Floor sanding - £65 per square metre

[justaftb]

I've been quote £65 per square metre to sand a parquet floor and seal it with 2 coats of oil. I am in SE London. For London prices, does this sound like a lot. I was surprised.

Also, I wanted to lay about 3 square metres of matching parquet in an adjoining hall and the quote for that was £1000. I have a rough idea of how much the materials would cost, so this also seemed excessive.

[Ridingthegravytrain]

No that sounds about right. I was quoted around £60 pms for sanding and re finishing and I’m just outside London (se)

I decided not to bother!!

[justaftb]

I was so shocked when I saw the quote yesterday. I had expected £40 per metre tops. I have another business coming to quote so it will be interesting to see if it is the same. Can't afford to do it if so.

[Lightsabre]

There are lots of floor sanding operatives about in the SE. Look on your local FB pages. We had an engineered wood floor sanded by A J Rogers, Bromley. Cost £900 for a hallway and 12x12 dining room plus oiling.

[justaftb]

Thanks Lightsabre. That sounds a bit more palatable. I am not too far from Bromley, so I'll check them out.

[hoochymamgu]

I hired a sander and did it myself. Took about two days for hall/cloakroom. Felt so proud. It was Edwardian oak planks though not parquet.

[justaftb]

I just don't think I could do it. Wouldn't have the time or the skill. And, it's just not something I'd like to do. A friend sanded a room recently, old floorboards that she didn't need to be particularly careful of (and she is really handy at DIY stuff usually) and she found it a torturous experience.

I have no problem paying someone to do the work (both my brothers are carpenters, unfortunately in a different country) and am not looking to squeeze anyone for every last penny. I believe in paying a fair price for good work. I seriously underestimated what sanding costs!

[wowfudge]

We had a parquet floor restored which involved repairs, sanding, staining and lacquering for around £60psm. The guy told us that laying new flooring to match would be £100psm. We're in the East Midlands.

[Fatshedra]

I did an oak floor, narrow boards so quite a level surface. It is a lovely gold and looks great 20 years on. I tried to do a bedroom surround - old fashioned varnish and a less even surface, it was a nightmare. Old fashioned varnish turned to toffee, ridges where the centre of boards had sunk. Failed there.

[Wavey123]

If it has that Victorian tar/bitumen around the edges I found it easier to get most of that off first with a heat gun and scraper (open window is a must) You’ll go through so much sandpaper on those areas otherwise as it just melts and spreads

[justaftb]

Wowfudge - Thanks for that info.

There is no repair to be done, just sanding. Do you think that parquet is just more expensive even to sand than floorboards?

It actually isn't in bad condition. I'll probably just have to leave it.

Could I oil it without sanding...?

[wowfudge]

There shouldn't be bitumen visible. It was used as the glue.

If you have it sanded they should use the clean wood dust from the second pass of the sander mixed with some sort of filler to fill any gaps between the blocks. Be sure you know what they going to do for the money.

Whether you can get away with not sanding depends on what the floor has been treated with previously. Some finishes aren't compatible, eg osmo on Danish oil or varnish so the old finish has to be removed first.