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Original poster

Cost of sanding floors and would you do it yourself?

30 replies

LadyWithLapdog · 08/10/2014 19:22

I've had a quote of £950 for two rooms and a hall, approx 40 square metres. Does this sound right? Would hiring tools and doing it ourselves be considerably less? I've read a blog linked to on here on another thread and it sounds pretty gruesome. Has anyone else done this?

OP posts:
lavendersun · 08/10/2014 19:30

We did it ourselves (and we are not really DIY types!). We had new oak floorboards throughout the upstairs of our house and hired a sander and edge sander from our local builders merchants for a long weekend then put Osmo floor oil on it all.

Probably 120 sq m if I have calculated it correctly. The Osmo oil was expensive but you never have to sand it again before refinishing it if you want to do that at some point.

Cost to hire with sanding sheets was about £150. Cost of Osmo about £200.

Other than the incident where I hadn't attached the handle properly and the great big heavy sanding hoover part careered off down one of the bedrooms to the front wall bending a radiator pipe it was fine. Our house is very old and we kept the wonkiness so this thing just picked up speed as it travelled towards the lowest point of the room.

If we can do it anyone can, seriously. We did it once before too about 20 years ago come to think of it - another incident actually, I put it in the boot of my then boyfriend's new BMW coupe and when I turned a corner it travelled in the boot of the car and hit the outside from within making an egg shape.

So would a) recommend you secure it in the car somehow and b) make sure you screw the handle on properly!

WastingMyYoungYears · 08/10/2014 19:32

We've been quoted £25/m2, so your price seems to be in keeping with that. Ask whether they will take up the existing floor / carpet, and how they will deal with any damage (some boards or parts of boards may need to be replaced). Also research varnish and oil, and choose whichever suits you the best.

WowOoo · 08/10/2014 19:36

I did it myself. It was quite hard work (heavy) and messy. But still easy enough for me to manage. At the time it was all I could afford. I did a very good job.

Can't remember how much it cost to hire now, but it was far cheaper than a quote I'd had.

GeorgieB89 · 08/10/2014 19:37

Also be aware that some of the boards may be different colours/widths. When I last did this, they were so ingrained with dirt I couldn't tell that the woods varied enormously. It made stainer harder as the base colours were different.

SpaceStation · 08/10/2014 19:40

We paid a similar price, and I was glad I didn't do it myself. It looked like really hard and messy work. However I was pregnant at the time not to mention horrendously busy with moving house. You could do it if you have lots of time and energy.

MrsDarylDixon · 08/10/2014 19:40

It cost us around 300 quid to do a large living room and average bedroom about 10 years ago. And there is no way in hell I'd ever do it again.
950 sounds a bit high so I'd get some other quotes.

But I can't say as I'd recommend doing it yourself- no matter how much you save!

LuckySaint · 08/10/2014 19:46

I've done it myself, with a handheld belt sander. It's great fun.
Just make sure you hammer all the nails in first. And wear a mask.

I've done our bedroom and painted the floor white, the bathroom and stained the floor black with matt varnish on top, ds2's room is plain wood with satin varnish and they were all done with a £40 sander from B&Q.

Original poster
LadyWithLapdog · 08/10/2014 20:41

Oh, interesting range of replies. Thank you. I'll get a couple more quotes. I was hoping it'd be a slightly cheaper and nicer alternative to carpet and karndean. Sounds like a job I'd need to get DH on board for. He won't like that. OTOH the price difference between DIY and professional is quite huge. Argh. I need to research it more. Thanks again.

OP posts:
TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 09/10/2014 17:24

It sounds high but it depends on the level of professionalism involved really.
What's the quote breakdown?
How many hours/days labour for how many people
How much prep is included
Will they fill between the floorboards, using what?
Will they lift the floorboards and butt together again, repair any broken boards with similar width planks
Is any underfloor insulation being included
How many coats of varnish/oil
What products will they use varnish/oil
Will they use a sander with a dust extractor
Will they seal the rooms, clean the windows afterwards
How long is the work guaranteed for?

Cost benefit?
How much would it cost to lay down new hardwood with insulation layer on top of the same area?
How long would it take you and your partner to do the work yourselves, on what YOU get paid per hour respectively.

I've done this - it's not difficult but it is very timeconsuming to do it well and get a very good finish.
Note that a tin of Ronseal floor varnish is about 50. You'll probably need several tins if you are staining the floors plus clear varnish on top. We did about 8 layers and it lasted 5 yrs before areas of hard wear started to show signs of needing doing again.

