BurlingtonHamiltonWaterdownDundasAncasterOakville

# *Pick your floor at your* *own kitchen table.*

We bring the samples to your home so you choose your floor in your own
light. It comes with the free estimate.

Free in-home samples
Old floor gone the same day
1 year warranty

![A finished Referral Flooring job: a coffered-ceiling living room floored wall to wall in warm oak, with the bay window light running down the length of the plank](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/hardwood-floor-living-room.jpg)
Coffered living room in warm oak

Step 1 of 4

Service area

- Hamilton

- Burlington

- Waterdown

- Stoney Creek

- Ancaster

- Dundas

- Binbrook

- Grimsby

- Oakville

- Mississauga

- St. Catharines

**It comes to you**
The samples ride along with the estimate. Solid hardwood, engineered, vinyl plank and
carpet, on your floor, in your light.

Their own services list

**The old floor leaves**
Carpet, tile, hardwood, vinyl, subfloor, baseboard and casing goes out in the truck the day
it comes up. It does not sit in your garage.

Same-day disposal, confirmed

**Backed for a year**
Floor repair and installation carry a one year warranty. You call the same number you called
the first time.

1 year warranty, confirmed

**Covered and insured**
WSIB coverage and liability insurance, both current. Ask for the clearance certificate
before anyone starts, from us or from anybody else you are considering.

Owner's own statement

What we actually do differently

## The van parks in your driveway.

Most flooring companies ask you to drive to a
warehouse, stand under fluorescent lights, and pick a floor for a room they have never
seen. We think that is backwards. So the samples come to your house, get laid on the
floor they are replacing, next to your cabinets and your furniture, and you take as long
as you want.

You get a firm number before we leave. If you do
not like it, that is the end of it, and it has cost you nothing.

- Solid hardwood

- Engineered flooring

- Vinyl plank

- Carpet

- Moulding profiles

- Floor registers

- Felt pads

- Cleaning supplies

What is in the van at every estimate

![A finished dining and living room, the floor reading mid-brown in the room](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/dining-room-floor-in-daylight.jpg)

The whole job, one company

## Including the parts most crews quietly sub out.

Stair and railing installation. Hardwood floor
refinishing. Joist planing and subfloor levelling. Flush-mount vents that sit level with
the plank instead of perched on top of it. One list, one company from Burlington
to Waterdown to St. Catharines, and one number to call if something is not
right.

![A curved staircase with wood treads and iron spindles, the stair and railing work most flooring crews subcontract out](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/hardwood-stairs-installation.jpg)

### [Removal](https://www.referralflooring.com/flooring-removal-and-disposal)

Same-day disposal included

- Carpet
- Tile
- Hardwood
- Vinyl
- Subfloor

- Baseboard and door casing

### [Prep and repair](https://www.referralflooring.com/subfloor-repair-and-levelling)

Covered by the 1 year warranty

- Joist planing
- Subfloor planing
- Self-levelling cement

- Concrete grinding, low dust
- Full subfloor screw-down

- Subfloor installation

### Installation

Furniture moving included

- [Hardwood](https://www.referralflooring.com/hardwood-floor-installation), nail down or full spread glue

- [Engineered](https://www.referralflooring.com/engineered-hardwood-installation), nail, glue, floating or tongue and groove

- [Laminate](https://www.referralflooring.com/laminate-flooring-installation)
- [Vinyl plank, tile and VCT](https://www.referralflooring.com/vinyl-plank-flooring-installation)
- [Carpet](https://www.referralflooring.com/carpet-installation)

- [Stairs and railings](https://www.referralflooring.com/stairs-and-railings)
- [Sand and refinish hardwood](https://www.referralflooring.com/hardwood-floor-refinishing)
- Door cutting

### Finishing

The part that gets skipped

- Baseboard and casing installation
- Painting or staining to match

- Flush-mount vent installation
- Vent cleaning

- Moulding profiles supplied
- Floor registers supplied

What it is like to live here that week

## Nobody's real question is "what does hardwood cost".

It is how long the house is a construction site, and who is tracking dust
through it. So here is the whole thing, in order, start to finish.

1. 01

### The estimate

We measure, you pick from the van, and you get a number before we leave the house.

2. 02

### Tear-out

The old floor, baseboard and casing come up and go straight in the truck. Same day, not
next week.

3. 03

### Prep

Joists and subfloor get planed, screwed down and levelled. This is the unglamorous part
that decides how the floor ages.

