Hardwood Floor Refinishing in St. Louis, Missouri
What it costs, and what St. Louis's housing stock does to the job.
Floor refinishing in a 1938-median city
The median St. Louis home was built in 1938 and 57.9% of the city’s housing predates 1940. For floor refinishing specifically, that is not background color — it is the thing that decides the job.
The best refinishing prospects in the state are here, and refinishing sidesteps the flatness question almost entirely — you are working with the floor that is already following the structure rather than asking a new one to sit flat over it. Ask about a screen and recoat before agreeing to a full sand: if the finish is dull but the wood underneath is sound, it costs a fraction as much and removes no wood at all.
St. Louis has the oldest housing of any city on any site in this group: a 1938 median and 57.9% of it built before 1940. That single number changes the whole flooring question. A brick house that has stood for ninety years has already done its moving — it may sit well out of level, but it is not still traveling, and out-of-level that has stopped is a levelling job rather than a material problem. Get the floor flat and then lay whatever you like on it. The other half of the city’s story is what is under those floors: plank subfloors laid diagonally, joists at spacings nobody uses now, and a real chance of original wood under the carpet.
What it costs in St. Louis
St. Louis metro labor runs below the Missouri baseline, which is why the range below sits under the statewide $3–$8. Installed, materials and labor together:
| Work | St. Louis range | Missouri range |
|---|---|---|
| Refinishing existing boards | $3 – $8 a square foot | $3 – $8 a square foot |
An estimate, not a quote. These are planning ranges for Missouri, not a quote. What you actually pay depends on your rooms, your subfloor and the material you choose.
Extras are where a St. Louis job most often moves away from the band: removing the old floor, prepping a plank subfloor, and stairs. The cost estimator prices those separately against your own room.
Questions worth asking before you book
- What is the subfloor, and what does it need? 57.9% of St. Louis homes predate 1940 and the median build year is 1938, so plywood or OSB is the likelier answer here and a plank subfloor is the exception worth ruling out. How to identify yours.
- Is the old floor coming out or being covered? Covering costs less and is sometimes the safer answer, but it costs you height at doors and at the bottom stair riser.
- What is the cut-and-waste allowance? Ten percent is normal; older or irregular rooms take more, and cuts are labor.
- What did the slab read, and what did the boards read? An installer who measured both has told you more than a classification code could. What Missouri licenses, and what it does not.