Pompano Wood Flooring: Engineered Hardwood, Solid Wood Floors & Refinishing

Engineered boards are a real hardwood top layer bonded to a layered core, and they're the forgiving choice on concrete. The NWFA's magazine puts it bluntly: every on-grade slab has moisture and always will. Glue-down is the usual method there. HomeGuide says it costs more than floating because of the prep, adhesive and moisture-proofing, and it prices engineered at $9 to $20 a square foot installed.

See engineered hardwood installation for glue-down, floating and click-lock methods side by side.

Solid oak, maple or hickory is wood all the way through, which is why it takes so many sandings. HomeGuide says solid isn't installed directly over concrete, so it fits best where there's a wood subfloor, such as the upper story of a house. HomeGuide prices it at $11 to $25 a square foot installed. On the Janka hardness scale, the Wood Database lists red oak at 1,220 pounds-force and hickory at 1,880.

See solid hardwood flooring for nail-down over plywood, or exotic hardwood flooring if you're weighing Brazilian cherry, ipe or teak.

White oak has a pale, quiet grain and rates a little harder than red oak, at 1,350 on the Janka scale. Width is the thing to think about in this climate. Wagner, the moisture-meter maker, says boards wider than 3 inches should be within 2% moisture content of the subfloor, against 4% for narrow strip. HomeGuide puts white oak materials alone at $6 to $12 a square foot.

See white oak flooring for plain-sawn, rift and quartered boards and how they compare with red oak.

Herringbone sets short boards at right angles in a zigzag. Chevron cuts the board ends at an angle so they meet in a point. Both are laid out from a center line and finished with a border cut to fit the room, so there's more cutting than on a straight-plank floor. Ask for the pattern labor and the extra waste as their own lines on the quote, and how the border meets each doorway.

See herringbone wood floors for layout and waste, and parquet flooring for block floors and restoring older ones.

A full refinish sands the floor back to bare wood, stains it if you want a new color, and seals it with fresh coats. HomeAdvisor, Fixr and Bob Vila all land on $3 to $8 a square foot. Bob Vila's city table puts Miami at $2 to $6.10, the only South Florida figure we found. HomeGuide allows two to six days for the job and adds $2 to $4 a square foot for dust-contained sanding.

See hardwood floor refinishing for finish systems and cure times; color choices have their own page, hardwood floor staining.

When the finish is worn but the wood under it isn't, the floor can be buffed with a screen and given a new top coat instead of a full sanding. HomeAdvisor, Fixr and Bob Vila put it at $1 to $2.50 a square foot. It's a finish treatment only. Gray, water-stained or deeply scratched boards still need sanding or replacing.

See screen and recoat for the wax test and recoating factory-finished planks.

Stairs are priced by the step, not by the square foot. HomeGuide puts new hardwood stairs at $100 to $250 a step, or $1,800 to $6,300 for a 12- to 16-step run including removal and finishing. Refinishing the treads you already have costs $25 to $85 a step. If carpet is coming off, look at what's under it before deciding between the two.

See hardwood stair treads for new and retrofit treads. Keeping the treads you have? Try stair refinishing.

Where a house has ceramic tile set on the slab, getting it up is the messy part. HomeGuide prices floor tile removal at $2 to $7 a square foot and says floor tile costs more to remove than wall tile. If the bare slab isn't flat, self-leveler goes down next: HomeAdvisor quotes $1 to $5 a square foot before labor, and only where the slab hasn't dropped more than an inch.

See tile removal for terrazzo and dust control, or hardwood floor removal when the old floor is wood.

In a condo above another unit, the floor has to keep footsteps out of the neighbor's ceiling. The Florida Building Code sets IIC 50 and STC 50 between dwelling units. Pompano Beach asks for an acoustic report proving the floor plus its underlayment meets both, matched to your slab thickness and whether there's a drop ceiling below. The association's approval letter goes in with the permit.

See condo hardwood flooring for the permit papers, the inspections and tested underlayments.

Cupping, where the board edges rise above the middle, is most often seen next to an exterior door or in front of the kitchen sink, an NWFA magazine article notes. Find and stop the water first, then ask for moisture readings before boards are replaced. HomeGuide prices board replacement at $5 to $20 a square foot and serious water damage at $10 to $80.

See water-damaged wood floor repair for cupping, crowning and buckling, and hardwood floor repair for gouges, gaps and single boards.