FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions | FAQs

FAQs Floor Sanding London

Finished Floors are hygienic, practical and very stylish, they do not harbour parasites as carpets do and they are virtually maintenance-free. Very easy to clean, they do not have funky odours from the previous occupants’ pets or tobacco, wood is also a great heat conductor, cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Filling gaps is an effective way of eliminating draughts, 98% of houses have air bricks at ground level. There will be a continuous amount of air passing under the house, when you take up the carpet that air will create a vacuum and suck warm air from your room and pass it out the house through the air bricks. Filling gaps stops the warm air leaving the room maintaining the temperature of the room as you remember it was with carpet. Above ground level rooms; this stream of air is not present so it would be purely a decorative reason. Gap filling actually look great on most floors

This is probably the most frequent question we’re hit with – we fill gaps with a mixture of three methods, strips of wood that are glued into position. This method is, without doubt, the best for the look and for reliability. We use gap filler for really small gaps where stripes of wood can’t be used and also for fine line repairs in the boards, or recently we added a black expanding neoprene strip which has the benefit of retaining the Oldie Worlde look of the floorboards but stops draughts coming up through the floorboards.

Aged pine floorboards have a nice warmth to them, it is hard to say as every floor is slightly different. Golden brown is common, antique honey pine is also common, you can’t tell until you start sanding, the colour depends on the age of the wood and its acclimatisation with oxygen. Block or strip floors are usually oak, beech, ash, maple, cedar, or dark hardwoods mixed together and laid in herringbone patterns or basket weave or in the case of strips lengthways.

We want your varnish to give your floors year and years of protection. We do not use any of the varnishes found in D.I.Y shops or stores. We use only high-quality professional varnish produced by Leading supplier Bonakemi. It is water-based has very little odour and gives a beautiful hard-wearing finish. This varnish is sold exclusively to us direct from Bonakemi.

An average room with floorboards without gaps filled takes a full day. As our varnish is quick-drying you can walk on the floor about 8 hours after its last coat, light traffic and ideally wearing just socks. However, it takes an extra couple of days for the varnish to fully cure to its peak hardness so we advise this before placing furniture on the floor.

This depends on the general footfall, the type of footfall, cleaning and the general maintenance of the wooden floor. On average, domestic sanded and varnished wooden floors should last 5-10 years and commercial areas 3-5 years. However, in all environments, we highly recommend that a maintenance contract is in place with an appropriate daily deep clean process and a periodic ‘buff’n’Coat’ revive regime, which should create a lifelong finish to the floor

We will send a trained operative to come and give you an estimate completely free of charge. It will usually be the same operative who turns up on the day to do the sanding works.

The simple answer to that question is to decorate first. What we would ask is that the last coat of paint to go on the skirting board be applied after we have done the floor.

We are professionals working in your house and we will always respect that. Our machines are of the latest technology and have excellent dust extraction units. We mask up the gaps on wardrobes and cupboards, in a hallway, we put a sheet up around the stairwell to stop dust spreading.

The service is, in the main, Dust Free Sanding. However, if your floor requires more brutal floor sanding to remove stubborn areas, then other machinery may need to be used and in this case, slight dust should be expected. We suggest that provisions are made regardless.

It’s best to have pets vacate the property whilst the work is taking place or at the very least, have them contained in a separate room. We are a floor sanding company, however, if catteries or kennels are not an option for you, we can, by prior arrangement look after your pets with our floors and dog sitting service and cat sitting service, whilst the work is taking place. They’ll get all the care and attention they love. There is no charge for this service but we do ask their food be supplied.

How soon after can I walk on a newly sanded and varnished floor?

Water bourne and Oil-based products have low levels of odour and are clear as the varnish dries. Solvent-based varnishes can be quite strong and this is exaggerated with the catalysed version that has a rapid drying time, because of the accelerated evaporation. So be aware of this and ventilate the room with open windows/vents as much as possible and close off to the rest of the property. At the same time, we suggest that the heating is on to accelerate the drying time and speed up the evaporation and the extraction.

