Bluffton Premier Hardwood Flooring installs, refinishes, and repairs real wood floors across Bluffton and the Lowcountry — solid oak laid and finished in place, prefinished floors that go down fast, and engineered wood built for Lowcountry humidity and concrete slabs. Most calls start with a floor somebody has been putting up with for a while.
We handle the whole range: new hardwood installation when the carpet has to go, refinishing and sanding that brings a worn floor back without replacing it, and repairs that lace new boards into old floors so the patch disappears. We also build engineered floors for slab homes, redo stair treads, and fix the subfloor underneath before it ruins the floor on top.
Here is how it works. You call or send the form, we come measure the floor in person — moisture readings included — and you get a free written estimate before anything starts. The price we write down is the price — no day-of surprises, no 'the wood cost more' games.
What Does My Hardwood Floor Cost?
Hardwood is priced by the square foot, materials and labor together. These are the published ranges we bid from — the same Angi and HomeGuide numbers, checked against published Bluffton-area installer rates. Run your floor through the same math, then get the exact number in writing, free.
Hardwood Floor Installation
Solid hardwood, installed: prefinished $7–$11 a square foot, site-finished $10–$16, wide-plank and premium species $12–$22. A typical 500-square-foot main floor in prefinished oak runs about $3,500–$5,500 around Bluffton; published typical project totals run $2,469–$7,034 for the rooms most people do at once. Prefinished goes down fastest because the finish is already on it. Site-finished costs more and takes longer — the wood is sanded, stained, and finished in your home — and it is the only way to match an existing floor exactly or pick a color that does not come in a box.
Engineered Hardwood
A real hardwood wear layer over a stable plywood core: $7–$13 a square foot installed for standard engineered, $12–$20 for premium wide-plank. A 500-square-foot floor runs about $3,500–$6,500. Engineered is the right call over concrete slabs — which is most newer Lowcountry construction — and anywhere humidity swings, because the core moves far less than solid wood. A thick wear layer can be refinished once or twice down the road; a thin one cannot, and we will tell you which one you are looking at before you buy it.
Refinishing & Sanding
Three honest levels: a screen & recoat runs $2–$5 a square foot when the finish is dull but the wood under it is sound; a full sand, stain & finish runs $3–$8, back to bare wood; dustless sanding with premium finish runs $5–$8. A typical 400-square-foot refinish runs about $1,200–$3,200 around Bluffton. Refinishing only works when there is wood left to sand — most solid floors can be sanded several times in their life, and the measure visit includes checking the wear layer at a floor vent so nobody sells you a sanding your floor cannot take.
Hardwood Floor Repair
Board replacement and lace-in repairs run $7–$20 a square foot of repaired area, with a minimum charge around $350 to bring a crew and a sander out — on small repairs the minimum, not the square feet, is most of the price, which is how published repair pricing behaves everywhere. Dishwasher leaks, pet damage, and the dark ring where a plant sat for five years are the usual Bluffton calls. The repair is laced into the existing floor board by board, then the area is sanded and finished to blend — a good repair disappears.
Stair Treads & Risers
Refinishing a stair runs $25–$85 a step depending on how much of the stair is in the job — treads alone at the low end, treads, risers, stringers, and rails toward the top. A typical 12-step stair with treads and risers figures about $390–$1,325. Stairs are hand work: every tread is sanded, edged, and finished individually, which is why they price by the step and not the square foot. Replacement treads for carpeted builder stairs are priced at the measure visit by species and count.
What Moves the Price
The wood itself — species, grade, and plank width are most of the materials bill. Plain prefinished oak is the value end; wide planks and premium species cost more per foot before anyone lifts a tool.
What comes out first — carpet is quick; glued-down old hardwood, tile, or a floor that has to be leveled adds real work. Removal and disposal figures about 15% over the base install.
The layout — a straight lay is the base price. Herringbone, chevron, and border work mean more cuts and more time: figure about 25% over.
