The floor is in every photograph

The offer

Three days, one price, before the photographer

1. Day one — abrade and clean. The existing finish is screened back so a new coat can key to it. No sanding to bare wood, so no dust event and no colour change.
2. Day two — coat. Water-based finish, low odour, applied to the whole field so there is no visible boundary between traffic lanes and the rest of the room.
3. Day three — cure before furniture. Walk-on in hours, furniture back on day three. Photography on day three or later, when the sheen has settled and stops flaring under a flash.

This is the published screen & recoat band — $2.50–$4.00 per square foot — not a promotional rate. Fixed price in writing. It never moves after the free in-home estimate.

The honest limit

When we will tell you not to do it

A recoat renews a finish. It does not fix wood. If the finish is worn through in the traffic lanes, if pet staining has reached the boards, or if the floor is cupped from a moisture problem nobody has traced, a fresh coat makes the damage more visible in photographs rather than less — a new sheen reflects light across exactly the defects you were hoping to hide. In those cases the choice is a full sand and finish at $4.75–$7.50 per square foot, or leaving it and pricing the house accordingly. We will say which, before you spend anything.

What that judgement looks like on a real floor: the Forest Hill walnut job is a case where colour stability decided the finish schedule, and the Midtown townhouse is one where three substrates in one house meant three different answers on three floors. Both publish what was measured before anyone quoted.

The mechanism behind cupping and finish wear is published in full: the Toronto climate and moisture protocol, and whether a floor can be refinished at all.

Services

What a seller might actually need

Deciding between them: what it costs in Toronto and how to choose a contractor — or run any quote, from anyone, through the twenty-seven criteria.

Next step

Book a pre-list walkthrough

Tell us the address and the listing date. A senior estimator walks the floor, tells you whether a recoat is the right work, and writes one price that does not move. Put the listing date in the notes and the schedule is built backwards from it.

Questions

What agents ask first

How long does a pre-list recoat take?

Three working days is the normal shape: one to abrade and clean, one to coat, one to cure before furniture and photography. It is scheduled backwards from your listing date rather than forwards from ours, and the written price does not change if the date moves.

What does a pre-list recoat cost?

A screen and recoat runs $2.50–$4.00 per square foot. Fixed price in writing. It never moves after the free in-home estimate. If the wood underneath is damaged rather than the finish worn, a recoat is the wrong work and we will say so — that is a full sand and finish at $4.75–$7.50, and it is a different conversation about whether it pays before a sale.

When is a recoat the wrong answer before a listing?

When the finish is worn through to bare wood in traffic lanes, when there is pet staining that has reached the wood, or when boards are cupped from a moisture problem that has not been fixed. A recoat over any of those looks worse in photographs than the floor did before, because a fresh sheen makes the damage underneath more visible rather than less.

Do you work to a firm closing or listing date?

Yes. The crews are salaried Ecowoods employees rather than subcontractors, which is the reason a date can be committed to at all — there is no third party whose other job can take precedence over yours the week before your photographer arrives.