Sioux Falls Hardwood Flooring is a hardwood flooring contractor with 15 years of experience providing hardwood flooring refinishing and installation for residential and commercial properties across Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our hardwood floor installers handle solid and engineered hardwood, custom herringbone and chevron patterns, hardwood stairs, and carpet-to-hardwood conversion. On existing floors we offer hardwood floor refinishing, staining, maintenance recoats, board repair, water-damage repair, and full restoration. We also install tile, luxury vinyl plank, and laminate, and schedule commercial work after hours. We are insured and bonded, and provide free estimates.
Refinishing takes a floor back to bare wood. Our drum and belt sanders connect to HEPA containment and step through the full abrasive sequence. Topcoats come from three families: two-component waterborne, oil-modified polyurethane, and hardwax oil. They differ in hardness, odor, and cure time.
Our wood floor installation follows National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) guidelines. We read the wood and subfloor with pin and pinless moisture meters, confirm both meet the manufacturer’s specification, and flatten the subfloor to within 1/4 inch over 10 feet for nail-down. ASTM F2170 testing reads moisture inside a concrete slab. Solid nail-down floors go in with cleat and staple nailers, and where seasonal movement matters most we specify quartersawn and riftsawn stock.
We serve Brandon, Harrisburg, Tea, and other communities across Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties. A seven-month heating season pulls moisture out of wood, so we specify, install, and finish floors for a South Dakota winter, with moisture readings and pricing in writing before work starts. Call today for an estimate.
Get A Free Estimate
Call (605) 799-9142 for a free on-site estimate, or request one online.
Installation
Whether a hardwood floor lasts is largely settled before anyone opens a box of it. Reading moisture, flattening the subfloor, and staging delivery decide more than the boards do. What is left is set by the product itself, which specifies the fastening method and the underlayment.
We install solid hardwood over an approved wood subfloor using a nail-down system. The finished floor sits nearly an inch above the subfloor, so door bottoms, appliance clearances, and transitions to tile are settled before the boards go in.
We glue down, nail down, or float engineered hardwood depending on the substrate and what the product calls for. Over a slab the glue-down goes in once ASTM F2170 testing clears it, and the adhesive and any underlayment are specified to the manufacturer’s requirement rather than to habit.
Conversion starts with complete removal of the carpet, pad, tack strips, and embedded staples, which opens the base up for inspection. We screw down panels that move and fit transition thresholds at each doorway. Old-growth boards sometimes survive underneath and are worth restoring instead.
Every pattern starts from a line snapped down the center of the room, so it lands balanced at both walls rather than running out short at one of them. Herringbone sets rectangular boards at 90 degrees in a staggered zigzag; chevron mitres the board ends to a point so each row meets in a continuous V. Borders and medallions are cut and fitted on site to the room’s own dimensions. Pattern work is priced separately.
Stairs are hand-sanded, because a floor machine cannot reach corners, edges, or nosings. We fit tread and riser stock to each step and match stain and sheen to the floor at the landing. Stair rates are published with the rest of our pricing.
Refinishing & Restoration
Hardwood floor refinishing takes worn coatings and old stain back to bare wood, which is what makes a full color change possible. It is the middle of three options. Lighter is a screen-and-recoat, for a finish that is dull but sound. Heavier is a full restoration, for structural damage or too little wood left to sand. Working out which of the three a floor needs comes first, because a maintenance coat over a floor that needed sanding will not last.
A standard refinish takes the floor back to bare wood and lays two coats in the wood’s natural color, across 2 to 4 days on site. We run both drum and belt machines, stepping through every abrasive grade without skipping one, because a missed grade leaves scratches that stain will darken and expose. Every sander runs on HEPA-filtered dust extraction, so dust control is standard rather than an upcharge.
Restoration recovers a floor whose wear, past sanding, and structural defects go beyond what a coating can fix. We measure the wood left to work with first, so thin historic floors are preserved rather than sanded away, and matching stock may mean old-growth oak in the original width and cut.
Color is confirmed on a sample board laid on your own floor before any of it goes down. We stain in DuraSeal and Minwax colors, from Natural and Early American through Jacobean, Classic Gray, and Ebony. Oak takes color evenly. Maple and birch usually need a conditioner first, or the stain goes blotchy.
Repair starts with reading the distortion and drying the structure. Cupped boards have raised edges, crowned boards rise through the center, and the two call for different timing. We wait until the wood has dried back to what the rest of the floor holds.
