Refinishing, repair, water damage and new hardwood for houses, two-families and rentals across the Merrimack Valley.
Lawrence Wood Flooring has spent 20+ years refinishing, repairing and installing wood flooring in Lawrence, MA, from single-family houses to two-family homes, triple-deckers and rental units. We sand and refinish worn oak, bring back old pine, fix water-damaged boards, rebuild stairs and put down new solid and engineered hardwood.
Most of the floors we see are older than the people living on them. That means painted thresholds, radiator holes, carpet glue, softwood that dents under a fingernail and a tenant upstairs who still needs to get to work. We plan each job around those facts before a sander comes off the truck.
Every estimate is written and itemized, room by room and tread by tread. Owners, landlords and condo boards can see what each line covers, what the floor needs and what it can do without.
What we do
Wood floor refinishing, repair and installation for Lawrence, MA homes
Full sanding and refinishing for oak, maple and old pine floors, with stain samples laid on your floor and finishes picked for how the room is used.
Engineered hardwood installed and repaired for basements, condos and upper floors, with the wear layer and install method matched to each room.
Board replacement, weave-in patches, radiator hole repairs, squeak fixes and stain removal for hardwood and old pine floors.
Leaks from upstairs, burst pipes and wet basements traced, metered and repaired, with cupped boards saved where they can be and claims documented.
Stair treads, risers, nosing and railings refinished step by step, painted stairs stripped and carpeted stairs converted to hardwood.
New solid and engineered hardwood floors installed over a checked subfloor, with board, fastener and finish choices explained before ordering.
Carpet, pad and tack strip pulled up, hidden oak floors brought back where they exist, and new hardwood laid on rooms and stairs where they do not.
Rental floors refinished or recoated between tenants on the move-out and move-in schedule, with itemized estimates landlords can rely on.
Old white pine, yellow pine and heart pine floors sanded with softwood in mind, with wide gaps, raised nails and split boards repaired first.
A quick refresh for dull, lightly scratched hardwood: the old finish is buffed and a new coat applied, with no sanding to bare wood.
We have worked on wood floors for more than twenty years, long enough to have sanded through every kind of finish older homes hide, from wax and shellac to modern polyurethane. That experience is what lets us read a floor before we quote it, rather than discovering its problems halfway through the job.
Every two- and three-family job is staged so one floor is worked while the other stays lived in, with dust contained and the shared stairway kept usable. That means the tenant upstairs still gets to work on Monday, rather than everyone being pushed out of the building for a week so the crew can sand straight through.
No old pine or softwood floor gets the grit sequence we would use on red oak strip flooring. Eastern white pine and heart pine are sanded with lighter passes and a finer final grit, so the soft early wood is not scooped out into ripples rather than flattened the way a crew used to oak would leave it.
Before any sanding, we confirm the build year and look at painted thresholds, stair parts and trim. Massachusetts runs its own lead-safe renovation rules for homes built before 1978, so the setup is decided up front rather than after a drum sander has already put painted dust into the room.
Never is a water-damaged board replaced on sight. A burst pipe, a leak from the unit above or a wet basement is traced first, and the subfloor and boards are read with a moisture meter, so new wood is not nailed down over a floor that is still wet and about to cup again.
Each rental estimate is written and itemized by room, the way Massachusetts expects before a tenant can be charged for floor damage. That gives a landlord paperwork that stands up rather than a single number on the back of a card.
A leak from the apartment above usually shows up as stained ceiling plaster first and cupped boards second. We find where the water entered the floor, dry and meter it, and only then decide which boards are lost, because many cupped boards flatten again once the moisture is gone.
Cupping is when board edges rise higher than the centers, and buckling is when the floor lifts off the subfloor entirely. We dry the floor, take moisture readings across the room and replace only boards that have split, crushed or pulled their fasteners. Sanding a cupped floor before it dries flattens the tops and leaves the boards crowned once the wood settles.
Wood below grade sits closest to groundwater, and a storm can leave it swollen or stained. We check the slab and the subfloor for moisture before any repair, and for rebuilt basement floors we usually steer owners toward engineered wood over a proper vapor retarder rather than solid boards.
Winter gaps open when heating dries the air and the boards shrink across their width, then close again in humid summer. We explain what is seasonal and what is not before anyone fills or replaces boards, because filling a seasonal gap in January can crush the board edges by July.
A bouncy floor usually points to the framing or subfloor underneath, not the hardwood on top. We check the subfloor, fasteners and joist span where we can see them, refasten what is ours to fix, and refer structural work to a carpenter or engineer rather than sanding over it.
