CRBA installs, repairs, and refinishes hardwood floors across Hayward, Castro Valley, San Leandro, Fremont, San Jose, and the greater Bay Area. Two things separate a hardwood floor that looks right for fifty years from one that gaps, cups, or has to be torn out in five: choosing the right product for your subfloor and your climate, and doing the preparation underneath properly. If your existing floors are worn but sound, we’ll usually tell you to refinish rather than replace — it typically costs a fraction as much. Licensed general contractor since 2015. Lic #1095283.
CSLB Lic #1095283· Fully Insured · 10-Year Workmanship Warranty · Free Written Estimates
Talk to the contractor, not a call center.
Most homeowners who call us about “new hardwood” have floors worth saving. Here’s the honest test:
Refinish if:
Replace if:
Signs of a problem underneath either way:
Call (510) 990-9243 and describe what you’re seeing — we can usually tell you over the phone which category you’re likely in, and we’ll confirm at the free visit.
Six services covering everything from a first install to bringing a worn floor back.
Oak, maple, hickory, walnut, and ash in traditional and wide-plank formats, installed over a proper plywood subfloor with correct acclimation and expansion gaps. Solid hardwood is the long game: refinishable four to six times, which means a floor that outlives several owners.
Real wood over a dimensionally stable core — the right choice over concrete slabs and in homes with humidity swings, where solid wood would move. Available in thick wear layers that can be refinished once or twice. We’ll show you which products can be sanded later and which can’t, because that difference is rarely on the label.
Full sand-and-refinish: sanding to clean wood, staining to your color, and three coats of finish. Dustless sanding systems available, plus low-VOC waterborne finishes that cure faster and let you back on the floors sooner than traditional oil-based products.
When the wood is sound and only the finish is worn, a screen-and-recoat restores the surface without full sanding — cheaper, faster, and it doesn’t consume any of the board’s remaining life. Not every floor qualifies (waxed floors and floors with deep scratches or gray staining don’t), and we’ll say so honestly at the estimate.
Water-damaged sections, deep gouges, pet damage, and squeak repair — individual boards woven in and blended so the repair disappears into the surrounding floor. Frequently paired with a full refinish so the patch and the original become one floor.
Hardwood treads, risers, and nosings, including engineered wood on stairs — technically the most demanding part of any hardwood job, and where inexperienced installers give themselves away. Plus clean transitions to tile, LVP, and carpet in adjacent rooms.
Don’t see your project? Call (510) 990-9243— we handle it all.
Call (510) 990-9243. Tell us the rooms, rough square footage, what’s down now, and whether the house is on a slab or raised foundation. That’s enough for a working range and a first read on refinish vs. replace.
Free visit. For refinishing, we check board thickness, previous sanding, staining depth, and whether a recoat will bond. For new installation, we check subfloor flatness, moisture, and door and transition clearances. You get a written itemized quote either way, with both options priced when both are viable.
New installation: material acclimates on site, subfloor is prepped and leveled, boards installed with proper expansion allowance, then trim and transitions.
Refinishing: furniture out, dustless sanding through progressive grits, stain applied and approved by you before finish coats, then three finish coats with cure time between.
Living with it: waterborne finishes are typically walkable in [24 hours] and ready for furniture in a few days; oil-based takes longer. Rugs go back last, usually after [2–4 weeks].
Realistic Bay Area ranges: hardwood refinishing typically $[4–$8] per square foot; no-sanding recoats $[2–$4] per square foot; engineered hardwood installation $[12–$18] per square foot installed; solid hardwood $[14–$22] per square foot installed, higher for wide plank and premium species. Stairs are commonly $[100–$250] per tread.
What you won’t pay for:
Call (510) 990-9243 with your square footage.
The single biggest number in a hardwood decision isn’t the material — it’s whether you’re refinishing or replacing. Our structure:
Phone range first. Square footage, refinish vs. new, and slab vs. raised foundation.
Free visit with both options priced when both are viable. If your floors can be refinished, you’ll see that number next to the replacement number. Plenty of homeowners choose refinishing and spend the difference somewhere else in the house — we’d rather you do that than not call us again for a decade.
