Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Mobile, Alabama
What it costs, and what Mobile's housing stock does to the job.
Floor refinishing in a 1975-median city
The median Mobile home was built in 1975 and 13.0% of the city’s housing predates 1940. For floor refinishing specifically, that is not background color — it is the thing that decides the job.
Worth investigating in the older parts of Mobile, where 13% of the housing predates 1940 — much less so in Daphne, where the median home was built in 1995. The coastal caution is that a floor which has been wet before may look sound and sand badly: boards that have moved, staining that runs deeper than the sanding depth, and decking underneath that was never dried properly. Ask for that to be checked before the machine is booked.
Mobile is the hardest flooring market in the state and it is not close. 13% of the housing predates 1940, only 14.4% is from this century, and Mobile County is the centre of Formosan termite activity in Alabama. Add the flooding and two questions arrive together: what has been eating the floor, and what happens when it gets wet again.
What it costs in Mobile
Mobile / Baldwin labor runs below the Alabama baseline, which is why the range below sits under the statewide $3–$8. Installed, materials and labor together:
| Work | Mobile 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 Mobile 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? 13.0% of Mobile homes predate 1940 and the median build year is 1975, 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.