I paid about $9/sq ft for materials and installation for hand scraped cherry that was installed unfinished and sanded/stained on sight.

I had engineered hardwoods in my old house and I love these so much more. I was here the stain was put down and was given the opportunity to say yes, lighter, or darker.

Go to lumberliquidators.com. All the prices are online, so just pick what you want. They also do installation for $2 or so per sq ft.

Anonymous wrote:Does hardwood that's finished on-site generally cost more? How much more?

As PP said, the cost difference is not much because unfinished hardwood is cheaper but the labor involved is more. What you do get is the option of selecting whatever stain color you want and most importantly, there is still the option of refinishing down the line if it is warranted.

On the downside, there is more dust from sanding and the odor of the stain and poly when it is applied to the unfinished hardwood.

We went with unfinished and we would do it again if faced with the same choice.

On site finishing costs much more in labor, but materials are cheaper, compared to prefinished, so the total price difference may not be that much.

While there may be issues with refinishing prefinished hardwoods, generally the finish is stronger on prefinished and should last longer.

Does hardwood that's finished on-site generally cost more? How much more?

We had our done using unfinished oak hardwood and then stained to what we wanted.

The total cost including the hardwood and the installation was about $4.50 per square foot but this was about six years ago. It was well done and still looks beautiful. One of the problems with some pre-finished hardwood is that it limits the ability to refinish the hardwood down the line.

We had ours installed as part of a kitchen renovation so I'm not sure of the installation price; it was wrapped up in all the work by our contractor. But the hardwood itself was less than $4 per square foot. And it looks so good. Pre finished oak, picked to match the rest of our original flooring.

I know it depends on style and other variables but can anyone give an estimate of the cost per square foot of 2inch wide hardwood floor?