Hardwood Flooring
The original 1929 fir floors that were finally pulled out from under the carpet and are dull but sound. The 1990s red oak in the dining room that has gone amber and is scratched where the chairs slide. The kitchen oak that water-stained at the dishwasher and now has a black ring around it. The new-build 2018 engineered floor that the previous owner laid over a slab without a moisture barrier and is cupping at the south wall. Hardwood is the single material in a home that pays back the most for being treated as a finish-carpentry trade rather than as a flooring-supplier transaction. Handis covers five hardwood service families — refinishing, repair, solid install, engineered install, and decorative pattern (herringbone and chevron) — with HEPA dust control on every sanding day, full manufacturer-spec acclimation before a board lands, and Bona, DuraSeal, Glitsa, or Loba finish lines cured the manufacturer-spec window before the floor goes back into traffic. From $500 for a small repair or screen-and-recoat to $25,000 for a full herringbone install on a main level.
Services
What Hardwood Flooring Covers
Hardwood at Handis is five service families — every job runs through the same finish-carpentry crew, the same dust-control gear, the same acclimation and cure-time discipline. Refinishing the existing floor to bring it back. Board-level repair where the floor is mostly sound but the kitchen-leak area is shot. New solid install where the subfloor and the application support 3/4 inch traditional plank. Engineered install where the application calls for it — below-grade basement, over slab, over radiant heat, or wide-plank. Decorative pattern (herringbone, chevron, and borders) where the design budget supports the labor. We are honest on the booking call about which scope fits a refinish versus a replace, what species and what cut survive in your application, and what the realistic schedule is with the acclimation and cure windows the product spec requires.
Hardwood Refinishing
Bring the existing hardwood back without replacing it. Dustless sand-and-refinish for a tired floor that has wear-layer left, screen-and-recoat for a floor that is dull but the wood is sound, stain and color change for a refresh that goes light-to-dark or dark-to-light, water-damage spot repair for the kitchen-leak area, and gray or natural modern finishes for the contemporary look. HEPA vacuum-shrouded equipment on every sand. Bona, DuraSeal, Glitsa, or Loba finish lines cured the full manufacturer-spec window. From $500 for a small spot repair to $8,500 for a stain-and-color change on a full main level.
Hardwood Refinishing — sand, finish, stain, screen-and-recoat, gray, water-damage
Hardwood Repair & Board Replacement
Lace-in single board replacement, multi-board patches, squeak-refasten (face-screw or hidden-fastener), cupped-board flatten, stair-tread replacement, and threshold-board work. The floor is mostly sound and only a localized area is shot. Match the species, the cut, and the finish to the existing floor so the repair reads as part of the original install. From $500 for a single-board lace-in to $2,500 for a multi-board pattern-match on a herringbone repair.
Hardwood Repair & Board Replacement — lace-in, patch, squeak fix, cupping, stairs
Solid Hardwood Installation
New 3/4 inch solid hardwood plank install — red oak, white oak, hickory, maple, walnut. Site-finished or pre-finished. Solid plank fits above-grade applications over a wood subfloor with the right moisture profile; it does not belong below-grade, over slab, or over in-floor radiant heat (cupping risk too high for the Pacific Northwest humidity envelope). Full NWFA flatness prep (3/16 inch in 10 feet), 5 to 7 day acclimation in the install zone, blind-nailed or cleat-fastened install, sanded and finished site or pre-finished installed. From $8,000 for a single-room install to $20,000 for an entire upper level.
Solid Hardwood Installation — 3/4 inch traditional plank, site or pre-finished
Engineered Hardwood Installation
New 3/8 to 3/4 inch engineered hardwood plank install — engineered survives applications that solid does not. Below-grade basement, over slab, over in-floor radiant heat, and wide-plank (over 5 inches) all favor engineered for the cross-grain plywood construction that resists the seasonal cup-and-crown cycle. 3 to 5 day acclimation in the install zone, glue-down, floating, or cleat-fastened depending on substrate, with the wear layer specified to whether the floor will be refinished in the future. From $7,000 for a single-room install to $18,000 for a full level.
Engineered Hardwood Installation — 3/8 to 3/4 inch engineered, all substrates
Herringbone & Chevron Install
Decorative-pattern hardwood install — 90-degree herringbone or 45 or 60-degree chevron with the boards mitered to a clean point. Optional borders, accent inlays, and custom block-cut patterns. The most labor-intensive hardwood install we do — every board is mitered, every seam matters, and the pattern reads only when the prep is dead flat. Pre-finished pattern blocks or site-finished after install, in solid or engineered. From $10,000 for a small engineered herringbone room to $25,000 for a chevron entry and main level.
Herringbone & Chevron Install — mitered pattern, borders, inlay, solid or engineered
Hardwood Flooring Pricing
Final pricing depends on square footage, species, board width, subfloor condition, finish coats, and whether the install is solid, engineered, or decorative pattern. Each sub-category page lists detailed pricing for that family. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us the room, the existing floor (or the species you have in mind for a new install), and the look you want — we will quote the prep, the install or refinish, and the cure-time calendar in one estimate.