The subfloor underneath — a floor is only as good as what's under it. Soft spots, squeaks, and moisture problems get fixed before new wood goes down, not after it starts moving. Subfloor repairs typically run $900–$3,000 when a section has to come up.
Slab or crawlspace — Lowcountry humidity is the whole game here. Solid wood over a slab is a bad bet; engineered or a proper moisture system is the honest answer, and the measure visit includes moisture readings either way.
Furniture and rooms — a clear room is a fast room. Most people do the main living areas at once because the per-foot price gets better and the house is disrupted once, not three times.
Ranges are the published numbers we bid from: Angi's 2026 hardwood floor installation, engineered hardwood, refinishing, and repair guides, HomeGuide's flooring and stair-refinishing guides, and published Bluffton-area installer ranges — with every calculator band checked against the published per-square-foot figures.
A note on solid vs. engineered in the Lowcountry. Both are real wood on top — the difference is what is underneath the wear layer. Solid is one piece of wood all the way through: it can be sanded and refinished many times, and it belongs over wood subfloors in conditioned space. Engineered is a real hardwood layer over plywood: it shrugs off the humidity swings and concrete slabs that make solid wood cup and gap here, and a quality wear layer (4mm and up) can still be refinished. Neither is the 'fake' option — the fake option is selling you solid oak over a damp slab. The measure visit settles which one your house should get, with moisture readings in writing.
Estimate Your Project
Measure length × width of each room and add them up — or pace it off and guess; the in-person measure settles the real number.
Price includes the wood, underlayment, install, and trim-out. Subfloor repairs, if your floor needs them, are quoted separately in writing after moisture readings.
Measure length × width of each room and add them up — or pace it off and guess; the in-person measure settles the real number.
Price includes the flooring, moisture barrier where the slab needs one, install, and trim-out.
Measure length × width of each room and add them up — or pace it off and guess; the in-person measure settles the real number.
A screen & recoat only works when the wood under the finish is sound — if traffic lanes are worn to bare wood, the full sand is the honest job, and the measure visit settles which one your floor can take.
Roughly pace off the damaged patch — a dishwasher leak usually runs 20–60 square feet by the time the soft boards are counted.
Repairs carry a minimum charge around $350 — on small patches the minimum, not the square feet, is most of the price.
Count the treads from the floor to the landing — most Bluffton two-story homes run 12–14.
Refinishing prices. Brand-new treads over carpeted builder stairs are priced at the measure visit by species and count.
Your estimated range
Free — no obligation. Your calculator numbers ride along with the request.
Send Your Project to Bluffton Premier Hardwood Flooring
Your estimate is attached automatically. Add your info and tell us about the floor — what rooms, what's on them now, anything we should know before we come out. Prefer to talk? Call (854) 203-1129.
Recent Projects Around Bluffton
The kind of floor work we do around Bluffton, Hilton Head, and Beaufort County — what the job was, what it cost, and what the homeowner says after.
The projects below are representative of the work we do around Bluffton and the Lowcountry — the kind of jobs, the way they're priced, and what homeowners tell us after. Verified customer projects replace these examples as jobs close.
Hardwood Floor Installation — Ridgeland
Hardwood Floor Installation · Ridgeland, SC · 3 days
Builder carpet and worn sheet vinyl out of a Ridgeland ranch, and 620 square feet of prefinished white oak in — living room, hall, and primary bedroom, done in one pass so the house was disrupted once.
Final price: $5,900
The carpet had been 'one more year' for about six years. They had the old floors out and the oak down in three days, and the price on paper was the price at the end.
Refinishing & Sanding · Hilton Head Island, SC · 2 days
A Hilton Head condo's oak floors had gone gray from sun and tracked-in sand. Full sand back to bare wood, a warm walnut stain, and a water-based finish that keeps the beach light in the room.
