Hardwood Floor Refinishing in Dixon

Dixon Conditions That Affect Floor Refinishing

Dixon sits at about 62 feet in Solano County. The regional Sacramento Valley record shows summer air cycling widely within each day rather than staying uniformly dry. In the National Weather Service publication "Climate of Sacramento, California" (revised August 2010), average relative humidity at Sacramento is 78 percent at 4 AM against 30 percent at 4 PM in July, a swing of roughly 48 points inside the same day. Those are Sacramento readings taken about 20 miles from Dixon, not local measurements.

Seasonal Gaps in Dixon Floors, by the Numbers

Seasonal gaps between boards are a common reason people ask about refinishing, and Dixon's measured climate shows how much of that gapping is simply the wood moving with the seasons. Measured at University Airport, Davis, then brought to 70°F, the air averages 37.4% relative humidity over the heating season and 56% over summer, which settles wood at roughly 7.3% and 10.3% moisture content. For a traditional 2¼-inch oak strip floor that is about 0.025 inch of seasonal shrinkage per board (about 1/39 inch); for 5-inch plank, about 0.056 inch. Gaps in that range that open in winter and close by summer should not be filled — filler packed into a winter gap gets crushed out, or pushes the boards toward cupping, once the wood takes its moisture back.

Source: Hourly ASOS dewpoint observations 2015–2025, Iowa Environmental Mesonet (Iowa State University); equilibrium moisture content from USDA Wood Handbook FPL-GTR-190 Eq. 4-5; movement from FPL-GTR-282 Eq. 13-3 and Table 13-5

What's Under the Finish

USDA-NRCS soil survey data map nine map units inside Dixon's city limits, seven of them soils. Yolo silty clay loam covers 62.6% of the incorporated area, at a depth-weighted linear extensibility of 3.69%, in the moderate shrink-swell class. Capay clay covers 6.5% at 9.94%, in the very high class; all of it lies in the two detached parcels southeast of town, land the City's background report associates with its wastewater treatment facility. The City's General Plan 2040 says Dixon's soils 'range from low to high shrink-swell potential, with the highest-potential soil in the northern tip of the city.'

A slab affects what can be refinished at all. Wood over concrete is usually engineered or glued-down, and an engineered floor can only be sanded if its wear layer is thick enough to survive it — some can take a full sanding, many can take one light pass, and some cannot be sanded at all. We measure the wear layer before quoting rather than after starting.

Raised floors are where the best refinishing candidates live: solid wood over a crawlspace, often with decades of wear and plenty of thickness left. It is also where cupping comes from. Sanding a cupped floor flat before the crawlspace moisture is fixed produces a floor that goes concave the other way once it dries — so the moisture reading comes first and the sanding comes second.

Source: NAHB analysis of the Census Bureau Survey of Construction, foundation type by region (2024)

Dixon Homes We Work In

ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimates count 7,121 housing units, spread across four decades: 18.6% built 1970-1979, 17.5% built 1990-1999, 16.1% built 1980-1989, and 15.3% built 2000-2009. Pre-1940 units account for just 0.7% of the stock. Construction continues, with 6.0% of units built 2020 or later. Dixon's 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s stock is where refinishing pays off most: homes of that period often have original wood under carpet, and when the wear layer is intact, refinishing keeps a floor that cannot be bought new. We check thickness at a vent or a doorway before recommending it.