Why Seattle Homeowners Book Handis for Hardwood Flooring
Hardwood is the one flooring material where the install crew matters more than the species or the brand. A perfectly milled rift-and-quartered 5-inch white oak laid by a crew that skipped acclimation and pushed through cure to make a deadline performs worse in year two than a mid-grade red oak laid carefully and given the full manufacturer-spec windows. Handis runs hardwood as the finish-carpentry trade it actually is — flatness check before, acclimation in the install zone, blind-nail or cleat fastening at the correct spacing, sand at the right grit sequence, and finish coats cured the full window before the room comes back into use. The boring discipline is what the floor pays back for the next 25 years.
Honest about refinish versus replace on the first visit
Refinish saves 60 to 80 percent of the cost of a replacement install — when there is wear-layer left to sand. We measure the existing thickness at the threshold (looking at the gap between the floor and the door jamb gives a quick read on the original board thickness, and a small sample sand at an out-of-the-way location confirms whether there is enough wear-layer for at least one more refinish). On a 3/4 inch solid you typically get 5 to 7 lifetime refinishes. On engineered with a 4 mm or thicker wear-layer, one or two refinishes are realistic; below 2 mm we tell you honestly that refinish is at the edge of feasibility.
HEPA dust control on every sanding day
Drum sanding and edger work generates fine dust at the micron scale that does not get caught by drywall plastic alone. Handis runs Lägler Hummel drum sanders and equivalent edgers with the dust collected directly at the head into a HEPA-filtered vacuum system, plastic-zip walls at every doorway, HEPA negative-air machines for any zone connected to forced-air HVAC, and supply registers and return grilles sealed with plastic and tape. The dust does not migrate into closets, the HVAC return, or the bedrooms.
Acclimation the full manufacturer-spec window
Solid hardwood acclimates 5 to 7 days in the install zone at the install-zone climate (temperature and relative humidity within the range the finished floor will live at year-round). Engineered hardwood acclimates 3 to 5 days. The acclimation moisture-test reading on the wood and the subfloor must be within 2 to 4 percentage points of each other before the first board lands — if it is not, we extend the acclimation period or address the subfloor moisture before install rather than push through and watch the floor cup at the seasonal swing six months later.
Finish cured the full window before the room reopens
Water-based polyurethane (Bona Traffic HD, Bona Mega ONE, Loba Supra, Glitsa Gym Seal) cures 24 to 48 hours between coats and 7 days to full traffic. Oil-modified polyurethane (DuraSeal, Bona Woodline, Glitsa Hardwood) cures 24 hours skin and 7 days to full traffic, with a slight amber tone the homeowner sees on day one. We name the cure-time calendar on the quote — including the no-walk window (24 to 48 hours after final coat), the no-furniture window (5 days), and the no-rug window (14 days, because rugs trap the off-gas and can dull the finish under them) so there are no surprises about when the floor is fully back in service.
Insured, background-checked, written project warranty
Handis carries general liability and workers' compensation; every technician has cleared a background screening before the first job. Project warranty covers our workmanship for one year — sanding quality, finish coats, board fastening, miter accuracy on decorative patterns, and the seam quality on any board-replacement work. The finish manufacturer warranty (Bona, DuraSeal, Glitsa, Loba) and the wood-product manufacturer warranty stay with the product and we name both on the quote so you know what is covered by whom.
Estimate
Tell us the room (square footage and species, if you know it), the scope you have in mind (refinish, stain change, repair, new install, decorative pattern), any known issues (water damage, soft spots, cupping, squeaks), and the look you are after (natural, traditional dark stain, gray, white wash). We send a clear estimate with the prep, acclimation, install, cure, and a no-walk window — so you know the full calendar before signing.
Customer Reviews
Recent hardwood flooring reviews from real Handis customers.
Full refinish of the original 1948 red oak in our Wallingford bungalow — about 900 square feet across living, dining, and the long hallway. Handis sanded with a HEPA-shrouded Lägler Hummel and an equivalent edger, applied two coats of Bona Traffic HD, and the floor looks brand new without any of the amber-shift of the old oil-modified poly. The dust really did stay contained in the work zone.
New 5-inch rift-and-quartered white oak engineered through our Madrona main level — 1,100 square feet. They acclimated the wood 5 days in the room before install, ran a 10-foot straightedge over the entire subfloor and skim-coated two low spots, then cleat-nailed every board. The floor is flat as a pool table, no creaks, no gaps four months in through the wet PNW season.
Stain change in our Mount Baker dining room — went from a 1990s honey-oak finish to a Jacobean dark stain with three coats of poly. They did stain sample boards in two finish lines on a closet floor first so we could see the actual color on our wood before committing. Final color is exactly what we picked off the sample.
Water-damage spot repair on a kitchen oak floor — the dishwasher had leaked over six months and ringed about 6 square feet of boards. Handis pulled the damaged boards, found the subfloor was sound underneath, lace-in repaired with matched red oak, then sanded and finished the patch to blend with the existing floor. You honestly cannot see where the repair is.
Herringbone install in our Capitol Hill condo entry and dining — about 350 square feet of 5-inch white oak engineered herringbone with a 3-board border. Every miter was tight, the pattern reads perfectly off-axis, and the install was finished in 6 working days. Pricing was at the upper end but the work justifies it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis hardwood flooring — refinish vs replace, species selection, dust control, acclimation, cure-time, decorative patterns, and pricing.