The baseline
£28/m² covers a straightforward restoration: dust-managed sanding through three grits, filling of minor gaps and nail holes, and two coats of hardwax oil or lacquer in a clear or standard tone. That is the price for an empty, accessible room with a sound floor and no structural repairs required. Most reception rooms and bedrooms land here.
What adds to it
Every extra process is priced separately so you can see it. Board replacement where planks are split or rotten, gap filling with slivers rather than resin, removing old bitumen or adhesive from lifted parquet, tannin-blocking on oak that has reacted with iron nails, and staining before finishing all add labour. Stairs are priced per flight because they are hand-worked, not machine-sanded.
- Board or block replacement: quoted per item, matched to the existing floor
- Sliver gap filling: a significant labour add on a gappy Victorian pine floor
- Bitumen removal under old parquet: slow, messy and priced honestly
- Stairs: quoted per flight, hand-sanded and finished
Restoration versus replacement
The test is thickness above the tongue. If a solid board has 4mm or more of timber above the tongue, it can be sanded. Below that, sanding risks breaking through into the joint and the floor should be replaced. We measure this at survey by lifting a board at a threshold rather than guessing from the surface — a floor that looks ruined is often perfectly sound, and a floor that looks tired is occasionally beyond saving.
What a real quote looks like
Area in square metres at the restoration rate, then separate lines for repairs, gap filling, staining, stair flights, and finish upgrade if you want a premium oil. Waste removal and dust management are included, not extras. We give a fixed price after survey, not an estimate that moves on the day.
Time and disruption
An average reception room is two days: one to sand and fill, one to finish, with the room out of use overnight between coats. Whole ground floors run three to five days. Our machines are extraction-fed, so the dust is contained rather than distributed through the house, but rooms still need to be emptied before we start.
Getting value from the spend
Restoration is the one flooring job where the money buys back something original. A hundred-year-old pine or oak floor brought back properly is worth more than a new floor of the same value, and it takes a day less than lifting, skipping and relaying. If your survey shows enough timber, restore.