Ecowoods — the EW monogram, the company logoEcowoodsToronto · Est. 2000
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Hardwood floor refinishing in Toronto

Your floor is already there. The two questions are whether the house will be livable while the work happens, and whether it will look right afterwards. Both are decided by the machine sequence, and ours is published.

Full Sand & Finish $4.75–$7.50/sq ftScreen & Recoat $2.50–$4.00/sq ftHEPA containment

Get a fixed written price →Read the machine sequence

The whole job, in order

Four machines, and why the order is not a preference

The belt sander levels the open field. The edger reaches walls, baseboards, closets and stairs. The planetary sander blends the two together. The buffer prepares the surface and abrades between coats. Each removes what the one before it could not reach.

The four floor machines in working order, each labelled with the part of the job it does.
Four machines, in this order. The belt sander levels the open field, the edger reaches walls and closets, the planetary sander blends the two together, and the buffer prepares the surface and abrades between coats.View full size — The four floor machines in working order, each labelled with the part of the job it does.

Set out in full, with the grit progression, in The Craft.

What to look for in someone else’s work

The edger halo

Skip the planetary pass and a band the width of a small machine runs around the whole room, reading as a different tone once the finish goes on. It is invisible on bare wood, which is exactly why it survives inspection, and permanent once coated. Ask any contractor which machines they use and in what order — the answer is short, and it tells you most of what you need to know.

Circular swirl marks and a tonal halo in the finished floor along the baseboard, where the edger's work was never blended into the field.
Swirl marks and the edger halo — what a skipped planetary pass looks like once the finish goes on. It is invisible on bare wood and permanent under coating.View full size — Circular swirl marks and a tonal halo in the finished floor along the baseboard, where the edger's work was never blended into the field.

Living in the house

What dust-free actually means

Extraction at the tool, a sealed collector, and a barrier at the opening. Dust generated during sanding is respirable and travels through the whole building; cleanup afterwards addresses what settled, not what was breathed. Containment is a system, not a vacuum.

Two houses drawn in section — one with sanding dust travelling through the whole building, one with it captured at the tool.
Dust generated during sanding is respirable and travels through the whole building. Cleanup afterwards addresses what settled, not what was breathed.View full size — Two houses drawn in section — one with sanding dust travelling through the whole building, one with it captured at the tool.

Straight answers

Questions people actually ask

How much does it cost to refinish hardwood floors in Toronto?
A full sand and finish runs $4.75–$7.50 per square foot. A screen and recoat — where the existing finish is worn but sound and the wood beneath is undamaged — runs $2.50–$4.00. Fixed price in writing. It never moves after the free in-home estimate.
What does dust-free sanding actually mean?
That the dust is captured at the tool and kept behind a barrier, not that no dust exists. Extraction runs from each machine to a sealed collector and the work area is separated from the rest of the house, which is what makes it possible to stay in the house while the floors are done. Cleanup afterwards addresses what settled; containment addresses what was breathed.
Can I stay in my home during refinishing?
In most cases yes, with containment in place. The constraint is not dust but cure time on the finished rooms — a floor that has been walked on before its coat has cured is a floor that will be refinished again sooner than it should be.
How many times can a hardwood floor be refinished?
Solid hardwood carries a generational wear layer and takes many cycles. Engineered flooring has a specified wear-layer thickness above its cross-ply core, and that thickness sets a hard limit. Which one you have is the first thing to establish, and it is visible in the board's edge.
Why do refinished floors sometimes show a ring around the room?
Because the planetary pass was skipped. The belt sander levels the open field and the edger reaches the walls, and the two leave different surfaces. A third machine blends the boundary. Without it the difference is invisible on bare wood and permanent once the finish goes on — the edger halo. It is the single most common defect in this market.
What reviews does Ecowoods have?
177 reviews at 5.0 out of 5 on HomeStars, read from the live profile on 2026-08-22.

Ecowoods Hardwood Flooring Inc. works across 32 areas in Toronto and the GTA. See hardwood flooring in Toronto for new installation, or the coverage list.