Hardwood installation cost per square foot, line by line
What each part of a hardwood floor adds, from the guides Google showed for this search on October 26, 2026. Each line is a market range, not our price.
| Part of the job | Market range |
|---|---|
| The woodMaterial only, by species and grade (HomeGuide). | $6–$15 / sq ft |
| Installation laborBy home size and layout, installation method and the installer (HomeGuide). | $3–$10 / sq ft |
| NJ sales tax on the laborCharged on floor installation labor in New Jersey, even in a capital improvement (ANJ-5). | 6.625% |
| Taking up carpetHomeGuide. | $0.70–$1.60 / sq ft |
| Taking up old wood or tileHomeGuide. | $1.50–$3.50 / sq ft |
| New subfloorReplacing the entire subfloor, installed (HomeGuide). A joist that has to be replaced is $350 to $1,000 each. | $2.20–$4.75 / sq ft |
| StainFor a floor stained on site (HomeGuide). | $0.50–$2.00 / sq ft |
| StairsPriced separately from the flat floor (Realty Improvement, NJ). | $40–$100+ / step |
| General contractorHomewyse's figure to add when a general contractor organizes and supervises the job. | +13%–22% |
What the wood costs by species
Material only, per square foot, before installation (HomeGuide):
- Red oak: $5 to $10. Consistent color and high durability.
- White oak: $6 to $12.
- Maple: $4 to $12. Hard and dense, light in color.
- Hickory: $6 to $14. Suits high-traffic rooms.
- Pine, a softwood: $3 to $8.
Thickness matters too. Solid hardwood is most often ¾ inch, $5 to $15 a square foot for the material; engineered is most often ½ inch, $4 to $12. A grade with more knots and color variation costs less than a clear, select grade.
Engineered hardwood flooring installation cost
Engineered hardwood is a real wood surface glued over layers of plywood or fiberboard. It installs for $7 to $20 a square foot, material and labor, in HomeAdvisor's figures updated June 17, 2026. For 500 square feet that is $6,750 on average, from $3,500 to $10,000. HomeGuide puts engineered at $9 to $20, and the Hudson County guide at $9 to $18 for the New Jersey metro area.
| Floor | Engineered, installed |
|---|---|
| 168 sq ft (12 × 14 ft bedroom) | $1,176–$3,360 |
| 500 sq ft | $3,500–$10,000 |
| 1,000 sq ft | $7,000–$20,000 |
| 1,500 sq ft | $10,500–$30,000 |
| 2,000 sq ft | $14,000–$40,000 |
What the engineered price buys, by HomeAdvisor's three grades (planks only, per square foot):
- Basic: $5 to $9. Usually three core layers under a 1/16 to 1/12 inch wood veneer.
- Mid-grade: $6 to $12. Usually five core layers under a 1/12 to 1/8 inch veneer, and better at resisting scratches.
- High-end: $13 to $18, sometimes $20 or more. Seven or more core layers under a veneer of at least 1/6 inch.
Engineered or solid?
| Question | Solid | Engineered |
|---|---|---|
| Installed | $11–$25 / sq ft | $9–$20 (HomeGuide); $7–$20 (HomeAdvisor) |
| How it goes down | Nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor | Nailed, glued down or floated |
| Over concrete or below grade | Not directly over concrete | Yes, including a finished basement |
| Sanding and refinishing | Many times over its life | Once or twice, by veneer thickness |
| Humidity | Moves more as humidity changes | More stable |
| Lifespan | Generations, with care | Up to about 50 years, with care (HomeAdvisor) |
Engineered is not waterproof, so it is not a floor for a bathroom, laundry room or mudroom (HomeAdvisor). For a finished basement, our basement finishing cost guide covers the waterproofing that has to come first.