A sloping floor in an older multi-family house is often decades of settling rather than a new failure. We tell you what the slope means for a refinish or new installation, and if it points to a structural problem, we stop and say so before covering it with a new finish.
Pet urine stains that have turned black have usually soaked through the board and sometimes into the subfloor. Sanding rarely removes them, so we cut out the affected boards, check the subfloor for odor and damage, and weave in matching boards before the whole room is refinished.
Round exit holes and little piles of flour-like powder can mean powderpost beetles or old house borer in the floor or the framing beneath it. We point out the signs, recommend a pest professional confirm whether the activity is current, and replace damaged boards only after the infestation is dealt with.
Squeaks usually come from boards rubbing against loose nails or a subfloor that has pulled away from the joists. We refasten from above or below where it is reachable and replace boards whose tongue and groove has broken, so the repair holds rather than coming back next season.
Stair treads take more traffic per square foot than any floor in the house, and cracked or loose treads are a safety problem. We reattach, repair or retread individual steps and refinish the stair nosing and risers so the staircase matches the floors around it.
A full sand takes the floor down to fresh wood and removes scratches, stains and old finish, while a screen and recoat only scuffs the top coat and lays down fresh polyurethane. We tell you which the floor actually needs, since recoating a floor with gray, worn-through traffic lanes seals the damage in rather than fixing it.
Old pine floors move more than oak and wear into soft spots near doorways and along traffic paths. We sand them gently, set or replace raised nails, fill or slip in strips where gaps are wide enough to need it and finish with a coat that suits softwood flooring.
Many houses still hide red oak strip flooring under carpet, with the pad, staples and tack strip left on top. We pull every staple and strip, patch the nail holes, and sand the floor back to clean wood, so the room gets its original floor back instead of new carpet.
Old linoleum glue and carpet glue gum up sandpaper and hide what the floor looks like underneath. We test the adhesive and remove it before sanding, and if it turns out to be black mastic, the work stops until the right trade has handled it.
When radiators or their pipes are removed, they leave holes and unfinished patches in the floor. We cut those areas back and weave in matching boards rather than gluing in a square plug, so the repair blends into the floor once it is sanded and finished.
Orange oak is usually decades of oil-based finish that has ambered with age. We sand down to fresh wood and finish with a clear waterborne polyurethane or a light stain, so the floor reads as natural oak again rather than a yellow cast.
Stairs are sanded by hand and with smaller tools, which is why we quote them per step rather than by the square foot. Painted stairs are checked for age before stripping, and once bare, the treads, nosing and risers are stained and finished to match the hallway floor.
New polyurethane will not bond to wax residue or some older shellac finishes. We test the existing finish before quoting a recoat, because a coat laid over wax can peel within weeks and leave you paying for a full sanding anyway.
We sand with dust collection and HEPA vacuums, seal doorways and plan the order of rooms around how you live in the house. Waterborne finishes keep the odor down, which matters when a family or a tenant is still sleeping on the other side of the wall.
Refreshed floors photograph well and give buyers one less thing to budget for. We plan the work around listing photos and showings and tell you whether a full refinish or a screen and recoat will do the job before the sale.
Solid hardwood can be sanded many times, engineered wood handles moisture and below-grade rooms better, and vinyl plank is a different product altogether. We lay out what each will cost and how long it will last in your rooms, rather than steering every job toward one product.
We remove the carpet, pad and tack strip, check the subfloor for flatness and squeaks, and install solid or engineered boards to meet the floors around them. Thresholds and reducers are planned so the new floor does not leave a trip edge at the doorway.
Carpeted stairs often have rough treads underneath that were never meant to be seen. We fit new hardwood stair treads and risers, or retread the existing steps, and finish them to match the floors at the top and bottom.
Below-grade rooms are where solid hardwood struggles, because moisture from the slab can cup and buckle the boards. We test the slab, use a vapor retarder and install engineered wood rated for the setting, so the floor is built for the room it is in.
Prefinished boards arrive coated from the factory and can be walked on right away, while site-finished boards are sanded and coated after installation for a smooth, sealed surface. We explain what each is like to clean, repair and refinish over the years, so the choice fits how the room will be used.
Impact noise from footsteps travels down through a floor much more than voices do. We talk through acoustic underlayment and floor choices against what the building’s own condominium documents require, so the new floor satisfies the association rather than being torn back out.
When a wall is removed, it leaves a strip of bare subfloor between two finished floors. We weave new boards into the old ones at staggered lengths and sand the area together, so the opening looks like it was always one room.