A screen and recoat is the maintenance option for floors with a sound finish and light surface wear. It does not remove deep damage or change the stain color. A screen-fitted buffer scuffs the old finish, one compatible topcoat goes on, and many waterborne systems permit limited use the following day.
Repair handles localized squeaks, loose boards, gouges, and small groups of damaged planks without sanding the whole room. Replacement planks are laced in with end joints kept irregular, and grain and cut are matched so the work disappears. Many localized repairs are completed in one visit, depending on material availability and finish matching.
Topcoats come from three families. A two-component waterborne, Bona Traffic HD or Loba 2K Invisible, provides strong wear resistance, low odor, and minimal ambering. Oil-modified polyurethane, DuraSeal on most of our jobs, adds a warm amber cast but cures more slowly and smells stronger. Hardwax oil, Rubio Monocoat or Osmo Polyx, soaks in rather than building a film and spot-repairs without a full recoat.
Sheen is a separate decision: matte scatters light and hides most wear, satin sits in the middle, and semi-gloss is formal and the least forgiving. Dry is not cured. On a typical waterborne system sock traffic is fine at about 24 hours, shoes at 48, and furniture at 72, while rugs stay off until the 7-day cure.
Both the flooring and the subfloor get read on the same visit: a pin meter below the surface, a pinless meter across a broader area. There is no single right number, because species, season, climate, and the manufacturer’s specification set it between them, though in this region it commonly lands around 6 to 9 percent. What does not move is the gap between the two, which NWFA caps at 4 percent on narrower boards and 2 percent on planks 3 inches and wider.
Acclimating to equilibrium means letting the flooring reach the moisture conditions of the occupied house, so we establish 60 to 80 F and 30 to 50 percent relative humidity, or RH, before delivery. Wood stored in an unheated construction space adjusts to conditions that disappear after move-in. Readiness often takes about a week, but the meter decides.
We check flatness with a straightedge against the NWFA tolerance for the system going down. Nail-down with fasteners 1 1/2 inches or longer allows 1/4 inch over 10 feet; glue-down, floating, and shorter fasteners tighten that to 3/16 inch over 10 feet. High spots come down, low spots are filled with self-leveling compound, and loose panels are secured first.
On wider solid planks we favor cleats over staples, since a cleat flexes with the board where a staple holds rigid. Racking out, laying several rows loose first, distributes the grain and staggers the end joints before anything is fastened, so the finished floor does not read as a repeating pattern.
Product Types
A showroom sample shows color and grain. What it cannot show is how hard a floor wears, how much it moves with the season, or how well it hides the life lived on it. Those come down to format, species, grade, texture, and how the log was sawn.
Solid is a single piece of wood through its full thickness, most often 3/4 inch. That thickness carries 4 to 6 sandings across the floor’s life, which is why a maintained solid floor commonly runs 40 to 70 years. The trade is where it can go: above grade only, over a wood subfloor.
Engineered is a real-wood wear layer over a cross-laminated core. That core keeps it stable, and many engineered products are approved for installation over concrete, below grade, and over compatible radiant-heating systems. The wear layer runs 2 to 6 mm and sets how often it can be sanded.
Prefinished boards arrive cured from the mill, so there is no sanding dust and no finish cure schedule. Nail-down and floating prefinished floors can generally be used as soon as installation is complete, while glue-down systems follow the adhesive manufacturer’s return-to-use schedule. Each board carries a small bevel, so the seams stay visible and the color is whatever the catalog offers.
Site-finished floors are sanded flat as one plane after installation, which closes the seams and allows any stain color. The cost is days of sanding and cure. New work that has to meet a floor already down is usually what tips the choice.
We source FSC-certified hardwood, milled from forests managed to Forest Stewardship Council standards, where a documented chain of custody matters. Reclaimed stock is the other route. It comes from older buildings and barns and may include tight-grained material that is difficult to source new. It can also help us match older widths, profiles, and character.
Species
We match species to traffic on the Janka scale, which rates dent resistance. Hardness is not the only route, though: a textured surface hides what a harder species only postpones.
Light and mid-tone finishes are popular choices, and matte and satin finishes are frequently selected. In newer developments toward the south and west, wide-plank engineered flooring is a common choice.
| Species | Janka hardness | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Hickory | 1,820 | Entries, mudrooms, homes with dogs |
| Hard maple | 1,450 | Kitchens and busy hallways |
| White oak | 1,360 | Whole-house; most requested here |
| Red oak | 1,290 | Whole-house; easiest to match on repairs |
| Black walnut | 1,010 | Bedrooms and low-traffic rooms |
Grain, Grade & Texture
Once the species is settled, three things decide how the floor reads and how well it wears: how the log was cut, what grade the boards run to, and what texture is worked into the surface.