Some standard varnishes naturally make certain timbers yellow or become a tint of orange. This is not necessarily down to the quality of the varnish as many think (several varnishes at the top of the price and quality range, yellow floors) but more down to the actual make-up of the varnish itself. All varnishes and lacquers used by ourselves are at the top range of varnishes available and if you specifically want to avoid yellowing or orange, we have non-yellowing products and methods to help achieve this. In contrast, if you want to specifically create this effect, then we have methods to create it. You tell us what you want and leave the rest to us!

Yes, don’t worry about this, the floor sanding machines are able to lift this as part of the sanding process. The same applies to staples on the wooden floor. Nails or screws are best removed or hammered in and perhaps countersunk. We will check your wooden floor before proceeding with the work.

Before the days of fitted carpets, it was customary to have a central rug and to paint a bitumen type product around the edges of the room. This was usually in black or brown. When sanded, it immediately turns into a liquid tar-like product and, in doing this, quickly clogs the sanding belt/discs. The bitumen can be removed but there may be a small premium payable to cover the additional cost of materials. Please be aware that, in some cases, there may be a very slight difference in tone. This is because the wood underneath the bitumen has not been exposed to the same levels of air/moisture the remaining floor has.

Mostly. This all depends on the type of stain, the level of saturation and the time that’s elapsed since the stain was made. Water stains on the wooden floors can be problematic as there is a high saturation level. This is also true with ink, however, there is usually a lesser quantity and therefore the saturation levels are normally minimal and removable as part of the floor sanding process

The colour that your wooden floor will end up is hugely dependent upon the age of the floorboards/wooden floor and an indication of this is by the width of the planks. Narrower boards of, say, 5 inches are comparatively newer than wider floorboards and, therefore lighter when varnished and the older floorboards of, say, 6-8 inches and over, are generally older and, therefore darker when varnished, even with a clear varnish. This refers more to pine, which is the most common form of wood used as floorboards across houses in the UK. Of course, in instances where you have oak or mahogany etc., then your boards will turn out according to the relevant type of wood. Coloured varnishes are definitely not recommended. Should you wish to darken your floors then you will have to have a floor staining process and we will advise you on your specific requirements. Please be aware not to go too dark in colour, as the only way to go lighter afterwards, is to re-sand, attracting additional cost to yourself. Also, please note, that a stain is only a representation of the chosen colour, be it oak or mahogany etc. For example, you cannot CHANGE your pine floorboards to oak floorboards merely by staining the floor boards. You would need to have oak floor boards fitted, to have the floorboards look EXACTLY the way oak looks. Stains are, in the most, not opaque, the stains have transparency and with that, the grain and even a representation of the original colour of the wood is likely to show through. In some instances where liming or whitening is desired, it is advised to be very careful. Some home renovation/interior design magazines illustrate these types of floors as part of room sets. In most cases, these floors have been laid specifically for these room sets, using new or handpicked floorboards. They are subjected to various photographic retouching techniques and have been optimised by use of photographic lighting effects etc. In most real cases, floorboards are not as perfect as this, and, therefore, do not turn out as refined as this.

Unless staining/colouring is specifically requested, the price that you will have been given is for the sanding and varnishing of your floor with a clear varnish. The staining process is a separate application and will be quoted in addition to the standard price. The current price for staining a wooden floor is around ÂŁ4 per square metre.

