This is the question worth answering before you spend anything, because the two jobs aren’t on the same scale. Cleaning is maintenance. Refinishing means sanding to bare wood, and you move out of the room.
Plenty of floors that look like they need refinishing don’t.
What You’re Actually Looking At
Most hardwood floors have a finish on top, usually polyurethane. You walk on the finish, not on the wood.
So there are three different problems that look similar from standing height:
The finish is dull or hazy. Usually residue from cleaning products, plus fine grit. This is a cleaning problem.
The finish is worn through in places. Traffic lanes have lost their coating and the bare wood is exposed. This needs recoating or refinishing.
The wood itself is damaged. Deep scratches, water stains that have gone grey or black, cupping. This needs refinishing or repair.
The Test
Find a dull area. Put a few drops of water on it and wait ten minutes.
The water beads and the floor is unchanged: the finish is intact. Your floor is dirty, not worn, and refinishing is probably more than it needs.
The water soaks in and darkens the wood: the finish is gone in that spot and the wood is exposed. Cleaning won’t fix that, and you should stop putting water on that floor.
Do it in a traffic lane and again in a corner nobody walks on. The difference between those two spots tells you how much of the floor is affected.
Why So Many Floors Just Look Bad
Most dull hardwood is dull because of what’s been put on it.
Mop-and-shine products, oil soaps and some all-purpose cleaners leave a film. Each application adds another layer, and the layers trap dirt and go cloudy. People respond to a dull floor by applying more of the product that dulled it.
Under that buildup is very often a perfectly good finish. Buildup is a cleaning problem, not a refinishing one.
What Cleaning Does
Brooke’s Chem-Dry cleans wood floors, then applies a polish or protective layer. Standing water is what damages wood floors, so keeping moisture low matters whoever does the work.
Cleaning doesn’t sand or refinish a floor, and it can’t lift a stain that’s in the wood rather than on it.
Do the Water Test First
It costs nothing and it can save you a refinishing quote. If the water beads, call (785) 760-8000 for a free estimate, or see wood floor cleaning in Lawrence, KS.
More from this series: what wood floor cleaning costs in Lawrence, KS and how often should hardwood floors be cleaned?