I was called today by a guy who had sanded his floors last weekend (saturday) He asked me to give a price to finish them for him, He said he was going to stain and seal them himself, but really didn't have the confidents, this made me a little bit worried, one thing i really can't bear is finishing a floor that i haven't sanded, call me fussy, but i have never finished a floor that someone else had sanded that was actually sanded well enough by a DIYer for a clear seal finish, let alone stain one,

The conversation went on and from my previous experience i gave him a ball park figure, with the worse case scenario, which was the same price i would charge for starting from scratch, the best case scenario was i would need just to give it a light sand first followed by finishing. The total area size was 55 m2 for four rooms and a hallway, I told him that it would take me 3 maybe 4 days to complete on my own, the guy seemed shocked at the timescale i had given him, because as he stated it had only taken him one long day and plenty of sweat to sand the whole thing in the first place and said he had done it properly through all the grades. That tells me what that floors going to look like and believe me it won't look pretty, I don't know a floor sander alive or dead that could prep 55m2 of 1830s floorboards over four rooms and a hallway in a day, not alone and not in prep for stain. For stain the floor has to be finished so well that most professional floor sanders steer clear.

I have seen plenty of floor that have been sanded by DIYers and to be fair, If they are happy with what they have done then thats all that counts, however from a professional point of view i have never seen what i would call a well sanded floor done by any DIYer, Builder, Painter or Decorator and I have truly seen many.