Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Decatur, Alabama
What it costs, and what Decatur's housing stock does to the job.
Floor refinishing in a 1977-median city
The median Decatur home was built in 1977 and 8.3% of the city’s housing predates 1940. For floor refinishing specifically, that is not background color — it is the thing that decides the job.
Sometimes relevant and worth checking rather than assuming. In Decatur, with 8.3% of the housing predating 1940, there is a genuine chance of something under the carpet; in Huntsville at 4.7% it is much less likely. Where a postwar house already has hardwood that has simply dulled, a screen and recoat restores it for a fraction of replacing it and removes no wood at all.
Decatur is the older half of north Alabama — a 1977 median with 8.3% prewar and only 15.6% built since 2000, against Madison an hour away at 53.3%. Two Tennessee Valley cities, twenty-four years apart at the median, and completely different flooring jobs.
What it costs in Decatur
North Alabama labor runs below the Alabama baseline, which is why the range below sits under the statewide $3–$8. Installed, materials and labor together:
| Work | Decatur range | Alabama range |
|---|---|---|
| Refinishing existing boards | $3 – $8 a square foot | $3 – $8 a square foot |
An estimate, not a quote. These are planning ranges for Alabama, not a quote. What you actually pay depends on your rooms, your subfloor and the material you choose.
Extras are where a Decatur 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? 8.3% of Decatur homes predate 1940 and the median build year is 1977, 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 Alabama licenses, and what it does not.