim, but the edge work happens right against painted wood. We talk through the trim with you before the job: whether shoe molding comes off, how edges are handled and how dust is contained and cleaned up. Landlords have one more reason to plan carefully, covered below.

Rental units and the city lead law

Rochester is mostly a renters' city. Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 put the owner-occupied rate at 38.1%. Since July 2006, the city's lead ordinance has tied rental Certificates of Occupancy to inspections for deteriorated paint, and units in designated high-risk areas must also pass a dust wipe test. If you own a rental and are planning a refinish between tenants, schedule it with your inspection date in mind and leave time for thorough cleanup. A screen and recoat, which involves light abrasion instead of full sanding, is often the practical choice for a unit that turns over every year or two.

Winter, salt and the gaps that come with it

The city averages 102.0 inches of snow a year under the 1991 to 2020 normals, much of it lake-effect snow off Lake Ontario, and January nights average 19.0°F. Furnaces running for months dry the air out. One Great Lakes flooring guide notes indoor humidity can fall to 20 to 30 percent in winter without a humidifier, that boards shrink and gaps open below 30 percent, and that manufacturers specify 35 to 55 percent year-round. The same guide warns that road salt mixed with meltwater leaves a milky film on finish and can cause white spotting within hours. A mat at every door and a humidifier on the furnace do more for an old floor than almost anything else.

What we do in Rochester

• Hardwood floor refinishing, from single rooms to whole houses
• Screen and recoat for finishes that are tired but intact
• Hardwood floor repair and board replacement, including matching older strip widths
• Hardwood stairs, treads and landings
• Solid hardwood floor installation
• Engineered hardwood flooring where solid wood is not the right fit

Getting a quote

Call (585) 632-6150 or send a few photos, including one of the floor at a register or threshold if you can. We look at the floor in person and give you a written estimate that spells out what will be sanded, repaired or replaced.

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