How Much Does Floor Sanding Cost in London?

It's the first question everyone wants answered and the one most flooring websites dance around. So here are our actual numbers, what moves them up or down, and a worked example, so you can budget properly before anyone sets foot in your house.

One thing first: this guide covers sanding and refinishing what you already own; if you're pricing a brand-new floor, the numbers live in our installation cost guide. And a warning that applies to both: any firm that gives you a fixed price without seeing the floor is guessing, and you'll find out whose guess it was halfway through the job. The honest answer is always a range until the floor's been looked at. Our site visits are free and the written quote is fixed and given in writing, so you're never guessing for long.

The Headline Numbers

As a guide, excluding VAT:

• Hardwood floors (oak, parquet, engineered): £30 to £50 per square metre for the full three-stage sand and finish. The range is wide because size matters: large areas earn a discount, so a whole house lands nearer the bottom of it than a single room.
• Original pine boards: £30 to £50 per square metre. Pine can sit at the top of the range because old boards bring old problems: paint down the edges, nail heads to punch, more repairs, and softer timber that needs more careful machine work.
• Changing the colour: add £8 to £10 per square metre for staining, patch-tested free on your own boards first.

Those rates include the finish: three coats for lacquer, two coats for oil. They're the same rates wherever we're working, from Balham to Kensington. A postcode doesn't change what the floor needs.

Estimated Guide Prices at a Glance

Guide estimates only, shown excluding VAT. Every floor is different, so the final price depends on its condition, size and finish. Very small jobs are charged at a minimum of £500 (about a day's work); larger floors are priced per square metre as above. You get a free site visit and a fixed written quote.

What Moves the Price

• Size. The bigger the floor, the better the rate. Setting up, travel and machinery cost the same for one room as for six, so on large areas the per-metre price drops and we pass that on as a discount.
• The finish specification. A standard domestic lacquer or oil is included in the guide rates. Step up to a commercial-strength two-pack lacquer, the sort we use on pubs and school halls, and the materials cost more, so the rate rises with it.
• Condition. A floor under decades of carpet is usually easy. A floor under layers of paint, or parquet with old bitumen creeping up the joints, needs more first-stage work.
• Repairs. Split or missing boards are replaced with reclaimed timber before sanding starts, and they're priced up front, on the quote, not discovered halfway through.
• Gap filling. Filling with flexible filler adds a little; it's priced per job and it transforms draughty pine rooms.
• Edges and shape. A big open room is mostly machine work. Hallways, stairs and rooms full of alcoves are mostly edge work, which is slower per metre.
• Waste and parking. Small lines on our quotes, shown separately so nothing hides inside the sanding rate. Waste clearance is optional (no charge if you'd rather deal with it yourself) and parking is only charged at cost, nothing if you can sort a space.

How Long Does Floor Sanding Take?

Time matters as much as money when your furniture is stacked in the next room, so here is the honest shape of a job. A single room is usually a two-day visit: the three-stage sand and the first coats on day one, the final coat on day two once everything beneath it has hardened. A whole ground floor typically runs three to four days, and a full house is quoted with its own timetable so you know which rooms come back to you when.

After the last coat, a lacquered floor takes gentle sock-footed traffic the next morning and furniture after a day or two, felt pads on. Oiled floors like a little longer before the heavy stuff goes back. Either way, keep rugs off for a couple of weeks while the finish reaches full hardness; that patience is what the years of wear come from. If a deadline matters, say so at the site visit and we will build the job around it.

Two Worked Examples

A 25 square metre living room on an oak floor, sanded and finished, with a colour change:

• Three-stage sand and finish: 25 m² at £38 = £950
• Stain, patch-tested first: 25 m² at £10 = £250
• Waste clearance: £50 (optional)
• Parking: £50 (nothing if you can provide a space)

That's £1,300 net, £260 VAT, £1,560 all in. Skip the stain and provide parking, and the same room lands around £1,200 including VAT. Your own quote will show whole-job figures exactly like this, each line its own number, so you can take things out or leave them in and see precisely what changes.

And here is a second, this time on period pine. Two connected rooms of Victorian boards, 30 square metres in all, with the gaps filled and a couple of boards replaced:

• Three-stage sand and finish: 30 m² at £40 = £1,200
• Gap filling with flexible filler: 30 m² at £10 = £300
• Board repairs in reclaimed Victorian pine: £150
• Waste clearance: £50 (optional)
• Parking: £50 (nothing if you can provide a space)

That's £1,750 net, £350 VAT, £2,100 all in, for two rooms that were draughty, gappy and paint-splattered on the Monday and look like the reason you bought the house by the end of the week.

And treat both examples as a guide, not a bill. The oak room is priced at the middle of the range, and plenty of floors come in under it: if the site visit shows us boards in good nick, an old finish that comes off without a fight and no repairs needed, or a larger area earning its discount, the price can be significantly lower. The numbers are here so you can budget without guessing, not to scare you off before we've even seen the floor. The site visit costs nothing, the quote it produces is fixed in writing, and the only surprise left is sometimes a pleasant one.

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Why the Cheapest Quote Is Rarely the Cheap Option

Don't just take our word on any of this, either: independent cost guides such as Checkatrade's floor sanding cost guide are a useful cross-check when you're comparing quotes, and we're happy to be compared.

Floor sanding quotes in London vary wildly, and the gap is usually in what's quietly missing. Whoever you use, ask these four questions and watch the cheap quotes wobble:

• How many sanding stages? One coarse pass leaves a floor that looks fine for a month. Ours is a three-stage process, every time.
• How many coats of finish? Three for lacquer, two for oil is the proper spec. One coat is a false economy you'll pay to put right.
• Are repairs and gap filling in the price, or "extras" waiting to happen?
• Who's actually doing the work? With us it's Dean or Luke, the partners, on every job. Not a gang you've never met.

Sometimes the Answer Is Much Cheaper

Not every tired floor needs sanding at all. Oiled floors especially are designed to be fed, not stripped: a deep clean, a buff and a fresh coat of oil costs a fraction of a full restoration, and we've written up a real pub floor we revived exactly that way. If that's all your floor needs, that's what we'll quote. Every floor only has so many sands in it, and we don't spend one lightly.

Cost Questions, Answered Straight

Measure your room, take the ranges above, and you've got an honest budget. Then let us look at the floor and turn it into a fixed number.

Call us: 020 3131 0122
Email: [email protected]
Or book a free site visit. Fixed written quote, and the price we quote is the price you pay.