Fargo Hardwood Floors installs, refinishes, and repairs real wood floors across Fargo, Moorhead, and the southern Red River Valley — solid oak laid and finished in place, prefinished floors that go down fast, and engineered wood built for concrete slabs, radiant heat, and winters that test every seam. 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.
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 Fargo-area installer rates. Run your floor through the same math, then get the exact number in writing, free.
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 Fargo; 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.
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 valley construction — and anywhere radiant heat runs under the floor, 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.
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 Fargo. 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.
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 Fargo 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.
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.
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 Fargo-area installer ranges — with every calculator band checked against the published per-square-foot figures.
A note on solid vs. engineered up north. 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 stays flat over the concrete slabs and radiant heat that make solid wood move here, and it shrugs off the seasonal humidity swing between a dry January and a humid July; 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 heated slab. The measure visit settles which one your house should get, with moisture readings in writing.
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 Fargo 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.
Free — no obligation. Your calculator numbers ride along with the request.
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 (701) 540-0652.
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.
No. The measure visit, the moisture readings, and the written estimate are free, and the written price is the price.
Engineered hardwood can — it is built for radiant systems and slabs. Solid wood over radiant heat dries, gaps, and cups, and we will tell you so at the measure rather than sell it to you. The calculator's engineered band runs your rooms.
Heated indoor air gets very dry up here, and solid wood gives up moisture and shrinks — seams open in January and close in July. A whole-home humidifier holding roughly 35–40% is the real fix; we talk through it at the measure, because the floor you buy should be chosen with our winters in the room.
Fargo Hardwood Floors is a local flooring crew serving Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace, Dilworth, Casselton, and Mapleton. 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.
The kind of floor work we do around Fargo, Moorhead, and Cass 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 Fargo and the southern Red River Valley — the kind of jobs, the way they're priced, and what homeowners tell us after. Verified customer projects replace these examples as jobs close.
A new Horace build went from builder carpet allowances to 640 square feet of prefinished white oak — great room, kitchen, and hall — laid in one pass before the furniture ever arrived.
Final price: $6,300
Building new, the smartest money we spent was the floor. They laid the whole main level in four days before move-in, and the written price never moved.
A 1962 Mapleton ranch still had its original oak under forty years of carpet. Full sand back to bare wood, a medium walnut stain, and a hard-wearing finish — 900 square feet of the house's own floor, back.
Final price: $4,600
I nearly paid to replace floors that were better than anything new I could afford. They sanded back to the original oak and it looks like the house my grandfather built.
A West Fargo slab home with in-floor heat got 700 square feet of engineered white oak — the floor built for concrete and radiant systems — over the builder vinyl it replaced.
Final price: $7,400
Two other companies wanted to sell me solid wood over a heated slab. These were the only ones who said no to that, and explained why. The floor is warm, flat, and quiet.
Spring meltwater through a Moorhead entry door cupped and darkened 45 square feet of oak. Ruined boards laced out, new oak laced in, and the section sanded and finished to disappear into the floor around it.
Final price: $640
Every spring the entry looked worse. They replaced just the damaged boards and matched the finish so well I have to point at the spot for guests to find it.
Thirteen carpeted builder steps in a Dilworth two-story, stripped back to the oak underneath: treads and risers sanded, stained, and finished to match the foyer floor at the bottom of them.
Final price: $825
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.
520 square feet of unfinished red oak in a Casselton family room, installed raw and finished on site — the stain mixed on a sample board until it matched the dining room floor next door, which was the whole point of doing it the slow way.
Final price: $6,750
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.
Valley floors live hard in their own way. Forced-air heat dries indoor air all winter until solid wood shrinks and seams open, spring melt finds every entryway, and half the homes built here in the last twenty years sit on concrete slabs — many with radiant heat — that solid wood was never meant to touch. The right floor for a house in Fargo 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.
New solid hardwood, prefinished or finished in place — $7–$22 a square foot installed, depending on the wood.
Real oak over a stable core — the right floor for concrete slabs and in-floor heat. $7–$20 a square foot.
A worn floor sanded back to bare wood and finished again — $3–$8 a square foot, a fraction of replacement.
Meltwater, pet damage, and buckled boards laced out and replaced so the patch disappears — $7–$20 a square foot.
The staircase is the first thing guests see. Treads and risers refinished to match the floor — $25–$85 a step.
Squeaks, soft spots, and moisture problems fixed before new wood goes down — most section repairs run $900–$3,000.
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 — up here that includes letting it settle at the humidity your furnace actually keeps. 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, including the winter humidifier conversation every solid-wood floor up north deserves.
