By Emily Rivers
Last updated 30th August 2024

If you have original wooden floors hidden under carpet or laminate, you might want to restore them. Original wooden flooring is becoming very popular again and not only does it look fantastic, it can also add value to your home.

But how much does wooden floor restoration cost? If your room is large, it's a big project, so it’s important to set a realistic budget. We'll go through the costs to restore your wooden or parquet flooring in this guide.

How much does it cost to refinish hardwood floors in the UK?

How much it costs to refinish hardwood floors in the UK will depend on the condition of the flooring, the size of the room and the kind of repairs that need doing. You'll usually need to have your floors sanded and stained to bring them back to their best.

Here are typical costs for restoring wooden floor in the UK:

Job / item

Average cost

Remove carpet

£6-£8 per square metre

Sanding and refinishing wooden floor

£20-£30 per square metre

Sanding stairs

£35-£50 per step

Wood floor stain

£8-£12 per square metre

Carpenter hourly rate

£16-£40

These costs are based on averages from across the UK. HaMuch has a large database of hourly and daily rates for wood floor restoration professionals across the UK, and we've used this data to provide more accurate labour costs for most towns and cities in the country.

Take a look at the table further down the page to get an idea of how much labour will cost in your area.

Wooden floor restoration cost

What factors affect the cost of wooden floor restoration?

Type of wood

The type of wood your original flooring is made from will make a difference to the cost. For example, if you want to restore parquet flooring, your professional will need to take care when they polish it to ensure they don't affect the pattern.

Hardwoods are generally harder to sand than softwoods, so expect it to take longer to restore a hardwood floor. Also, if your original floorboards haven't been treated before, it will take longer to get them up to a hard-wearing standard.

Flooring condition

The condition of your wood flooring will have the most impact on the cost to restore. If your professional lifts up your carpet or floor covering and finds that the wooden flooring is in very poor condition, with lots of repairs required, it’s going to take longer to restore. Therefore, you should expect the cost to be higher.

If you need some floorboards replaced, this will drive up the cost. For two or three floorboards to be replaced it could cost around £200, but if major repairs are required to many floorboards and joists you could spend £450 or more.

Size of your room

The size of your room will also have an impact on wooden floor restoration cost. Most carpenters and flooring specialists will charge by the square metre to restore your floor.

That means if your room is 10 square metres, expect to spend between £200-£300 to sand and refinish your wooden floor. If your room is 30 square metres, it’s likely to set you back £600-£900.

Where you live

Where you live also affects the cost of restoring your wooden or parquet flooring, and unfortunately you can't do much about this one. Labour costs tend to be highest in London and the south east, while rates in the north of England and Scotland are usually much lower.

Make sure you look at our location-based carpenter rates to get an idea of how much you should budget for labour.

Is it cheaper to refinish hardwood floors or replace?

It's definitely cheaper to refinish hardwood floors rather than replacing them. Hardwood floor starts at around £30 per square metre, not including labour. But for a premium hardwood or engineered wood, expect to spend at least £80 per square metre before fitting.

Before labour, you should expect to spend between £300-£800+ on hardwood flooring for a 10 square metre room. Since it would cost £200-£300 including labour to sand and refinish hardwood floors, you can see that it’s much cheaper to refinish them rather than replace.

Plus, you're doing your bit for the environment by restoring your wooden floors rather than replacing them and causing waste to go to landfill.

Can I stay in my house while floors are refinished?

Yes, you can stay in your house while your floors are being refinished, providing you won't need to walk on the floor. It might be more pleasant to leave for the day since floor sanders are noisy and there will be lots of dust around.

The stains, oils or polishes that your flooring specialists use on your floor might have a strong smell too, so if you have young children that might be affected by the odour it might be worth leaving your house while your floors are being refinished.

However, if you need to stay at home, that's no problem. Just bear in mind that you won't be able to walk on the floor for at least 5 hours after the last coat of polish has been applied.

Is it hard to restore wood floors?

It's certainly not easy to restore wood floors! While lots of people do try to restore wood floors themselves, it often overwhelms them.

You can hire a sander to sand the floor yourself, but this is hard work that takes skill to get right. It also creates a lot of dust that some DIYers aren’t prepared for – if you don’t protect your doorways you can end up with dust all over your house, and if you don’t have the right PPE you can end up breathing in all the dust particles.

You'll also need to make sure you choose the right oil, stain or polish for your wooden floor. If you choose the wrong product for the type of wood, you could ruin the floor’s natural properties, which will affect how it looks.

