Flooring
The 1958 oak floor in the dining room that has been hidden under wall-to-wall for thirty years and finally pulled. The 1990s laminate in the kitchen that has swelled at the dishwasher and lifted at the seams. The bathroom tile that cracked at the toilet flange when the previous owner reset it. The carpet in the living room that has been stretched twice and is still wrinkling at the doorway. The soft spot at the top of the stairs that the inspector flagged and nobody fixed. Flooring is the largest single visible surface in the house — finished right, it resets the whole room; finished wrong, it telegraphs corner-cutting for the next ten years. Handis covers six service families as a finish-carpentry trade — hardwood install and refinish, luxury vinyl and laminate, tile floors, carpet, subfloor and prep, and stairs and transitions. We sand with HEPA vacuum-shrouded equipment that keeps fine dust out of the rest of the house, we schedule cure windows around Pacific Northwest humidity, and we acclimate wood and engineered product the full manufacturer-spec period before a single board lands. From $150 for a single subfloor soft-spot patch to $25,000 for a full herringbone install on a main level.
Services
What Flooring Covers
Flooring at Handis is six service families — every job runs through the same finish-carpentry crew, the same dust-control gear, the same cure-time discipline. Hardwood install, refinish, repair, and decorative pattern. Luxury vinyl and laminate floating and glue-down installs. Tile floors in porcelain, ceramic, and stone. Carpet broadloom and tile. Subfloor and prep work — the layer beneath every other floor that determines whether the visible finish lasts five years or twenty-five. Stairs and transitions — treads, risers, nosing, T-mold, and the metal or wood transitions that tie one room's floor to the next. We are honest on the booking call about which subfloor or moisture issues have to be solved before the finish flooring goes down, and we cure every coat the manufacturer-spec period before we put a foot on the floor.
Hardwood Flooring
Solid and engineered hardwood install, dust-controlled sanding and refinishing, water-damage and board-level repair, stain and color change, and herringbone and chevron decorative pattern install. Refinish work uses HEPA vacuum-shrouded drum sanders and edgers (Lägler Hummel and equivalent dust-controlled equipment) so the fine sanding dust does not migrate into the rest of the house. New install runs Bona, DuraSeal, or Glitsa finishes cured the full manufacturer-spec window before the floor returns to traffic. From $500 for a small board repair or screen-and-recoat to $25,000 for a full herringbone install on a main level.
Hardwood Flooring — install, refinish, repair, stain, herringbone and chevron
Luxury Vinyl & Laminate
Luxury vinyl plank (LVP), luxury vinyl tile (LVT), and click-lock laminate floating installs over a prep'd subfloor. Glue-down LVP for high-moisture areas and over slab. Underlayment and acoustical pad sized to the product spec and the over-or-below-grade application. Transitions to existing flooring at every door opening, no thin slivers cut at the wall, no hidden field cuts. From $2,000 for a small room.
Luxury Vinyl & Laminate — LVP, LVT, click-lock laminate, glue-down
Tile Floors
Porcelain, ceramic, stone, large-format, and mosaic tile floors on Schluter DITRA, cement board, or mortared substrate. Heated-floor wire layout coordinated with the electrician sub on dedicated thermostat circuits. Grout color and sealer matched to the room. Waterproofing on the wet-room application. From $1,500 for a small bathroom or laundry floor.
Tile Floors — porcelain, ceramic, stone, large-format, mosaic, heated
Carpet
Broadloom carpet installs with proper pad selection (rebond, prime urethane, slab rubber for thick pile), full stretch with power-stretcher and knee-kicker, seam-sealed and tucked at every wall and door. Carpet tile installs for offices, rentals, and basement rec rooms. Old carpet and pad pull-and-dispose. From $600 for a small room.
Carpet — broadloom, carpet tile, pad replacement, stretch repair
Subfloor & Prep
The layer beneath every visible floor. Soft-spot and squeak repair, joist sistering for deflection, plywood and OSB subfloor patches, flatness correction to NWFA tolerance (3/16 inch in 10 feet) for hardwood, moisture testing on slab before LVP or engineered install (calcium chloride and probe meter), and self-leveling compound where the substrate is out of tolerance. The subfloor work that prevents the install above it from failing in year three. From $150 for a single soft-spot patch.
Subfloor & Prep — soft-spot repair, deflection, flatness, moisture barrier
Stairs & Transitions
Stair treads and risers in hardwood (solid or engineered), refinish of existing stair runs, nosing replacement, anti-slip strip install, and the transition profiles that tie one room's floor to the next — T-mold for same-height flooring, reducer for unequal heights, threshold for door openings, schluter or metal trim on tile-to-other-flooring transitions. From $400 for a single transition strip or stair-tread swap.
Stairs & Transitions — treads, risers, T-mold, reducers, thresholds
Flooring Pricing
Final pricing depends on square footage, species and product chosen, subfloor condition, finish coats, and whether stair or transition work is in scope. Each sub-category page lists detailed pricing for that family. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the rooms and the scope — we will quote the prep, the install or refinish, and the cure-time calendar in one estimate.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Flooring
Every flooring failure we are called to fix traces to one of three skipped steps — subfloor prep that was waved off, acclimation that was cut short to make the install date, or finish coats that were rushed through cure to reopen the room for a dinner party. None of those steps shows up on the invoice for the install itself; all three show up on the rip-and-replace invoice three years later. Handis runs flooring as the finish-carpentry trade it actually is, with the prep, the acclimation, and the cure-time discipline named on the schedule so the homeowner sees the full calendar before signing.
