The new floors in our kitchen are easy to overlook amid all the other big changes — a new layout, a wide opening to the living room, new cabinets, and new countertops. Yet the floors are a huge reason the space — and the entire first floor — now feels brighter, more open, and updated. Here’s a clear recap of the whole process, including time and cost, for anyone weighing a similar upgrade.
This before photo highlights the dramatic difference the new floors made. Yes, the picture below was taken from the same spot as the after shot above. And no, we don’t miss that faux brick linoleum at all.
From the front door you can see how disrupted the flow felt before. We had hardwood in three rooms (living, dining, and office) but none of it connected because of slate in the foyer and linoleum in the kitchen. That left five awkward transitions — complete with metal strips that were prime toe-stubbing real estate.
Now it’s one continuous swath of hardwood — no transitions, no steps, no color shifts — and it looks like it’s always been that way, which was our goal. Hardwood adds warmth in the kitchen and making the flooring cohesive across rooms improves flow and makes the space feel larger. Getting there, however, took time and patience.
We hired professionals for this job because it was a multiday project and we couldn’t get a functioning kitchen back until the work was complete. While we’ve installed prefinished hardwood upstairs ourselves in the past, blending new boards seamlessly with existing ones and then sanding and staining to match perfectly felt like a job for pros. We hired a local flooring team we trusted, which eased a lot of potential stress.
Demo
First came demo: removing linoleum and slate. We considered doing the slate ourselves, but the pro crew quoted the demo and said they could remove and reinstall quarter round and plumbing fixtures in about a day. Renting the right tools would have eaten into any savings, and after seeing how quickly — and messily — they worked, we were glad we didn’t try to DIY it in evenings while the kids slept.
It took about a day and a half to strip everything down to plywood in the foyer, powder room, and kitchen. Luckily the subfloor was in good shape and didn’t need patching — not something we always get to say, so we savored it.
The crew carefully removed some of the existing hardwood planks so the new boards could be installed in a staggered pattern. That avoided a straight cut line that would have revealed where the new flooring began. You can see faint outlines on the subfloor where old pieces were removed to make way for the new installation.
Installation
After demo, the crew patched in new boards and used wood putty to fill gaps or nicked edges from removal. Two installers laid the new flooring in the kitchen over two days, then moved to the foyer, half-bath, and closets.
We had the new wood delivered a week early so it could acclimate to our home’s humidity; that prevents gaps or buckling later. At doorways where boards couldn’t be guaranteed to line up with adjacent rooms, they used “turnboards” — two planks set perpendicular at the threshold — which sit flush and became a tasteful detail once stained.
Rather than sanding and staining immediately, the flooring pros recommended installing cabinets first. Cabinet installation is rough on floors, and doing it before stain avoids scratched new finish. It also allowed counters to be templated and produced while floors were being stained, which saved time overall.
Moving Out
Once cabinets were in, we moved completely out of the first floor. It was the main reason we hadn’t done seamless floors in previous homes: moving out entirely is a hassle. But in hindsight it was worth it. We stuffed small items upstairs, stored appliances in the garage, and rented a small storage pod for larger pieces.
The dining room became a temporary holding cell for kitchen items, and we dispersed furniture across bedrooms and the garage. Rolling office chair wear on the old floor was another issue we discovered; more on how we fixed that later.
Sanding
Sanding removed the old finish and generated a LOT of dust, even with dust-mitigation equipment. The crew taped a dust barrier and we stayed upstairs while the sanding was done. A big drum sander covered the main areas while an edge sander handled the perimeter work. The result was raw wood ready for stain and sealer.
Staining & Sealing
We tested several stain colors near the stairway and chose a medium shade that matched our existing stairs most closely. After staining, the initial look felt patchy and rustic, but once three coats of polyurethane sealer were applied, the color evened out and the satin finish matched the stairs beautifully.
We stayed away while the floors cured: the crew sanded lightly between coats and applied sealer each day, and we were asked to avoid walking on the floors for 48 hours after the final coat. For our comfort, we stayed out of town for a few nights while the process finished.
Moving Back In
We were advised to wait ten days before placing heavy furniture or rugs to prevent indentations. During that time we cleaned lingering sanding dust, caulked, and touched up paint on quarter round. It was roughly 16 days from demo to walking on the floors again, plus another 10 days before heavy furniture returned.
The result is seamless — you can’t tell where the new boards end and the old boards begin without referencing an old photo. Hardwood in the foyer is smoother and warmer than the previous slate and is kinder to little knees. For the office chairs that had previously worn donut marks into the floor, we removed the wheels and added furniture pads so they glide without damaging the finish.
In total, materials for roughly 3/4″ solid oak across three rooms were about $3,400, and labor — including demo, plumbing removal/reinstallation, installation, sanding, staining, sealing, and trim reinstall — ran about $4,100. Our entire first floor is approximately 1,300 square feet, with roughly half being new flooring and half existing hardwood.
It was a significant investment in time, inconvenience, and money, but the transformation made the whole first floor feel more finished and cohesive. Seeing it complete made the disruption worth it.
More Hardwood Floor Refinishing Projects
If you’d like to read more about other hardwood refinishing projects we’ve tackled — from matching original hardwoods to restoring historic pine — we have several posts detailing those experiences and lessons learned.
- Refinishing Mid-Century Oak Floors in our first house
- Refinishing Historic Heart Pine Floors in our beach house
- Repairing Historic Oak & Pine Floors in our duplex
- Clear Sealing Our Refinished Floors in our Florida house