Five things drive the price:
Based in Hayward, working across the East Bay and South Bay:
Core service area: Hayward · Castro Valley · San Leandro · Fremont · Union City · San Jose
Also serving: Palo Alto · Mountain View · Sunnyvale · Cupertino · Santa Clara · Los Gatos · Oakland · San Francisco
In 2026, engineered hardwood installation in the Bay Area typically runs $[12–$18] per square foot installed and solid hardwood $[14–$22] per square foot, with wide plank and premium species higher. Refinishing existing hardwood costs far less — typically $[4–$8] per square foot — so if your floors are worn but structurally sound, refinishing is usually the better value.
Sometimes. If the wood is sound and only the finish is worn — dull, lightly scratched, no gray or black staining — a screen-and-recoat abrades the existing finish and bonds a new coat over it, without sanding to bare wood. It's cheaper, faster, and doesn't consume any of the board's remaining thickness. It won't work on waxed floors, floors with deep scratches through the finish, or floors with water or pet staining, which need full sanding.
Solid hardwood can typically be refinished four to six times across its lifespan, depending on original thickness and how aggressively previous sandings were done. Engineered wood with a thick wear layer can usually be refinished once or twice; thin-veneer engineered flooring generally can't be sanded at all. If you can see nail heads or tongue edges, the floor has reached the end of its sanding life.
Most refinishing projects take 3–5 days: one day of sanding, one for stain, and two to three for finish coats with cure time between. Waterborne finishes are typically walkable in about [24 hours] and take furniture in a few days; area rugs should stay off for [2–4 weeks] so the finish fully cures. Oil-based finishes take longer and smell stronger.
Not usually, but plan around it. Sanding is loud and the floors are off-limits during finish cure, so most clients either stay elsewhere for two or three nights or have us do the project in sections. Dustless sanding systems capture the vast majority of dust, which makes staying in the home far more realistic than it was a decade ago.
Choose solid hardwood over a plywood subfloor when you want maximum longevity and multiple refinishes. Choose engineered over a concrete slab, in homes with big humidity swings, or where floor height matters — it's dimensionally stable where solid wood would cup or gap. Engineered is not the "cheap" option; a thick-wear-layer engineered floor outperforms thin solid wood in the wrong environment.
Engineered hardwood, yes — with moisture testing and a proper vapor barrier, since slab moisture is the leading cause of failed wood floors. Solid hardwood over slab generally requires installing a plywood subfloor first, which adds cost and floor height. We test slab moisture before recommending either.
Yes, including engineered hardwood on stairs. Stairs need treads, risers, and properly returned nosings, and they're the most exacting part of any hardwood job — every cut is visible and every tread must be consistent. Stairs are priced per tread rather than by square foot.
Moisture. Cupping (edges higher than centers) means the underside of the boards is taking on more moisture than the top — often a crawlspace or slab issue. Gapping in winter and closing in summer is normal seasonal movement in Bay Area homes; permanent wide gaps mean the wood dried out after installation or was never properly acclimated. Either way the moisture source has to be found before refinishing, or the same thing happens again.
es — refinishing results are dramatic and hard to believe from a description, so we'll show you completed projects in your area during the estimate. Ask specifically for a floor similar to yours in species and condition.
With realistic expectations, yes. Harder species (hickory, white oak) and matte finishes hide wear far better than soft species and glossy finishes. That said, if you want genuinely waterproof and near-indestructible, luxury vinyl plank is the honest recommendation — many of our clients use hardwood in living and bedroom areas and LVP in kitchens, baths, and mudrooms.
Yes. Damaged boards can be cut out and woven in with matching material, then blended. If the surrounding finish has aged, we usually recommend refinishing the room or the connected area afterward so the repair doesn't stand out as a patch.
Read all 200+ verified reviews on Google before you decide.
Hardwood floor installation, refinishing, no-sanding recoats, repairs, and stairs across Hayward, Fremont, San Jose, and the Bay Area. We price both options when both are viable, so you can choose on real numbers. Licensed general contractor. Free assessment.