Prefinished, or sanded and finished on site
Traditional hardwood is installed bare, then sanded, stained if you want color, and coated in place. Prefinished boards come with the finish already on. HomeGuide says prefinished costs more up front but means less mess and lower labor. Staining a floor on site runs $0.50 to $2.00 a square foot (HomeGuide), and adding a finish to unfinished engineered boards $2 to $7 (HomeAdvisor). A finish such as UV-cured polyurethane costs more and lasts longer before the floor needs refinishing (HomeGuide).
Which way suits your rooms is a question for the estimate: tell us when you call whether you want the boards finished in place or prefinished.
What moves a hardwood floor price
Two floors of the same size can be priced thousands apart. These are the reasons the guides give, and what each one adds where they publish a figure:
- What comes up first. Carpet $0.70 to $1.60 a square foot, old wood or tile $1.50 to $3.50 (HomeGuide); $1 to $3 in the New Jersey metro guide, with tile and glued-down floors costing more than carpet. Before you price new wood, look under the carpet: one reply to a New Jersey homeowner's question was simply, "How do you know there's not already hardwood there?"
- The subfloor. Hardwood needs a flat, even subfloor (Home Depot's Matawan, NJ page). A full new subfloor is $2.20 to $4.75 a square foot; a damaged joist $350 to $1,000 (HomeGuide). As one New Jersey commenter put it, contractors won't know what to charge until they see the subfloor.
- How it is fastened. Nail-down is the cheapest method; glue-down costs more for the adhesive; floating planks click together and need a level subfloor (HomeGuide).
- Pattern and layout. A herringbone or other true parquet pattern runs $13 to $40 a square foot installed. Rooms with many angles and obstacles cost more to cut; large open floors often get a lower rate (HomeGuide).
- Stairs and trim. Stairs $40 to $100 and up a step (Realty Improvement). Homewyse's national estimate leaves out molding and trim, so ask whether a quote includes the baseboard and shoe molding.
The subfloor and moisture checks before the wood goes down
Hardwood expands and contracts as humidity changes (HomeGuide), so the wood and what it sits on are checked before it goes down. The National Wood Flooring Association's installation guidelines (NWFA, revised 2025) set the checks:
- Take moisture readings on at least 40 boards for the first 1,000 square feet, plus 4 more readings for every 100 square feet after that, and average them.
- Under solid strip flooring (narrower than 3 inches), the wood subfloor should be no more than 4% higher in moisture content than the flooring. Under solid plank (3 inches or wider), no more than 2% higher.
- A concrete subfloor must be moisture-tested, with moisture control in place, before any solid wood floor goes on it.
Readings that are unusually high or low are dealt with before the floor is delivered and installed (NWFA). On an older house, that check is where subfloor work shows up in a price.
What New Jersey homeowners were quoted
Three of the top results for this search in New Jersey are real jobs and real questions, not cost models. What they show, read October 26, 2026:
- Home Depot's Matawan, NJ page lists hardwood jobs done there in 2019. A 1,032 sq ft prefinished solid nail-down floor across ten rooms was $4,620; a 347 sq ft job was $3,030; the largest, a click-together wood floor laid diagonally across eleven rooms and the upper stairs after the carpet came out, was $10,781. The page does not say what each price includes, and the jobs are seven years old.
- In a New Jersey contractors' Facebook group in April 2024, a homeowner in Lebanon, NJ asked for prices to install 730 sq ft of 5¼-inch planks on a ready subfloor, glue and nails included. Two installers replied with $3,650 (about $5.00 a square foot) and $3,000 (about $4.11) to install it with the glue, the wood not included. They were public replies, not written quotes.
- On Reddit's r/newjersey, a buyer asked what to expect per square foot to take up carpet, put down subfloor and install hardwood. One reply guessed $4 to $5 a square foot for labor on an average room with one tricky part; another paid $3.50 for a floating install with prep, plus about $1,500 to remove tile and carpet.
Read together, the labor people report in New Jersey sits around $3.50 to $5 a square foot on a ready subfloor, inside HomeGuide's $3 to $10, with the wood, tear-out, subfloor work and tax on top. Every one of these is a single report, not a survey, and none is our price.
