Q: One visitor asked, "I would like to find out how much it might cost to refinish my floors after having some renovation done in my home...I added the total feet of floor that needs to be done but not sure how to calculate the square footage..I have a handicapped child and am not sure if we would need to be out of our home at the time also.....The total footage seems to be 80 feet....Please let me know if the time of the refinishing would be a long time to be out of our home and the estimate of the price for it...Im from rhode island and need to find someone to do this job fairly soon."

A: It would hardly seem fair to give a price for your job since the cost are no doubt different here. I am in Toronto, Ontario. You get the square footage by measuring length of the room times the width. For example a room 12' X 10' is 120 sq. ft. If you want to be super accurate, then do the measurements in inches. number of inches long by inches wide and divide by 144. Staying out of the house depends on whether a water based acrylic urethane or oil modified finish is used, and how sensitive you may be too it. I use mostly oil modified finishes and usually suggest that anyone with lung problems, or other serious illness or compromised immune system, and the very young perhaps ought to stay someplace else for several days. Better safe than sorry. For the rest of us, very slight exposure to solvents on a one time basis won't cause any problem.

Here is an old chart to show cost comparisons between the US States and Canadian Provinces, but the prices may be outdated by now.