Under most of this city's carpet is old-growth fir worth uncovering, and under some of it is a subfloor that has been quietly moving since 1915. What you can install depends on what's already there. Describe the rooms and we'll match you with flooring installation crews in Portland who check before they quote.
Compare demolition, disposal, moisture testing, subfloor flattening and repair allowances, acclimation, underlayment, transitions, trim, furniture and appliance handling, finish system, cleanup, and schedule. Make every installer price the same floor area and preparation assumptions; product-only totals hide the work that determines whether a floor stays flat.
If the existing fir or oak has enough thickness left, refinishing costs a fraction of replacement and looks better than anything you can buy new. If it's been sanded three times, patched at old wall lines, or soaked at some point, replacement is the call. Luxury vinyl plank and engineered wood both float or glue over a prepared subfloor and tolerate moisture better, which is why they dominate basement and kitchen work here.
Century-old joists sag toward the middle of the house, and most click-together floating floors have a flatness tolerance they genuinely require. Ignoring it produces bouncing planks and separated joints within a year. A proper quote includes subfloor prep — self-levelling compound, sistered joists, or a new underlayment layer — as a named line, not a hope.
Wood flooring installed straight off the truck in a Portland winter will move. Material needs to acclimate in the house, and the crawlspace below needs a ground vapour barrier if you don't want humidity cycling through your floor twice a year. On slab or basement installations, a moisture test is standard practice and worth insisting on.
In Portland houses built before about 1950, carpet was very often laid over original fir or oak rather than replacing it. Before you price new flooring, pull up a corner in a closet and look. Refinishing original growth fir costs a fraction of installing new hardwood and produces a floor that no modern product matches — the grain on old-growth Douglas fir simply is not available now. What kills the option is previous damage: pet stains that went through to the subfloor, or a floor already sanded so many times there is nothing left above the tongue.
A century of settlement on Portland's clay soils means the subfloor in an older house is often out of level by a noticeable margin, and that matters more for some products than others. Sheet vinyl and carpet forgive it. Rigid click-lock planks and large-format tile do not — they telegraph every dip, and edges lift over time. Any quote for a hard floor in a pre-war house should include either a levelling compound allowance or an explicit statement that the subfloor was checked and found flat.
Describe your project once and we help connect your request with relevant local contractors who serve your area. The request is free, there is no obligation to hire, and you decide whether anyone is right for the job.
Homes built roughly 1900 to 1940 across inner Portland were routinely floored in vertical-grain Douglas fir, later covered by carpet, linoleum, or both. Pull a corner in a closet before you order anything. Fir is softer than oak and dents, but it refinishes beautifully and buyers in this market notice it immediately.
Portland basements are damp by design — below grade, in clay, with slabs poured long before vapour barriers were standard. Solid hardwood does not belong down there. Vinyl plank, tile, or a properly detailed engineered product over a moisture barrier is the durable answer, and the slab should be tested rather than assumed dry.
Older Portland homes frequently have several generations of flooring stacked up, and layers from before 1978 can contain asbestos in the tile or the adhesive. It is not dangerous while it is intact and undisturbed. It becomes a question the moment someone starts tearing it out, which is why testing before demolition is the cheap step and discovering it mid-job is the expensive one.
| Material | Good fit | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Refinished fir or oak | Older homes with usable original flooring | Remaining wear layer, patches, pet stains, and finish cure time |
| Engineered wood | Main floors needing wood appearance with better stability | Subfloor flatness, moisture limits, and wear-layer thickness |
| Luxury vinyl plank | Basements, rentals, kitchens, and busy households | Flatness, expansion gaps, stair details, and product quality |
| Tile | Bathrooms, entries, and durable wet areas | Underlayment stiffness, waterproofing, transitions, and cold surface |
| Carpet | Bedrooms, stairs, and sound control | Pad specification, seams, removal, and subfloor surprises |
Refinishing existing hardwood commonly runs $4–$8 per square foot, less per foot on large open areas. New solid hardwood installed typically lands between $10 and $18 per square foot including material, engineered somewhat less. Luxury vinyl plank frequently falls in the $5–$10 range installed. Subfloor repair, levelling, stair treads, and removing old adhesive or tile are all separate costs and are where cheap bids quietly diverge. Ask specifically what happens if the subfloor turns out to need work.
Pulled the carpet in our 1924 house and found fir in decent shape. They refinished it instead of selling me new flooring, which they easily could have.
Basement had a damp slab. They tested it, put down a barrier, and the vinyl plank has stayed flat through two winters.
The upstairs subfloor dipped almost half an inch across two rooms. They flattened it before anything went down, and there are no hollow spots underfoot a year later.
It depends on how much wood sits above the tongue. An installer can pull a floor vent and measure. Many Portland floors have been sanded once or twice and still have life; some have been taken too far and any more sanding hits the nails.
Typically three to five days for sanding, staining, and coats, plus cure time before furniture returns. Water-based finishes are faster and lower odour than oil-based, which matters if you plan to stay in the house. Most people move out for at least a couple of nights.
Tile and quality vinyl plank both handle spills and the humidity swings well. Solid hardwood in a kitchen is common in older homes and does fine if leaks get caught quickly. Sheet vinyl remains the budget answer and modern versions look far better than their reputation.
Ask. Some crews include moving furniture and hauling old flooring, others price it separately, and disposal of old carpet or tile can add real money. Clarify before comparing bids that look identical on the material line.
Sometimes, and it saves demolition cost. Over a single layer of sound sheet vinyl, often yes. Over cushioned vinyl, over multiple existing layers, or where there is any suspicion of moisture underneath, no — you are building over a problem that will surface later. Height also matters: each layer raises the floor and eventually doors and appliance openings stop working.
Entryways and mudrooms take the worst of it, and that is where tile or a good luxury vinyl earns its place. Solid hardwood in an entry that gets nine months of wet boots will show it. Many Portland homeowners run a durable surface at the entry and transition to wood further in — it looks deliberate and it lasts.
It should define the flatness standard, included patching or levelling, moisture testing, squeak repairs, and unit prices for damage that cannot be seen before demolition. Without those details, a low installation number can turn into the highest final invoice once the old floor comes up.
Ask each installer for measured square footage, waste percentage, material quantity, transitions, stairs, closets, trim, demolition, and disposal as separate lines. Resolve measurement differences before choosing a product so every bid covers the same rooms and finish details.
Tell us the rooms, the square footage, and what's currently on the floor. Portland installers will quote for free and tell you what they'd check first.
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