4. 04

### Install

We move the furniture. Doors get cut so they clear. The floor goes down the way that
material is meant to go down.

5. 05

### Trim

Baseboard and casing back on, painted or stained to match what is already there.

6. 06

### You get your house back

Vents set flush and cleaned, furniture back where it started, floor clean.

The measurable part

## How flat is flat enough?

Almost every floor that fails, fails underneath. It gets
blamed on the wood. The trade actually has published numbers for this, and they are
the reason the boring part of the job is the part worth paying for.

These are the industry figures, not our own. Every one of
them is quoted from the current national installation guidelines, and the source is
linked so you can check us.

### How flat does a subfloor have to be?

For nail-down installs using fasteners 1½" and
longer, the subfloor should be flat to within ¼"
over 10 feet, or 3/16" over 6 feet. For glue-down, floating and shorter
fasteners, which covers most vinyl plank and engineered work, it tightens to
3/16" over 10 feet, or 1/8" over 6 feet.[1] That is the difference between planing and levelling a
subfloor and hoping for the best.

### Why do gaps open up every winter?

Wood moves with the air around it. The guidelines define appropriate conditions
for solid wood as an interior kept between 30% and 50%
relative humidity and 60 to 80°F.[1] An Ontario house running dry through February
sits well under that, which is why boards shrink apart in winter and close back
up in July. Normal, and not a defect.

### Does new flooring really need to sit in the house first?

Hardwood is manufactured to 6 to 9% moisture content,
with an allowance for some pieces up to 12%.[1]
If it arrives wetter or drier than the room it is going into, it will move after
it is nailed down. That is what acclimation is for, and it is why the answer is a
meter reading rather than a fixed number of days.

### What is a WSIB clearance, and should I ask for one?

Ask for it. A clearance is a number the WSIB issues showing a business is
registered and up to date with them, including premium payments and
reporting.[2] It is
valid for up to 90 days,[2] so it is a current document rather than a badge somebody
earned once. Referral Flooring carries WSIB coverage and liability insurance and
will hand you the certificate. Any contractor who will not is telling you
something.

### What about a concrete basement slab?

Slabs get tested, not eyeballed. The guidelines specify in-slab relative humidity
probes to ASTM F2170, calcium chloride to ASTM F1869,
or calcium carbide testing.[1] A slab that reads
too high needs a vapour retarder or a different material, and finding that out
afterwards is expensive.

Sources

1. National Wood Flooring Association,
[Wood
Flooring Installation Guidelines](https://nwfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NWFA-Installation-Guidelines.pdf), revised 2025. Flatness tolerances,
interior temperature and humidity, manufactured moisture content, and concrete
moisture test methods.

2. Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario,
[Clearances](https://www.wsib.ca/en/businesses/premiums-and-payment/clearances).
What a clearance confirms and how long one stays valid.

3. National Wood Flooring Association,
[Technical Guidelines](https://nwfa.org/technical-guidelines/), the
index to the current published standards.

Sources last read 23 August 2026

More of these, quoted the same way and with their sources beside
them, are on the tips page: [why a new floor squeaks, cups or
gaps](https://www.referralflooring.com/tips#wrong), [what can be laid over your existing tile](https://www.referralflooring.com/tips#over), and
[whether hardwood can go in a basement](https://www.referralflooring.com/tips#which).

Not our words

## What that actually feels like to live with.

The section above is the published standard. This is what people
who paid for the work said about it afterwards, on a public profile where we cannot edit
them.

**4.8 out of 5** across **45 reviews** on Google
· [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/referral.flooring.2025/)

By Max's own count, **150 to 250 floors a year** for more than twenty years. Thousands of houses, most of them booked because a neighbour already had theirs done.

> I recently had a new kitchen installed and the cabinet makers could not
> believe how level the floor is.

**Lisa Baxter**Google review

> We had previously hired a contractor who was skilled at many things but had
> never worked with 7 inch planks before, which resulted in floor movement and
> squeaks.

**Paula Candido Ward**Google review

> Our floor needed quite a bit of work to make it level, and the guys put in a
> lot of extra effort to make sure that the job was done right. They are up front in their
> pricing.

**Tracy Alkema**Google review

> A century home, and 2 additions which had settled unevenly over time.
> Especially in the kitchen and dining area, there were noticeably uneven joints.

**Bob Warriner**Google review

> Despite the myriad hidden challenges a 50+ year old house presents, Max
> efficiently and professionally addressed all required work on time and within
> budget.