Solid hardwood is usually nailed to a wood subfloor, engineered boards can be glued or floated, and the right method depends on the subfloor and the room. We choose the method that suits the product and the space, and leave the expansion gap the boards need to move.
Flooring cleats and flooring staples hold boards differently, and the manufacturer’s guidelines often specify which to use. We follow those guidelines and the NWFA Installation Guidelines, because the wrong fastener can split board tongues or let the floor squeak within a year.
Wide plank white oak and patterned layouts such as herringbone need a flatter subfloor and more careful acclimation than narrow strip flooring. We plan the layout, the board widths and the starting line before installation, so the pattern stays square across the whole room.
We schedule rental floor work around the move-out and move-in dates, so the unit is not sitting empty waiting for the floor. Where the floor only needs a screen and recoat, that can often be done in the gap between tenants.
Massachusetts expects a landlord to show itemized damage, backed by documents such as estimates, before charging a tenant against a security deposit. We write estimates room by room that separate ordinary wear, such as traffic lanes, from damage like pet stains or deep gouges.
In a two-family or triple-decker, the people on the other floors still need the building. We contain dust, keep the shared stairway clear and set working hours that respect the neighbors, so only one unit is ever out of use.
Condo floor rules, including underlayment and noise requirements, are usually set out in the master deed, bylaws or house rules under M.G.L. c.183A. We ask to see those documents before quoting, so the floor you choose is one the association will accept.
When water comes through from the unit above, the question of who pays usually belongs to the owners, the association and their insurers. We stay out of that dispute and give everyone clear documentation of the damage and the repair, so the decision rests on facts.
Massachusetts follows its own lead-safe renovation rules, and painted surfaces in older homes change how floor work is set up. We confirm the build year and identify painted areas before work begins, so the job is planned around them from the start.
Pulling up carpet sometimes reveals old vinyl tile or black mastic left from an earlier floor. We stop and identify it rather than sanding it, because some older tile and adhesive need the right trade before the floor can be worked.
An adjuster needs to see what was damaged, how badly and what it will take to repair it. We document water-damaged floors room by room, with moisture readings and photos, so the claim reflects the actual damage.
Lawrence sits just below the New Hampshire line, and rental, lead and paperwork rules can differ between the two states even when the floor job is the same. We confirm which state’s rules apply to your property before writing the estimate.
Drum sanders are loud, and many towns and condo associations set hours for construction noise. We schedule the loudest work within those limits and tell neighbors in shared buildings when to expect it, so the job does not become a complaint.
Lawrence Wood Flooring provides wood-flooring throughout the greater Lawrence area, with the same crews and the same standards on every job.
Good to know
Open floor area is priced by the square foot, while stairs are quoted tread by tread and repairs are priced by the boards and patches involved. The written estimate separates those lines, plus any carpet, tack strip or glue removal, so you can see exactly where the cost sits before you agree to anything.
A typical room or open floor is sanded in a day, then stained and coated over the following days, with drying time between coats. Waterborne polyurethane lets you walk on the floor sooner than oil-modified finishes, and we give you the timeline for your chosen finish before the work starts.
Usually yes, as long as there is a way in and out that does not cross the floor being coated. In a two-family we work one unit at a time, and we plan the order of rooms so bedrooms and the kitchen are not out of use at the same time.
We check at a floor register, a threshold or an edge where a board end is visible. Solid boards show wood all the way through, while engineered boards show a thin wear layer over plywood, and that wear layer decides whether the floor can be sanded at all.
Waterborne finish dries clear, cures faster and has less odor, so it suits homes where people need the rooms back quickly. Oil-modified finish deepens the color and ambers over time, which some owners want on oak; we lay out both on a sample board before you decide.
Matte and satin hide scratches and dust far better than semi-gloss or gloss, which is why most families and landlords choose them. Gloss shows every footprint and wear path, so we suggest it only for rooms with light traffic.
Yes. We ask the build year and look at painted thresholds, stair parts and baseboards before any sanding, because Massachusetts runs its own lead-safe renovation rules for homes built before 1978 and painted surfaces change how the job is set up.
We stop that part of the job. Old resilient tile and the black mastic under it are identified rather than sanded, and the work waits until the right trade has handled them, because grinding unknown tile and adhesive is the one shortcut that can turn a floor job into a health problem.
In most cases, yes. We match species, width and grain as closely as possible, weave the new boards into the old ones so there is no straight seam, and then sand and finish the whole room together so the color evens out.
We do. Lawrence sits right below the state line, and the job itself rarely changes, but the rental, lead and paperwork rules can differ between the two states, so we confirm which ones apply to your property before the estimate is written.
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