Final price: $2,400
I thought the floors were just done — twenty years of renters and sand. They sanded them back to wood that looked new and the whole condo feels brighter. Guests notice the floors now, in the good way.
A Beaufort home on a concrete slab, where solid hardwood would cup by August. 800 square feet of premium wide-plank engineered oak, glue-down over a moisture barrier — the look of solid, built for the slab.
Final price: $12,800
Two other companies tried to sell me solid oak for a slab house. These folks explained why that fails here, showed me the moisture readings, and put down engineered that looks like a magazine floor.
A slow dishwasher leak in a Sun City kitchen buckled the boards and blackened the subfloor beneath. 35 square feet laced out and replaced board by board, the subfloor section renewed, then the patch sanded and finished to blend with the floor around it.
Final price: $575
The leak had been going for months before the floor told on it. They found the soft boards, replaced what was ruined — including under the floor, not just the pretty part — and I honestly cannot find the patch.
Fourteen carpeted builder steps in a Hardeeville two-story, stripped back to the oak underneath: treads and risers sanded, stained, and finished to match the foyer floor they had always pretended not to clash with.
Final price: $780
The carpet on those stairs was the first thing you saw and the worst thing in the house. Underneath it was real oak the whole time. Now the staircase matches the foyer and looks like it cost ten times what it did.
500 square feet of unfinished red oak in a Pooler family room, installed raw and finished on site — the stain mixed on a sample board until it matched the existing floor in the dining room next door, which was the whole point of doing it the slow way.
Final price: $6,400
Everybody else wanted to sell us prefinished and 'get it close.' This crew finished the wood in the house and matched the dining room color on a sample board before a drop went on the floor. It reads as one floor now.
Lowcountry floors live hard. Humidity swells them in August, beach sand grinds them down a grain at a time, and half the homes built here in the last twenty years sit on concrete slabs that solid wood was never meant to touch. The right floor for a house in Bluffton starts with moisture readings, not a color sample.
Not sure what yours will run? The calculator near the top of this page runs your rooms through the same published ranges we bid from — then call us and we will come measure and give you the free written estimate.
Squeaks, soft spots, and moisture problems fixed before new wood goes down — most section repairs run $900–$3,000.
How a Flooring Job Runs
It starts with a free measure. We walk the rooms with you, take moisture readings in the floor and the subfloor, check the wear layer at a vent on a refinish, and you hear real price ranges at the visit. Then you get the full price in writing, with the wood, the method, and the schedule named.
Floor days run clean: furniture plan settled, dust contained on sanding jobs, wood acclimated in your rooms before it goes down. Old flooring is hauled out as we go — nothing sits in your driveway overnight.
Before the job is called done, we walk every room with you — seams, transitions, and trim checked in daylight — and leave you the care notes for the finish you chose.
Questions Bluffton Homeowners Ask
How much does it cost to install hardwood in Bluffton?
Solid hardwood installed runs $7–$11 a square foot prefinished, $10–$16 site-finished, and $12–$22 for wide-plank and premium species. A typical 500-square-foot main floor in prefinished oak runs about $3,500–$5,500.
Do you charge for estimates?
No. The measure visit, the moisture readings, and the written estimate are free, and the written price is the price.
Can hardwood go over my concrete slab?
Engineered hardwood can — it is built for slabs. Solid wood over a slab is a bad bet in Lowcountry humidity, and we will tell you so at the measure rather than sell it to you. The calculator's engineered band runs your rooms.
Should I refinish or replace my floors?
If the wood is sound and has wear layer left, refinishing at $3–$8 a square foot beats replacing at $7 and up almost every time. We check the wear layer at a floor vent during the measure and show you what we find.
Bluffton Premier Hardwood Flooring is a local flooring crew serving Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, Okatie, Hardeeville, Ridgeland, and Pooler. Floors priced in writing before we start — every time.
Got a floor you've been putting up with? Let's come measure it and price it in writing.