Sales tax on a hardwood floor in New Jersey
New Jersey exempts most capital improvements from sales tax, but not floors. The state's floor covering bulletin says charges to install floor covering are taxable "whether or not the installation results in a capital improvement", and it names hardwood flooring on the list (ANJ-5). The rate is 6.625%. The hardwood itself is taxed where it is bought, whoever buys it.
On a 12 × 14 ft bedroom with labor at $3 to $10 a square foot, the labor is $504–$1,680 and the tax on it $33.39 to $111.30. On 1,000 square feet it is $198.75 to $662.50. None of the national guides shows this line, so check that a New Jersey quote does.
Do you need a permit for hardwood floors in New Jersey?
No. The state construction code lists "the repair, replacement, or installation of any flooring material with a new material" as ordinary maintenance, which needs no permit, no inspection and no notice to the town (N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c)). Work done around the floor is another matter: structural repairs to joists, or moving plumbing or wiring while the floor is up, have their own rules, and your town's construction office has the last word.
Already have hardwood under the carpet?
Refinishing an existing hardwood floor runs $2 to $8 a square foot (HomeGuide), and $3 to $6 in the New Jersey metro guide, which puts 300 sq ft at about $900 to $1,800. That is a fraction of a new floor. HomeGuide, citing the National Association of REALTORS, puts the return on refinishing at 147% of its cost, against 118% for new wood flooring. A floor that has already been sanded several times, or has deep gouges, warped boards or water damage, is a candidate for replacing instead.
We have not published a refinishing price. If you find wood under the carpet, mention it when you call.
Hardwood or vinyl plank?
If the hardwood number is more than the room can carry, our own published price for vinyl plank or laminate is $5 and up a square foot for labor. The vinyl plank and laminate cost guide works that out room by room. National installed ranges put laminate at $4 to $14 a square foot and luxury vinyl at $4 to $16, against hardwood's $9 to $25 (HomeGuide). HomeGuide also lists hardwood as not suitable for wet areas, so a bathroom or laundry room is vinyl or tile ground.
Why published hardwood prices disagree
What the pages Google showed for these searches said on October 26, 2026, and what each number measures:
- HomeGuide: $9 to $25 installed, national, written August 4, 2025 and titled 2026. Splits solid, engineered, material and labor.
- Homewyse (May 2026): $13.19 to $16.72 a square foot, national, for basic mid-range work with red oak nailed down in good site conditions. It leaves out general contractor overhead (add 13% to 22%), sales tax, trim and any repair of what is there.
- HomeAdvisor (June 2026): engineered hardwood $7 to $20 installed, from surveys of its customers after their projects.
- Realty Improvement (May 23, 2026): the one New Jersey guide in the results. Solid $10 to $22, engineered $9 to $18, for Hudson County and the metro area, where it says labor runs higher than the national average.
- Graham's Flooring: $6 to $12 a square foot for most projects, up to $15 for premium. A flooring store in Loveland, Colorado, pricing for Northern Colorado.
- Home Depot, Facebook and Reddit: single New Jersey jobs and replies, listed in the section above.
Whichever bids you get, compare them on the same five questions. Is the wood in the number? Is taking up the old floor in it? Is subfloor work priced, or left for later? Are stairs and trim included? Is the 6.625% New Jersey tax on the labor shown? Before you sign, you can also check a New Jersey contractor's registration.
Where we install hardwood floors
From our office at 65 Newark Ave, Unit 1 in Belleville, across all 22 Essex County towns: Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, East Orange, Nutley, Orange, Montclair, Newark, West Orange, Verona, Irvington, South Orange, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Maplewood, Caldwell, North Caldwell, Roseland, West Caldwell, Livingston, Millburn, Fairfield. We also work in Union and Passaic counties. Hardwood is one of the floors we install, along with carpet, laminate, vinyl and tile, from a single room to a large commercial floor.