Worked case: an old waxed oak floor with wide seams in a Colonia house — steps and cost

The scenario

Picture a single-family house in a central Oxnard neighborhood from an older generation of building, a description that fits more than half of the city's homes. The owners moved in recently and are tired of a floor that looks cloudy no matter how it is mopped. The previous owner kept it shiny with paste wax.

The living room, the dining room and the hall add up to roughly 420 square feet. Between many of the strips, the seams have opened to the width of a coin edge, and dirt has collected in them. A drop of water on the surface beads up instead of soaking in, which is the sign that wax is on top.

Wax is the main issue. A new finish will not bond to it, so the finish is not simply recoated; the floor is sanded all the way through the wax to bare wood. The owners also ask about the seams. In a coastal climate where the air averages about 73% humidity, boards swell in damp months and shrink in dry ones, so some gap is natural, but a whole-floor fill is optional and is priced as a flat line.

A natural color is chosen to keep the oak's warmth. The oak's depth is checked at a floor vent before the work is booked, because several earlier sandings would leave little to take off.

What the job involves

1. The room is cleared, the baseboards are checked and the floor is tested with a drop of water and a patch of solvent to confirm wax.
2. A sander and an edger take the floor down to bare wood in coarse, medium and fine passes, with a vacuum system capturing dust.
3. The seams are cleaned, and a flexible filler is worked into those the owners want closed.
4. The floor is vacuumed and wiped, and coats of finish are rolled out with a light abrasion between coats.
5. The rooms stay closed until the finish maker's time has passed, then rugs and furniture return.

Materials and tools

• Drum or orbital sander and an edger, both on a vacuum hose
• Wood filler and flexible gap filler with knives
• Water-based or oil-modified finish and applicator pads
• Plastic sheeting and tape for doorways and vents

Add-ons often paired with this job

• Gap filling, whole floor — +$400–$1,500. Filling the seams across the whole floor is a flat line; filling a few is cheaper and can be done by the installer on the spot.

Why it is done this way

Wax is the hidden cost in old floors. A recoat would have been cheaper on paper, but the finish would peel, and the price of redoing it would exceed the saving. Sanding to bare wood is the honest answer and the reason the calculator carries a surcharge for old wax.

Seams between strips are a matter of taste more than of repair. Some owners like the look of an old floor and leave them; others want them filled. Because the filler is flexible, it moves with the boards instead of cracking.

The price comes from a rate per square foot, a surcharge for the wax, and one flat line for the filling. The rest is the contractor's measurement on site.

What would change the price

• The oak has been sanded so often that little wood is left and boards are replaced instead.
• The owners choose a stain rather than a natural color.
• The hall stairs are added to the job.
• Water stains in one corner need boards replaced.
• A test of the old paint on the baseboards finds lead and the work area is changed.