We'd always recommend using a professional to help you repair and restore your wooden floors to ensure you get the best finish and don’t waste money on abandoned DIY projects.

Post your job on HaMuch now to get quotes from qualified carpenters and flooring specialists in your area.


Estimates for common flooring specialist jobs;

JobEstimate
Cost to install wooden flooring£605
Cost to restore a wooden floor£278
Lay vinyl flooring in a small room£350
Cost to fit parquet flooring in an average lounge£1,850
Cost to lay LVT flooring£1,500
Cost to fit laminate flooring£765
Fit Karndean flooring in living room£1,360
Cost to fit carpet in average bedroom£500
2. Enter postcode to get estimate
plus materials

to see who is available and get more information

Rates for other trades

Wooden floor restoration cost in the UK
Wooden floor restoration cost in the UK (excluding VAT or callout charges)
Location in UKWooden floor restoration cost
Wooden floor restoration near London£305
Wooden floor restoration near Birmingham£254
Wooden floor restoration near Leeds£299
Wooden floor restoration near Glasgow£260
Wooden floor restoration near Bradford£285
Wooden floor restoration near Liverpool£257
Wooden floor restoration near Edinburgh£316
Wooden floor restoration near Manchester£263
Wooden floor restoration near Bristol£276
Wooden floor restoration near Kirklees£275
Wooden floor restoration near Fife£316
Wooden floor restoration near Wirral£256
Wooden floor restoration near North Lanarkshire£261
Wooden floor restoration near Wakefield£299
Wooden floor restoration near Cardiff£266
Wooden floor restoration near Dudley£253
Wooden floor restoration near Wigan£259
Wooden floor restoration near South Lanarkshire£254
Wooden floor restoration near Coventry£254
Wooden floor restoration near Belfast£284
Wooden floor restoration near Leicester£268
Wooden floor restoration near Sunderland£299
Wooden floor restoration near Sandwell£254
Wooden floor restoration near Stockport£264
Wooden floor restoration near Sefton£255
Wooden floor restoration near Nottingham£264
Wooden floor restoration near Newcastle Upon Tyne£323
Wooden floor restoration near Bolton£261
Wooden floor restoration near Walsall£254
Wooden floor restoration near Stoke-on-Trent£273
Wooden floor restoration near Wolverhampton£254
Wooden floor restoration near Rhondda, Cynon, Taff£262
Wooden floor restoration near South Gloucestershire£276
Wooden floor restoration near Derby£264
Wooden floor restoration near Salford£263
Wooden floor restoration near Barnsley£274
Wooden floor restoration near Tameside£263
Wooden floor restoration near Oldham£263
Wooden floor restoration near Trafford£263
Wooden floor restoration near Aberdeen£295
Wooden floor restoration near Southampton£280
Wooden floor restoration near Highland£276
Wooden floor restoration near Rochdale£262
Wooden floor restoration near Solihull£253
Wooden floor restoration near Gateshead£299
Wooden floor restoration near Milton Keynes£299
Wooden floor restoration near North Tyneside£323
Wooden floor restoration near Calderdale£265
Wooden floor restoration near Northampton£287
Wooden floor restoration near Portsmouth£281
Wooden floor restoration near Warrington£262
Wooden floor restoration near North Somerset£278
Wooden floor restoration near Bury£262
Wooden floor restoration near Luton£296
Wooden floor restoration near St Helens£259
Wooden floor restoration near Stockton-on-Tees£266
Wooden floor restoration near Renfrewshire£265
Wooden floor restoration near York£260
Wooden floor restoration near Thamesdown£281
Wooden floor restoration near Southend-on-Sea£295
Wooden floor restoration near New Forest£282
Wooden floor restoration near Caerphilly£264
Wooden floor restoration near Bath£277
Wooden floor restoration near Wycombe£306
Wooden floor restoration near Basildon£301
Wooden floor restoration near Bournemouth£283
Wooden floor restoration near Peterborough£300
Wooden floor restoration near Chelmsford£295
Wooden floor restoration near Brighton£290
Wooden floor restoration near South Tyneside£323
Wooden floor restoration near Charnwood£268
Wooden floor restoration near Aylesbury Vale£299
Wooden floor restoration near Colchester£285
Wooden floor restoration near Knowsley£258
Wooden floor restoration near Huntingdonshire£299
Wooden floor restoration near Macclesfield£269
