Flooring across the East Bay
Impala GAIA LVT, hardwood install, and refinishing. Waterproof, warm, dead-quiet. Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and the surrounding East Bay. Stand in the example room, change what you want and watch the price move with it. CA License #1054501.
What to budget
The room prices a floor the way we bid it: the material, the install, new baseboard, removing the old floor, the strip at a doorway and the stairs. Change the room size and the material and the number moves with it.
- LVP, supplied and installed: about $18 a sq ft. Old carpet or vinyl out, new plank down. New baseboard is about $7 a foot. Old tile coming out is priced by the crew day, not the square foot.
- Refinish the wood you have: about $6 a sq ft. Sand, stain and finish in place. About $9 a sq ft when carpet has to come up first. Stairs about $154 a step.
- New hardwood: about $20 a sq ft. Old floor out, new hardwood supplied, installed and finished. A small room carries the trip: the room in the estimator shows the real number for your size.
Your price comes from a free walkthrough. Your exact number depends on material, plank width, subfloor condition, and whether we need to remove existing flooring first.
How we build it
Impala GAIA LVT leads for a reason
Most Bay Area flooring jobs we do are Impala GAIA LVT. Waterproof, warm underfoot, quiet, dog-and-kid-proof, handles humidity. Hardwood is still the call when you want the real thing. We install both and tell you honestly which fits your home.
Subfloor prep and moisture test
The subfloor has to be flat, clean, and properly bonded to the joists. We moisture-test both the subfloor and the material before install. If the numbers do not line up, we pause and fix it. Older East Bay homes often have century-settled subfloors that only show up after tearout.
Baseboards come off, every job
We remove baseboards, leave a proper expansion gap behind the new flooring, and install fresh baseboards on top after. No quarter-round cover-ups. No baseboards sitting on finished flooring hiding the gap. Standard line item, not an upsell.
Ram Board after install
Finished floor gets fully covered with Ram Board, taped at every seam, before any other trade walks on it. Stays down through cabinets, counters, paint, appliance delivery. About $120 in materials that saves the thousands of dollars a scratched finished floor costs.
What we will not do
Quarter-round cover-ups
Installing flooring without removing baseboards, then covering the expansion gap with quarter round, is a cover-up. The floor buckles when wood material expands in summer because the baseboard is sitting on top of it trapping the expansion gap. If another contractor says they will "just use quarter round" to save you money, find another contractor.
Skipping acclimation
48 hours minimum for hardwood material. We will not rush acclimation to hit a deadline. Skipping it is the #1 cause of gapping in winter and buckling in summer. LVT does not need it. When we install wood, the timeline is baked into our quote.
Upselling a replacement
If your original East Bay hardwood is structurally sound and has enough wear layer left to sand, we will tell you. Refinishing runs a fraction of the cost of replacement and preserves the character of the home. We do not upsell replacements when refinishes would serve you better.
Questions we get
How long does a flooring install take?
Depends on scope and material. LVT install: 2 to 4 days for a single kitchen, 4 to 7 days for whole-house. New hardwood install: 2 to 4 days per room. Refinish existing hardwood: 3 to 5 days including sand, stain, and 2 to 3 coats of polyurethane. Hardwood needs 48 hours of acclimation in your home before install. LVT does not. Those windows are baked into our quoted timelines.
Should I refinish existing hardwood or replace it?
If the wood is in solid structural shape and thick enough to sand (at least 3/16" of wear layer left), refinishing is cheaper, faster, and preserves the original character of the home, especially valuable in older East Bay Craftsmans and Victorians. If the floor has deep water damage, missing boards, or has been sanded thin from previous refinishes, replacement is the call (and LVT is often a smarter replacement than new hardwood for cost + durability).
What about baseboards? Do you remove them or install over the old ones?
We remove them. Every time. Installing flooring while leaving old baseboards in place creates two problems: first, the baseboard sits on top of the finished flooring and hides the manufacturer-required expansion gap underneath (wood material expands in summer, buckles); second, old baseboards almost never reinstall cleanly after that gap is exposed. Our standard is: remove baseboards, leave proper expansion gap behind the flooring, install fresh baseboards on top after. Standard line item, not an upsell.
Flooring across the East Bay
Impala GAIA LVT, hardwood install, and refinishing. Waterproof, warm, dead-quiet. Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and the surrounding East Bay.
CA License #1054501