Subfloor checked, named on the quote, fixed before the finish lands
Every flooring install starts with a subfloor walk — flatness check with a 10-foot straightedge to NWFA tolerance (3/16 inch in 10 feet for hardwood), moisture meter on the wood subfloor and a calcium-chloride or probe-meter reading on any slab below LVP or engineered, deflection check on every joist span. Any soft spot, any high spot, any over-tolerance moisture reading goes on the quote as a separate prep line item before the finish flooring goes down. Skipping the subfloor work is how a $14,000 hardwood install becomes a $14,000 rip-and-replace in year three.
HEPA dust control on every sanding day
Drum sanding and edger work on hardwood refinish generates fine dust at the micron scale that drywall plastic and tape alone do not contain. Handis runs HEPA vacuum-shrouded equipment (Lägler Hummel and equivalent) with the dust collected directly at the sanding head, plastic-zip walls at every doorway, HEPA negative-air machines for any zone connected to forced-air HVAC, and a daily vacuum-and-trash-out so the homeowner does not live with construction dust through the cure window. The dust does not migrate into closets, into the HVAC return, or into adjacent rooms.
Acclimation and cure-time the full manufacturer-spec window
Solid hardwood acclimates 5 to 7 days in the install-zone climate at the install-zone humidity before the first board lands. Engineered hardwood acclimates 3 to 5 days. Site-finished poly cures 24 to 48 hours per coat (water-based) or 24 hours skin / 7 days hard (oil-modified) before the floor returns to full traffic. We name the cure-time calendar on the quote — including the no-walk window, the no-furniture window, and the no-rug window — so there are no surprises about when the room is usable.
Honest about LVP versus engineered versus solid for your application
Below-grade basement install — LVP or glue-down engineered, not solid. Over an in-floor radiant slab — engineered or LVP at the manufacturer-rated thickness, not solid. Kitchen with a dishwasher and a fridge — water-resistant LVP or sealed-grout porcelain, not click-lock laminate (the seams swell on a single dishwasher leak). Bathroom — tile or sheet vinyl, never click-lock laminate. We tell you on the booking call what survives in your application and what does not, before the order goes in.
Insured, background-checked, written project warranty
Handis carries general liability and workers' compensation; every technician has cleared a background screening. Project warranty covers our workmanship for one year — install quality, sanding and finish coats, board fastening, grout and tile bond, carpet seam and stretch, stair-tread fastening. Material warranty stays with the manufacturer (Bona, DuraSeal, Mohawk, Shaw, Mannington, Daltile, COREtec, Mohawk LVP, etc.) and we name the manufacturer warranty on the quote so you know what is covered by whom.
Estimate
Tell us the rooms (square footage and current flooring), the scope you have in mind (refinish, replace, new install, repair), any known issues (soft spots, water damage, squeaks, cracked tile, lifted laminate), and the species or product you are considering. We measure, run the subfloor and moisture checks, and send a clear estimate with the full calendar — prep, acclimation, install, cure, and a no-walk window — so you know when the room is usable.
What Our Customers Say
Recent flooring reviews from verified Seattle-area customers.
Refinished the original 1948 red oak floors throughout our Wallingford bungalow. Handis ran a HEPA-shrouded drum sander and edger and the dust really did stay out of the rest of the house — we had the rest of the home sealed off with plastic-zip and we lived in the back bedrooms the whole week. Two coats of water-based poly, full 48-hour cure between coats, exactly the calendar they put on the quote.
New 5-inch white oak engineered through our main level — 1,100 square feet. Handis acclimated the wood for 5 days in the room before the first board, ran a flatness check and skim-coated two low spots before install, and the floor is flat as a pool table. No hollow spots, no creaks, no gaps four months in through the wet PNW season.
LVP through our daylight basement in Greenwood. Glue-down per the manufacturer because of the slab. They ran calcium-chloride moisture tests in three locations before scheduling the install — one came back high, they recommended a moisture barrier coating before the install instead of just pushing through. Pulled a moisture issue I would have caught the hard way in year two.
Stair refinish on a center-hall colonial in Mount Baker. Original 1925 red oak treads, painted-white risers, refinished in a Bona Traffic HD water-based for the wear and the clear color. Tech taped the entire stair run plastic-to-plastic so the upstairs stayed sealed off from the dust. Came out beautifully, no amber-shift in the natural color.
Tile floor in our master bath replaced after a long-running leak. Handis pulled the cracked tile, found rotted plywood and a corroded toilet flange, brought in the licensed plumber for the flange and reset the rough-in, then we re-tiled in large-format porcelain on Schluter DITRA. Honest about the rot, named the plumber on the quote, came in within $200 of the estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis flooring — scope, subfloor prep, acclimation and cure-time, pricing, dust control, and what survives in which application.