Wooden floor restoration near Blackpool£250
Wooden floor restoration near West Lothian£298
Wooden floor restoration near South Somerset£298
Wooden floor restoration near Dundee£327
Wooden floor restoration near Basingstoke & Deane£292
Wooden floor restoration near Middlesbrough£266
Wooden floor restoration near Flintshire£257
Wooden floor restoration near The Wrekin£257
Wooden floor restoration near Newbury£292
Wooden floor restoration near Falkirk£266
Wooden floor restoration near Reading£296
Wooden floor restoration near Wokingham£298
Wooden floor restoration near Windsor & Maidenhead£302
Wooden floor restoration near Maidstone£290
Wooden floor restoration near Redcar & Cleveland£270
Wooden floor restoration near North Ayrshire£280
Wooden floor restoration near Blackburn£259
Wooden floor restoration near Neath Port Talbot£259
Wooden floor restoration near Poole£283
Wooden floor restoration near Wealden£289
Wooden floor restoration near Arun£289
Wooden floor restoration near Bedford£296
Wooden floor restoration near Oxford£296
Wooden floor restoration near Lancaster£252
Wooden floor restoration near Newport£267
Wooden floor restoration near Canterbury£267
Wooden floor restoration near Preston£254
Wooden floor restoration near Dacorum£300
Wooden floor restoration near Cherwell£296
Wooden floor restoration near Perth & Kinross£324
Wooden floor restoration near Thurrock£301
Wooden floor restoration near Tendring£281
Wooden floor restoration near Kings Lynn & West Norfolk£276
Wooden floor restoration near St Albans£299
Wooden floor restoration near Bridgend£263
Wooden floor restoration near South Cambridgeshire£297
Wooden floor restoration near Braintree£291
Wooden floor restoration near Thanet£264
Wooden floor restoration near Isle of Wight£280
Wooden floor restoration near Mid Sussex£293
Wooden floor restoration near South Oxfordshire£298
Wooden floor restoration near Guildford£297
Wooden floor restoration near Elmbridge£303
Wooden floor restoration near Stafford£260
Wooden floor restoration near Powys£251
Wooden floor restoration near East Hertfordshire£304
Wooden floor restoration near Wrexham Maelor£258
Wooden floor restoration near Halton£259
Wooden floor restoration near Warwick£255
Wooden floor restoration near East Ayrshire£334
Wooden floor restoration near Newcastle-under-Lyme£276
Wooden floor restoration near North Wiltshire£279
Wooden floor restoration near Epping Forest£305
Wooden floor restoration near Vale of Glamorgan£264
Wooden floor restoration near Reigate & Banstead£302
Wooden floor restoration near Chester£258
Wooden floor restoration near Mid Bedfordshire£294
Wooden floor restoration near Suffolk Coastal£278
Wooden floor restoration near Horsham£295
Wooden floor restoration near Nuneaton & Bedworth£256
Wooden floor restoration near Swale£285
Wooden floor restoration near Havant & Waterloo£282
Wooden floor restoration near Cambridge£297
Wooden floor restoration near Vale Royal£257
Wooden floor restoration near Amber Valley£264
Wooden floor restoration near North Hertfordshire£295
Wooden floor restoration near South Ayrshire£307
Wooden floor restoration near Waverley£295
Wooden floor restoration near Crewe & Nantwich£275
Wooden floor restoration near Ipswich£280
Wooden floor restoration near Vale of White Horse£291
Wooden floor restoration near Salisbury£281
Wooden floor restoration near Gedling£264
Wooden floor restoration near Eastleigh£280
Wooden floor restoration near Broxtowe£264
Wooden floor restoration near Stratford-on-Avon£269
Wooden floor restoration near South Bedfordshire£296
Wooden floor restoration near Angus£324
Wooden floor restoration near East Hampshire£282
Wooden floor restoration near East Dunbartonshire£260
Wooden floor restoration near Conway£255
Wooden floor restoration near Sevenoaks£297
Wooden floor restoration near Slough£302
Wooden floor restoration near Bracknell Forest£298
Wooden floor restoration near West Lancashire£256
Wooden floor restoration near West Wiltshire£279
Wooden floor restoration near Ashfield£264
Wooden floor restoration near Lisburn£284
Wooden floor restoration near Stroud£282
Wooden floor restoration near Wychavon£269
Wooden floor restoration near Dover£265
Wooden floor restoration near Test Valley£280
Wooden floor restoration near Gloucester£282
Wooden floor restoration near Erewash£264
Wooden floor restoration near Cheltenham£290