What Affects the Cost of Hardwood Floor Installation (Solid & Engineered)?

These are the factors we work through on every installation, for solid and engineered floors alike.

Species, grade and plank width

Red oak, white oak, hickory and maple are priced differently, and harder species take longer to sand. Grade matters too. Select and No. 1 boards are cleaner, while No. 2 and character grades keep more knots and mineral streaks. Wider planks cost more and ask for a flatter subfloor. Our wood grades guide explains the differences. In Woodstock we replaced an old engineered floor with solid No. 2 grade white oak.

Site-finished or prefinished

Prefinished boards arrive with the finish on. Site-finished floors, including the unfinished engineered white oak our video calls our most popular engineered flooring, are sanded, stained and coated in your home. That adds sanding, stain, finish coats and drying days, but you choose the color and sheen. Which route costs less depends on the product and finish system; the schedule is what changes reliably. See our finishes and stains guide.

Nail-down, glue-down or floating

How the floor is held down changes labor and materials. Solid hardwood is nailed to a wood subfloor. Engineered hardwood can be nailed, glued or floated, depending on the product and the subfloor. Adhesive and a moisture barrier add material and time; a floated floor adds underlayment instead. The plank maker’s instructions decide which methods are allowed, so the product you pick can change the method.

Slab or plywood subfloor

Plywood is the simplest surface for hardwood. A concrete slab means moisture testing, possibly a barrier, and usually engineered planks rather than solid. On a Canton job we put engineered white oak on the concrete main level and solid white oak upstairs. In another Canton home, David’s notes say the thick veneer of wide engineered planks gives the stability needed over concrete.

Leveling and subfloor repair

Hardwood needs a flat, sound subfloor, and problems often show up only after the old floor is up. On a Roswell job, David’s notes describe removing tile mud beds and hardwood installed over particle board, then adding new plywood and sleepers to level the subfloor. Squeaks and soft spots get fixed before new boards go down. A good quote flags subfloor work as a possibility so it does not arrive as a surprise.

Removing the old floor

Carpet comes up quickly. Tile, glued vinyl, old LVP and old hardwood take longer, and the haul-off is part of the cost. In a Cumming home we removed old LVP and carpet before the new white oak went in, and in Woodstock we took out engineered planks that had lost their luster. Send a photo of what is down now.

Stairs

Stairs are quoted on their own. Each tread, riser and nosing is measured, cut and fitted by hand, and stairs are usually the slowest part of an installation for the floor area they cover. Some homeowners also want new railings to match; on the Cumming job the stairs and railings were upgraded with the new floor. Our stair parts store covers posts and balusters.

Patterns, borders and inlays

A straight layout is the fastest. Herringbone, borders and inlays take much more layout time, cutting and waste. Our Cumming job included herringbone in the entryway, the upstairs hallway and in front of a bedroom, and David notes that herringbone calls for precision. Another job used wider planks as a border around a master bedroom and its closets. If a pattern is on your list, tell us early.

Matching into existing floors

New wood next to old has to match in species, width, grade, stain and finish. It often means refinishing the surrounding floor so old and new read as one surface. We have laced new red oak into existing red oak on several jobs. On the Canton job above, the solid oak upstairs was finished with Bona Natural Seal and Bona Traffic HD to match the factory-finished engineered floor below.

It is fair to want a number up front. Here is why we hold off. Two houses of the same size can need completely different work once the old floor comes up: one has clean plywood ready for new boards, the other has tile mud beds to remove and a subfloor to level first.

A figure pulled from a website, with no idea what is under your carpet, would be a guess dressed up as a quote. We would rather give you a real, itemized number for your actual floor. The same reasoning applies to refinishing; see our hardwood floor refinishing cost guide.