Successful gap filling on wooden floors is one of the skilled parts of floor varnishing – a lot of floor sanding companies can’t or won’t do this. The most successful way despite taking longer is, (for gaps less than 4mm or so), to use a mixture of polyvinyl resin and the finest grade sawdust from the floor that is being sanded, (we use a wood floor resin specifically for this job). The mixed resin is spread across the wooden floor at a specific time of sanding the floor and when dried, is sanded off leaving the remaining residual filler held within the gaps. For floor gaps larger than 4mm, slivers of wood (of the same type) are glued on both sides and carefully secured in,- if it is a pine floor, we use reclaimed pine slivers so they blend in and oak slivers for oak floors and so on. Please note that, when choosing any of these methods, this does not create a ‘perfect floor’. There could be some degree of compromise on the final finish, as both floor-filling and slivers filleting, do require adding third party separate pieces and/or filling with an artificial resin filler. Wood floors will naturally continue to expand and contract with temperature and age and, whilst the resin product is designed to expand and contract to a point, higher levels of movement can result in gaps re-appearing, (albeit usually to a lesser degree We have recently added a black expanding neoprene strip which has the advantage of retaining the floors Oldie Worldie look but stopping any draughts coming through the floorboards

So long as are aware of these, we will come to the site with reclaimed boards to suit and will replace these.

Whilst we ask you to remove all items for the room being sanded, we are happy to assist in moving more bulky pieces of furniture upon the request. Every care is taken when doing this, but, unfortunately, our insurances do not cover us for any damage that does occur, we would not be able to cover the repair or replacement of the item. Items like pianos and grandfather clocks are generally moved minimally, to avoid disturbing any delicate mechanisms, and we have a process that we use to floor sand and varnish in, around and under these items.

Yes, we are able to remove a top section of the concrete and prepare it to have reclaimed boards installed. There is an additional cost for this. Please mention this when requesting a quote.

Staples can normally be removed as a part of the floor sanding process. Any protruding nails need to be countersunk and we are able to do this for you when sanding a floor.

Yes, we can arrange a carpet removal company upon request. Commercially, we are charged at refuse sites for disposing of trade waste and, therefore, a minimal charge is made for this service.

If you are a hotel or similar establishment that requires floor sanding we are able, by arrangement, to work weekends and/or overnight and, if need be, we can separate sections of a floor and barrier tape off, to avoid any footfall whilst the floor is being renovated. This applied to most commercial public environments. We are more than happy to discuss your individual requirements in more detail.

Unless staining/colouring is specifically requested, the price that you will have been given is for the sanding and varnishing of your floor with a clear varnish. The staining process is a separate application and will be quoted in addition to the standard price. The current price for staining a wooden floor is around ÂŁ4 per square metre.

Yes. Dust mites are responsible for many asthma-related conditions and allergies and obviously live in carpets and soft furnishings. Dust mites are significantly reduced by having wooden floors and are, therefore, ideal for asthma sufferers, as well as providing a far healthier environment. Rugs, etc. can be washed or dry cleaned to kill any dust mites.

Drop us a line via phone or e-mail with the dimensions of the room/s. We can give you a cost based on your measurements. If the price seems reasonable we will send a trained operative to come and give you an estimate completely free of charge. We then e-mail or post the written estimate which is both detailed and comprehensive. Our rates are always competitive and we can start the works within days of the quotation.

We hope our Frequently Asked Questions page has answered your question. If not, please all our friendly team on 0208 453 1160

ESTABLISHED IN 1995

We set up our business in 1995. We are Members of The Guild of Master Craftsmen and take pride in our work. These days we take extra care when it comes to health and safety.

Exceptional expertise
 

Our specialist teams, have an impressive breadth of experience, offering you the most professional service in our industry.

Our heritage

We draw on over 30 years of Floor Sanding experience, successfully managing and expanding our business as well as our customer base for the repeat business.

Our Promise

To deliver a 1st class service that remains highly competitive, we know we must constantly evolve and develop our products and services to stay ahead of our competitors.

No hidden extras with our quotes

We have qualified and experienced estimators that cover the south east of England. Our services teams work from our head office in London.

Technology

Because we are part of the “FLOOR SANDER HIRE GROUP”, our buying power and insight to the latest up to date machinery is what keeps us apart from our competitors. We boast more professional machinery than any other company in the UK.

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