Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Sep 18, 2009 11:43 pm I've just received my first quote for my jarrah floorboards to be sanded and polished (and a few boards will be fixed) and would like an opinion on cost if possible? It's for a small house, consisting of 2 small bedrooms, lounge room, kitchen and hallway. I don't have the sqm unfortunately I'll have to actually measure it so I've got more accurate information to post. Anyway, the quote came in at just under $2000 (the fixing part of the quote was just under $200). My initial thought was this was a bit on the expensive side, considering it's for a small 2x1 house. I will be getting another couple of quotes, but was hoping others out there could give me a feel for what is a reasonable cost? A workmate got their floors done a couple of years ago and their house is slightly bigger, and it cost them about $800-$900. So has it really gone up that much in a couple of years? I live in the southern suburbs of Perth, so if anyone can recommend a good floor tradie that services the Perth metro area for a reasonable cost, I'd love to get their details from you! Hope someone can help! Thanks very much Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 2Sep 19, 2009 6:46 am generally around the $30 per sq metre depending on the type of finish they use. The new European water based polyurethane finishs ( which have an oil based primer) are fairly expensive. It can vary slighty site to site as well Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 3Sep 20, 2009 6:13 pm Thanks I've gotten two quotes now and both want around the same price. Hard to believe it should cost that much! It's definitely quoted at more than $30sqm Perhaps I need to get a tonne more quotes! Can anyone recommend someone in Perth that charges approx $30sqm please? Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 4Sep 20, 2009 6:20 pm We've just got our floorboards done. 3 bedrooms, a lounge room and a hallway. No stain with a polyurethane coating. It cost us $1865. The two other quotes we got were for well over $2000. We live in country Victoria though so I can't recommend anyone in your neck of the woods! Good luck! Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 5Sep 20, 2009 6:33 pm katie I think it's likely that jarrah floors are more expensive to get sanded. While they were very popular over here in the west, much softer timbers seem more common in the east so the prices probably reflect that. what type of finish were you getting? that will also affect the price. Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 6Sep 20, 2009 7:36 pm I'm not sure on the polish, they never really asked me or specified the exact type, except for Satin finish. What should I be asking for? First time jarrah floorboards owner, here! Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 7Sep 20, 2009 9:56 pm Katie we are sanding our Jarrah floorboards ourselves and are using a satin waterbased finish. Did the bedrooms first and they look amazing. We chose the water based because it has less fumes and voc's and wont yellow. We had a range of quotes as well and all i can say is get as many as you can and ask what products they will be applying. To me $2000 doesnt sound to bad. Its a lot of work and i cant wait till we are finished. Will never do it ourselves again though. Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 8Sep 20, 2009 10:56 pm katie81 I'm not sure on the polish, they never really asked me or specified the exact type, except for Satin finish. What should I be asking for? First time jarrah floorboards owner, here! The two main ones they use are two pack poly which is very stinky and you'll have to move out, and the water based poly which is much less stinky. They probably quoted on the water based but strange they didnt tell you which one. This is a link to the thread with mango's floorboards, they look amazing - http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23042 Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 9Sep 21, 2009 1:47 am Thanks for the info, guys. Mango, your boards look amazing! No way would I consider doing it myself so you're much braver than I! I am not currently living in the house so the "stinky" one wouldn't be a problem if it is better? How long would it take for the stink to clear and would the house need to be left open to air most of the day? I will be moving in with 2 med-large dogs so although I know that is a recipe for disaster with newly sanded/polished floorboards and nothing is going to stop them getting scratched (bar banning the dogs from the house which is not feasible!), what type of finish would be best to minimize the scratches? All I know is not to go for high gloss as that will show the scratches. I don't want matte as I want a slight bit of shine to my boards, so I'm going to go with either the Satin or Semi Gloss finish. But as for oil or water based poly-whatever I'm not sure if one is better over the other for scratch-resistancy. Just looking at my written quote now - nup, no mention of what stuff they use! All they did was tick the box against "Satin" finish. Oh, this might be useful - they have quoted $60 for my finish. So I'm guessing that is water based el-cheapo brand stuff?? Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 11Sep 21, 2009 2:09 pm katie81 I am not currently living in the house so the "stinky" one wouldn't be a problem if it is better? How long would it take for the stink to clear and would the house need to be left open to air most of the day? I will be moving in with 2 med-large dogs so although I know that is a recipe for disaster with newly sanded/polished floorboards and nothing is going to stop them getting scratched (bar banning the dogs from the house which is not feasible!), what type of finish would be best to minimize the scratches? All I know is not to go for high gloss as that will show the scratches. I don't want matte as I want a slight bit of shine to my boards, so I'm going to go with either the Satin or Semi Gloss finish. But as for oil or water based poly-whatever I'm not sure if one is better over the other for scratch-resistancy. Just looking at my written quote now - nup, no mention of what stuff they use! All they did was tick the box against "Satin" finish. Oh, this might be useful - they have quoted $60 for my finish. So I'm guessing that is water based el-cheapo brand stuff?? The oil based ones are a harder finish but I dont know how much better they would stand up to dogs chasing around but it would be worth grilling some of these sanders about it and see what they say. Another option is a tung oil finish and those ones can be touched up and repaired without having to resand the whole floor back but they need maintenance coats every so often. I've been to-ing and fro-ing for a long time about which finish to get and decided to go with a tung oil or a hard wax oil because of my dogs (one of them chases around quite a bit) and because they can be spot repaired plus I just really love the way they look it's quite a natural finish. If it's too expensive I'll just get the boards sanded and do the finish on my own but Im planning on trying it out in the hallway first before I get the living areas done to see how it stands up. Each of the finishes have their good and bad points so it's just trying to find the right one that suits you best - but that's the hard part isnt it? with the quotes I would get them to write down what finish it is e.g. water based poly satin and also the brand of finish and that way it will make it much easier to compare the quotes. I hate obscure quotes it's just lazy for them to quote it that way (unless they are using a cheapo brand and dont want you to know) ps. mikegem21 I didnt install my floors it's an older house with the original jarrah floors Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 13Sep 22, 2009 3:53 pm Wax is normally put over tung oil to offer protection as tung oil essentially provides none against scratces etc. The commercial European water-based polys are near as hard as the solvent based equivalents these days. They use a low odour solvent based primer coat so you still get the full colour and grain of a traditional oil based finish. If you going to allow dogs to run around on a timber floor you are going to get scratches regardless of what you use Re: Average Cost of Sanding/Polishing Floorboards? 16Jul 03, 2013 9:26 pm We were quoted $30-40 per square metre depending on what type of product we wanted on the floor. Environmentally friendly finish was more expensive for example. Ended up doing it ourselves which was time consuming but worth it in our eyes as it saved us 2 grand. A blog about our renovation http://notmynightmare.blogspot.com.au/ Hi All New to the forum and looking for some advice, has anyone else renovated an old miners cottage in or around Ballarat and been able to identify the flooring? We… 0 8757 7 11879 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 36901 |