Plainsawn is the common flat cut; riftsawn and quartersawn come from nearer the log’s center, so the grain runs closer to vertical. That is why quartersawn moves about half as much across its width as plainsawn. Width compounds the movement: a 5-inch board changes more at each seam than a 3-inch board in the same house. Three inches is also where the trade names split, strip below it and plank at or above.
Grade describes appearance, not strength: the same species at the same hardness throughout. Select and better runs uniform with few knots and long boards; #1 Common takes moderate variation and mineral streak; #2 Common, sold as character grade, carries knots and shorter boards for less.
Sanded flat and left flat, which is what most people picture when they picture a wood floor. It shows every scratch, so it suits low-traffic rooms and houses without pets.
A wire brush strips the softer early wood and leaves a shallow relief that hides fine scratches. This is what we steer entries and mudrooms toward.
Scraped by hand for an undulating surface that reads rustic and older than it is. It hides wear the way wire-brushing does, and holds a little more dust in the grain.
Commercial
Commercial floors have to be ready when customers and staff come back, so the calendar shapes the specification as much as the floor does. We phase work after hours and over weekends, at no added charge for the hours.
We install for offices, retail, clinics, and restaurants across the metro. Species are matched to expected traffic by Janka hardness, and sheen is chosen for how much scuffing a room will show. Work is sequenced by zone so a business keeps trading while the floor goes in.
With a compatible fast-cure finish and suitable site conditions, a Friday start may allow reopening by Monday. We release areas as each one clears rather than handing the whole building back at the end.
Phillips Avenue and the blocks around it are full of century commercial buildings, and the original maple or oak is often still there under later coverings. We work those floors in stages around trading and dining hours, so a storefront does not have to close for the duration of the work.
Other Flooring
Some rooms belong on tile, LVP, or laminate rather than wood, and we install all three with the same substrate work that decides how long a floor lasts.
Tile depends on a stable base, because movement in the subfloor cracks tile and grout. We set porcelain, ceramic, and natural stone to ANSI A108, over cement backer board or an uncoupling membrane that helps isolate the finished tile from minor movement below.
Luxury vinyl plank is waterproof, which makes it the safer specification for lower levels and wet rooms where wood carries risk. Its SPC core, a rigid stone-plastic blend, resists dents and holds the plank flat. We look for a 20-mil wear layer in busy homes and rentals.
Laminate uses an AC abrasion rating for wear resistance, and we recommend AC4 or higher for active households. Its high-density fiberboard core floats over the subfloor rather than fastening to it. Unlike vinyl plank, laminate should not meet standing water; the core swells and will not recover.
Pricing
These are our published Sioux Falls rates, so you can check any proposal against them. Where a job lands inside a range comes down to the material, the condition of the room, and how much prep the floor needs first.
What moves your price: Tack-strip carpet removal and haul-away is $1 to $2 per sq ft. Glued-down flooring removal runs $1.50 to $4 per sq ft, because crews must take the remaining adhesive off the subfloor. Staple pulling, patching, and other subfloor preparation adds $0.50 to $2 per sq ft. Damaged subfloor panel replacement is $2.50 to $5 per sq ft.
A small-job minimum applies under roughly 200 square feet, since setup and mobilization stay the same. Stairs, closets, and rooms with many cuts carry a higher rate than open areas. Furniture moving and appliance disconnects are priced separately.
For a free consultation, call (605) 799-9142, or use the quote form to request a fixed-price itemized proposal for your rooms.
From the first visit through final walkthrough sign-off, Sioux Falls Hardwood Flooring works to a schedule you can see.
We book a free estimate, usually within a few days. During the on-site measure we record room dimensions, inspect the subfloor, and assess the existing flooring.
We leave the sample boards in the room they are meant for, so you can compare species, finish, and stain in your own daylight and lamplight.
You receive an itemized proposal with materials, preparation, removal, and finish shown separately, usually within 24 hours. The proposal defines the included scope and price. Concealed damage and customer-requested changes are documented and approved in writing before any additional work proceeds.
Material is delivered about a week ahead so it can settle to the conditions in your house. We confirm the schedule once the readings support the start date.
