How Much Does Hardwood Floor Refinishing Cost?
No published price for refinishing a hardwood floor in Cedar Rapids is cited on this site. What exists are national cost guides from consumer websites, and they do not agree with one another. This article sets four of them side by side, each with its own date, and explains what the figures are and are not. They are national ranges. They are not Cedar Rapids prices, and they are not what this site or any contractor charges.
What four national guides say
Each guide states its figures differently, so the table shows what each one gives. A dash means the guide's material read for this article did not include that figure.
| Guide and date | Per square foot | Whole-project figures |
|---|---|---|
| Angi, hardwood floor refinishing cost guide (updated August 3, 2026) | $3-$8 | Average project $1,892; range $1,107-$2,681 |
| HomeGuide (2026) | $2-$8, or $2-$7 without staining and $3-$8 with | $800-$3,200 for 400 square feet |
| Thumbtack (last updated July 8, 2026) | - | National average range $1,498-$3,763; most people pay about $2,372; low end $774, high end $7,361 |
| Homewyse (May 2026) | $6.49-$7.92 | - |
NerdWallet (updated February 11, 2026) gives the same $3-$8 per square foot and attributes it to Angi, so it is not counted here as a separate guide.
Where the guides disagree
The guides disagree on almost every figure they share, and all four are from 2026. On the price per square foot, HomeGuide's range starts at $2 and Homewyse's starts at $6.49. On the average project, Angi says $1,892 and Thumbtack says about $2,372. Thumbtack says its figures are based on its own platform data, and its average is higher than Angi's. Homewyse is an outlier: its per-square-foot figure sits at the top of the other guides' ranges, and it comes from a calculator that adds up labor, supplies and equipment.
None of this makes any one guide wrong. The guides measure different things in different ways, and a range that spans a factor of four or more on the same job is a reason to treat any single number with caution.
Cost by project size
Angi gives figures by the size of the floor (updated August 3, 2026):
| Floor area | Angi's range |
|---|---|
| 40 square feet | $80-$280 |
| 100 square feet | $200-$800 |
| 250 square feet | $900-$1,800 |
| 400 square feet | $1,000-$2,500 |
| 1,000 square feet | $2,000-$5,000 |
For the same 400 square feet, HomeGuide (2026) gives $800-$3,200, a wider range than Angi's.
What raises or lowers a quote
The guides list a set of separate items that can be added to or taken out of a job. Where a guide gave no figure for an item, the table shows a dash.
| Item | Angi (August 3, 2026) | HomeGuide (2026) | Thumbtack (July 8, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanding alone | $0.50-$3 per square foot | - | - |
| Staining | Adds $1-$3 per square foot | $2-$7 per square foot without staining, $3-$8 with | - |
| Finish coats | $1-$2 per square foot for a finish coat | Extra coats $0.50-$1.75 per square foot | A gallon of water-based polyurethane $40-$50; oil-based $30-$40 |
| Stairs | - | $25-$85 per step | $80-$140 per step |
| Repairs | $200-$600 | $2-$20 per square foot, or $500-$1,500 | - |
| Carpet removal | $120-$720 | $0.25-$1.00 per square foot | - |
| Furniture moving | - | $20-$50 per room | - |
Angi (updated August 3, 2026) also gives figures by wood, per square foot: bamboo $2-$6; cherry, engineered, oak and parquet $3-$5; pine $4-$7; mahogany and maple $6-$8.
Several of these have their own pages. The restoration and repair page covers what the sources say about repair, and staining and color change covers what staining involves. Stairs are covered in the full refinishing guide page, where the two guides' per-step figures appear again: HomeGuide (as of 2026) $25-$85, and Thumbtack (last updated July 8, 2026) $80-$140.
Why quotes for the same job differ
The guides point to several sources of difference. The size of the floor changes the total, and Angi's size ranges do not scale evenly with area. Staining, extra coats, repairs, stairs, carpet removal and furniture moving can each be in or out of a quote. The wood matters in Angi's figures. And the guides collect their numbers differently: Thumbtack uses its own platform data, and Homewyse builds its figure from labor, supplies and equipment.
For that reason, two quotes for the same floor can differ without either being wrong, if one includes items the other leaves out. A written quote is easier to compare if it says which items are included and which are extra.
Who moves the furniture and removes the carpet
Furniture moving and carpet removal appear in the guides as extras, priced separately from the refinish. None of the guides says who does them or who pays; that depends on the quote. A quote should say whether either is included.
Does refinishing add resale value?
The National Association of REALTORS®'s 2022 Remodeling Impact Report says that among interior projects, the highest percentage of cost recovered came from refinishing hardwood floors, at 147 percent (report dated April 2022). In that report, cost recovery is REALTORS®' estimate of the resale value a project adds, divided by the estimated cost of the project given by NARI members. It is a survey-based national estimate from 2022, not a guarantee of what any home will sell for. The 2025 edition of the report contains no hardwood-refinishing figure, and other years were not checked for this article. The report does not tell a seller when to refinish; it reports the estimate. Refinish or replace covers the wider question of whether a floor should be refinished.
Time is a separate question
None of the figures above is a time estimate. How long refinishing takes covers the drying, cure and walk-on times that manufacturers publish.
Reading a quote against these figures
- Look for the date on any guide before relying on its figures. The guides above are all from 2026, and prices change.
- Check whether stairs, staining, repairs, carpet removal and furniture moving are included, and whether each is priced per square foot, per step, per room or as a flat amount.
- Compare quotes for the same scope. A lower total that leaves out the stairs is not lower.
- Treat a national range as a range. A quote outside it is not automatically wrong, and one inside it is not automatically fair.