**Phil Homerski**Google review

> Right on time, affordable, courteous and minimal disruption to our daily lives
> while working on the project.

**Olusola Osibeluwo**Google review

Quoted from public Google reviews. Referral Flooring cannot edit or
remove them, which is the entire reason they are worth reading.

The work

## Floors in real houses, right around here.

Finished jobs. Baseboard back on, vents set flush, furniture returned,
floor clean.

![A living room floored wall to wall beside a brick fireplace, baseboard reinstalled and painted to match the trim](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/living-room-hardwood-installation.jpg)
Living room

![A kitchen floored in one continuous run under the island and appliances, with no transition strip at the doorways](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/kitchen-island-wood-floor.jpg)
Kitchen and island

![An open plan main floor running the same board through the living, dining and kitchen areas without a break](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/open-plan-main-floor.jpg)
Open plan main floor

![An upstairs landing with a wood railing, turned newel post and iron spindles, matched to the floor it opens onto](https://www.referralflooring.com/assets/photos/stair-railing-and-landing.jpg)
Stairs and railings

[See all 19 finished jobs](https://www.referralflooring.com/gallery)

Before you call

## The questions people actually ask.

### What does new flooring cost in Hamilton or Burlington?

Four things move it, in roughly this order: what the subfloor needs before
anything can go down, whether the old floor and baseboard have to come out and go away,
stairs, and the material you choose. Anyone quoting the first one over the phone is
guessing, because it is hidden until the old floor is up. So the number is given at the
house, by Max, before he leaves, and it is firm rather than a range that moves later. The
visit is free and nothing is owed either way.
[What actually moves a flooring quote](https://www.referralflooring.com/tips#cost).

### How long does it take, and how many days is my house torn up?

It is set by how complicated the space is and which floor you picked, not by
square footage alone. A square room with a sound subfloor is the quick case; a staircase is
the slow one, because every tread is cut and fitted individually. Floating floors go down
fastest, nail-down is slower, glue-down waits on the adhesive. You get a realistic schedule
at the estimate rather than a best case, and the old flooring leaves the same day it comes
up, so the mess does not sit around after the noisy part is over.
[What decides how long a job takes](https://www.referralflooring.com/flooring-order-of-work).

### Can you put the new floor over what is already down?

We take the old floor up instead. Going over top hides whatever the
subfloor is doing, and the subfloor is what decides how the new floor ages. Carpet,
tile, hardwood and vinyl all come up, then the joists and subfloor get planed, screwed
down and levelled before anything new goes on.

### How much does it cost to remove the old flooring?

Nothing on top of the job. Removal is part of it, including the baseboard
and door casing, and it goes out in the truck the same day it comes up rather than
sitting in your garage waiting on a bin.

### Can you refinish the hardwood I already have instead of replacing it?

Yes. Sanding and refinishing existing hardwood is one of the things we do,
and it is worth asking about before you price a whole new floor. We will tell you at the
estimate which one your floor is actually a candidate for.

### Do you do the stairs, or do I need a second contractor?

We do them. Stairs and railings are the part a lot of flooring crews send
out to somebody else, which is how you end up with two schedules and two people to chase
when something does not line up.

### How bad is the dust?

Concrete grinding is done low dust, and the old floor goes straight out to
the truck instead of piling up in the garage. It is a renovation, so it is not nothing,
but it is contained and it is gone the same day.

### Do I have to move all my furniture?

No. Furniture moving is part of the job, and it goes back where it was once
the floor is finished.

### What about the doors that will not clear the new floor?

We cut them. Door cutting is part of the install, along with baseboard,
casing, and the vents set flush into the new floor.

### What if something is wrong afterwards?

Floor repair and installation carry a one year warranty. You call the same
number you called the first time.

Next step

## Let's get the samples on your kitchen table.

Thirty seconds to book. About an hour of your
evening. No obligation, and nothing owed either way.

Book a free estimate
[Call 289-689-4242](tel:+12896894242)

Phone

[289-689-4242](tel:+12896894242)

Email

[referralflooring@gmail.com](mailto:referralflooring@gmail.com)

Area

Burlington, Hamilton, Waterdown, Dundas, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Binbrook, Grimsby, Oakville, Mississauga and St. Catharines

Samples

Brought to your home with the estimate.

Coverage

WSIB clearance and liability insurance, on request.

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Source: https://www.referralflooring.com/