Most projects take 1 to 5 days on site. We install containment and clean at each day’s end, and you receive written dates for foot traffic, furniture, and rugs.
Winter Care
Two things work against a wood floor here over the winter: dry indoor air, and the grit that comes in on boots. A hygrometer, the small gauge that reads indoor humidity, is the cheapest way to stay ahead of the first.
A January average around 18 F and roughly 25 days at or below zero pull most homes under the 30 to 50 percent band. Boards shrink in January and close again by July; a whole-house humidifier reduces the swing. A gap up to roughly 1/16 inch that closes by summer is normal, while gaps that stay open deserve inspection.
Sioux Falls gets about 45 inches of snow a year, so a sturdy doormat inside and outside every entrance catches road salt and sand before they reach the wood. Sweep or vacuum on a hard-floor setting before grit scratches the finish. Clean with a lightly damp mop and pH-neutral hardwood cleaner, and avoid wet mops and steam.
Below Grade
Finished basements are common in Sioux Falls, but wood flooring below grade needs its own specification. Below-grade plank is only as good as the slab reading under it, so we run ASTM F2170 and ASTM F1869, a companion test that measures how much moisture rises off the surface, before specifying anything.
Concrete can release moisture long after placement. We set a humidity probe to the depth ASTM F2170 prescribes and give it the 24 hours the standard requires before reading it. Many flooring manufacturers set a 75 percent slab RH ceiling, though product limits govern. A high reading calls for a vapor retarder, a sheet or coating that blocks slab moisture, or a floating floor instead of adhesive.
Below-grade rooms call for engineered hardwood. Glue-down works when the test results and the adhesive’s limits agree; a floating install is the alternative when they do not. An insulated subfloor panel separates finished flooring from cold slab temperatures. Where a basement has flooded before, SPC rigid core is the safer choice.
Service Area
Sioux Falls housing stock splits roughly in two, and the halves ask for different work. In the established neighborhoods, including McKennan Park, All Saints, Tuthill Park, and the older grid running out toward Falls Park and the Old Minnehaha County Courthouse, the floor under the carpet often contains narrow oak strip flooring. Typically 2 1/4 inch for houses of that era, red or white, nailed tight and finished in place, and many of these floors are candidates for restoration.
What makes those floors difficult is rarely the sanding. It is the sourcing. When boards are missing we have to match flooring milled decades ago, the same species, width and cut, much of it long discontinued, then work it into the existing run so the repair does not read as a patch.
On the south and west edges the houses are new and the boards are wide: 5- and 7-inch plank, much of it engineered and factory-finished. That width shows at the seams, sooner in a new floor than in an old strip floor. Many Sioux Falls homes include finished or unfinished lower levels, which means a slab to read first. Across a metro of roughly 290,000 people, growth in Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties keeps all of it active.
Reviews
FAQ
Solid hardwood installation costs about $8,000 to $16,000 for 1,000 square feet at $8 to $16 per square foot. Engineered usually costs less, and removing existing carpet adds $1 to $2 per square foot.
Engineered hardwood can go over concrete with a glue-down or floating system. Solid cannot be fastened to a slab directly; it needs a wood subfloor built over one first, and never below grade.
Sanding and coating a typical floor takes 2 to 4 days. After the last coat, a two-component waterborne finish generally allows sock traffic at about 24 hours; oil-modified polyurethane needs closer to 48.
Usually. We set containment and phase the project room by room so part of the house remains usable. Kitchens and single-bathroom homes are scheduled carefully, and finished rooms stay closed through cure time.
Refinish while there is still wood above the tongue to sand, which we measure first. Replacement is the call when a floor has been sanded too thin or damage runs into the subfloor.
On-site estimates are free and come back as an itemized, fixed-price proposal. Coverage and bonding are in place, with documentation on request. The flooring and finish products carry their manufacturers’ own warranties.
A maintained solid floor commonly runs 40 to 70 years on a 7-to-10-year refinish cycle. Engineered depends on its wear layer. Luxury vinyl plank is durable but cannot be refinished.
We match species, cut, width, and grain, then lace the new boards in with irregular end joints and carry the finish wall to wall so the repair does not read as a patch.
We do, and we price furniture moving and appliance disconnects separately so they appear as their own line on the proposal.
We will visit your property in Sioux Falls or a surrounding community, measure each room at no charge, and prepare an itemized, fixed-price proposal based on the agreed scope.
Reach us at (605) 799-9142 to talk through your project, or send us the quote form when it suits you.