FantasticMrsFoxx · 11/10/2014 18:36

Get a couple more quotes. We had our L-shaped hallway done (the stairs come off it and 4 rooms so lots of tricky bits) for £180 which included 3 coats of yacht varnish and the guy filled all the cracks. Quotes ranged up to £400!

burnishedsilver · 11/10/2014 20:30

Dh hired a sander and did it himself. Tbh we ended up with a very poor finish and carpeted over it a few years later. I was sorry we hadn't had it done professionally.

Lovage · 11/10/2014 21:31

We did some floors ourselves and hired a professional for the sitting room. The sitting room is much better than the other rooms for getting right into the corners but doing it ourselves was way cheaper. But it took ages and was exhausting. I think you pays your money and you takes your choice!

ZingOfSeven · 11/10/2014 21:34

depending on your skill. DH did a great job.

don't sand down pine or other softer woods though. It's going to be ruined

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 11/10/2014 22:27

We have done both, had 2 x rooms done by professionals and one by us.

TBH, the one done by us (though FIL helped immensely) is better, but took much longer. The prep takes longer than the sanding.

Also, we used a Dulux Trade varnish in a v dark colour which was a) hard as nails and b) covered a multitude of sins. Even where chunks of floorboard had come away and we'd replaced with filler.

shaska · 12/10/2014 16:36

Depends on how much money £950 is to you. If it's not a massive sum and you don't fancy a few days of mess and a wee bit of hard work/boredom then get someone in. It is much cheaper and fairly easy to do yourself, but then that's the case for most things in life!

Wear a mask and get some well padded gloves if you do do it, would be my main advice. Sawdust up the nose is gross, and gloves will cut down on the weird nerve jangling you'll get in your hands after being on the end of a sander all day.

Elysianfields · 12/10/2014 16:47

I did it and the result was lovely. But it was hot, hard noisy work. Rewarding though and I would do it again.

Top tip.....do not Hoover up the dust with your new dyson. Believe me. Dyson needed a new motor.......

Favouritepants · 12/10/2014 17:53

We did our own and it looks fine but my DH went through a radiator pipe with it so do be careful and look at some how to vids on YouTube first is my advice!

livingthegoodlife · 13/10/2014 20:53

we recently did one large room ourselves, sander plus paper about £100 and ronseal satin floor varnish £50. the result looks great! we didnt have any damaged boards or anything though. our floor had been previous stained black!! so there are still speckles where the black bled very deep but it looks rustic and nice.

up to you on how much effort and mess you can tolerate!

Original poster
LadyWithLapdog · 13/10/2014 21:05

Oh, more replies. Thank you all. I tried getting the carpets off but they're stuck, or at least they're stuck in the corners I attempted. So I didn't get past the first hurdle. I'm determined to at least see what condition the floorboards are in. I'm waiting for a second quote.

£950 is a lot of money to me right now. I realise a DIY job can also be £200-300 but ATM that difference sounds a lot. Now I've made up my mind I can't stand the carpets any more. I see all their faults.

OP posts:
msfreud · 13/10/2014 21:12

Try taking the carpets up at doorways where the metal threshold thing is; they will have grippers around edges and corners but not at the doorway.

Original poster
LadyWithLapdog · 15/10/2014 00:18

Good idea, thank you. I'll try that in the morning. Then I have another quote at 10 am.

OP posts:
shaska · 15/10/2014 09:46

Re carpets and corners - if you have a hammer try levering them up with the bendy end. Or yes, by the doors. Sometimes it takes a fair bit of force but once they start coming up it's much easier.

What nobody is mentioning is that if you had nail-happy carpetlayers then you're going to have a real whale of a time pulling hundreds and hundreds of tiny nails out of the floor.

Oh and depending how old the carpets are - underlay can degrade pretty horribly. If they're newish then you should be fine but if they're very old then put a mask on before you start hauling them up, to avoid your lungs suddenly filling with fifty year old rubber dust.

shaska · 15/10/2014 09:46

(I still think you should do it yourself though!)

Original poster
LadyWithLapdog · 15/10/2014 11:05

I had someone in this morning and we lifted up a corner (with pliers, he just pinched them up, I was trying to lever under with a knife). The floorboards look in pretty good condition and might even be tongue and groove though in a straight formation, not at an angle one with the other. The carpet underlay looks reasonable too. I'll see what the quote is. He estimated a week for two rooms plus hall...

OP posts:
LachlanConsiden · 05/10/2020 14:32

For sanding the floor, it is better to turn to the help of masters. Since the appearance of the floor will depend on the evenness of the concrete floor. And if you cover the floor with epoxy, then all the irregularities will be very noticeable.

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