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 lands within 48 hours, 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: £40 to £60 per square metre. Pine tops out higher 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 roughly £10 per square metre for staining, patch-tested free on your own boards first.
Those rates include the finish: three coats for lacquer or varnish, 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.
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.
A Worked Example
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 £40 = £1,000
- Stain, patch-tested first: 25 m² at £10 = £250
- Waste clearance: £50 (optional)
- Parking: £50 (nothing if you can provide a space)
That's £1,350 net, £270 VAT, £1,620 all in. Skip the stain and provide parking, and the same room lands around £1,260 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 treat that example as a guide, not a bill. It's priced at the middle of the oak 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.
Why the Cheapest Quote Is Rarely the Cheap Option
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
Do you charge for the site visit or the quote?
Do your prices include VAT?
Do you take a deposit?
Why do you price per square metre but quote one figure?
Is it cheaper if my floor doesn't actually need a full sand?
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 within 48 hours, and the price we quote is the price you pay.