How to Prepare Your Home for a Floor Sanding Service
You've read what to expect once the sanding team is actually in your home — the room order, the staging, the samples, the coats. But there's a step before all of that which matters just as much: what you do in the days before we arrive.
A well-prepared home means the job starts on time, runs smoothly, and doesn't hit avoidable delays. A home that isn't quite ready means the first hour of day one gets spent moving a sofa or waiting for a fridge to defrost — time that should have gone into your floor. So here's exactly what to sort out beforehand, and why each thing actually matters.
Furniture: What to Move, and What to Leave to Us
The general rule is simple — the emptier the room, the faster and more thorough the job. Anything you can reasonably move yourself (chairs, small tables, rugs, lamps, boxes, plant pots) should be cleared out before we arrive, ideally into a room that isn't being worked on, or a garage if you have one.
That said, we know not everything can leave. A wardrobe that doesn't fit through the door, a piano, a fitted unit — these things sometimes have to stay in the room. That's not a problem on our end, but it is something you should tell us about in advance rather than let us discover on the day. When we know ahead of time, we can plan the job around it properly using staging — sanding and finishing around the piece in sections rather than trying to work it out on the spot. We cover exactly how staging works in the what to expect article, but the short version is: the more notice we have, the better we can plan for it.
One thing worth doing yourself beforehand: take a few photos of each room, furniture included. It's a five-minute job that gives you peace of mind and a clear record of how things looked going in.
Kitchens Need a Bit of Extra Thought
If your kitchen floor is part of the job, there's some prep that's easy to overlook until the morning it's due to start. Fridges, freezers, dishwashers, and washing machines need to be disconnected and moved clear of the work area before we begin — not just switched off, but actually unplugged and pulled away, since sanding machines and finish fumes need real clearance around every appliance, and we can't safely work a floor with a fridge still plumbed and wired into the wall.
If a fridge or freezer is coming out of the room, it needs to be emptied in advance too. That's not just about the food — a full fridge is heavy and awkward to move safely, and nobody wants a warm fridge full of shopping sitting in the hallway for two days while the kitchen floor cures. Plan to run your fridge down over the few days before the job (a good excuse to use up what's in the freezer, if nothing else), and have somewhere else lined up to keep essentials cold if you need to — a cool box, a neighbour's spare shelf, or a small mini-fridge in another room works fine for a couple of days.
If you're not sure whether an appliance in your kitchen needs disconnecting for your specific job, it's always worth asking us directly rather than guessing — it varies slightly depending on the layout and how far the sanding extends.
Take a Proper Look at Your Own Floor First
Before we even arrive, it's worth getting down and having a genuine look at your floor yourself — not to fix anything, but so nothing comes as a surprise. Look for boards that visibly move or squeak underfoot, gaps between boards that look wider than the rest, any dark or discoloured patches that might suggest old water damage, and areas where the finish has worn through completely to bare wood.
None of this means you need to sort it yourself — that's exactly what our repair service is for, and as we explained in our last article, repairs always happen first, before any sanding begins. But flagging problem areas to us ahead of time — even just "the board by the window creaks" or "there's a stain near the radiator" — means we can look at it properly during the survey stage rather than finding it fresh on day one. The more we know going in, the more accurate your quote and timeline will be.
Start Thinking About Colour Direction Now
You don't need to have an exact stain colour picked out before we arrive — that's what the in-home sampling process on day one is for. But it does help enormously if you've thought about the general direction you want to go in before we get there with sample pots.
Are you leaning toward keeping the wood looking natural and warm? Going darker and richer, more like a walnut or espresso tone? Or after something lighter and more Scandinavian — a whitewashed or grey-toned look? You don't need the answer to be precise, just roughly which lane you're in. It saves time on day one, because instead of starting from a completely blank page, we can bring a shortlist of samples that already sit in the tone you're after, test them on your actual floor, and let you compare from there rather than starting the search from zero.
Decide on Your Finish Sheen Too
Alongside colour, it's worth having an opinion — even a loose one — on sheen before we start: matte, satin, or gloss. This is a separate decision from the colour itself, and it has a real impact on how the finished room feels day to day.
Matte finishes hide dust, scuffs and everyday wear the best, and give a more natural, understated look.
Satin sits in the middle — enough shine to look finished and a bit more formal, without highlighting every mark.
Gloss gives the most reflective, polished look, but shows scratches, footprints and dust more readily, especially in high-traffic rooms.
There's no universally "right" answer — it depends on the room, the light, and how the space actually gets used day to day. A busy family living room and a rarely-used formal dining room can reasonably end up with two different sheens, even in the same house. Have a think about it before we arrive so it's one less decision to make on the spot.
A Quick Pre-Sanding Checklist
Before the day arrives, run through this:
Clear out everything you can move; tell us in advance about anything that has to stay
Disconnect and clear space around any kitchen appliances involved (fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine)
Run your fridge/freezer down and have it fully emptied beforehand
Walk your floor and note any squeaks, gaps, stains or bare patches to mention to us
Have a rough colour direction in mind — natural, dark, or light-toned
Decide which sheen fits each room — matte, satin, or gloss
Ready When You Are
Getting these few things sorted before we arrive is the difference between a job that runs exactly to schedule and one that loses its first morning to logistics. None of it is complicated — it's mostly just a bit of forward planning.
If you're not sure how any of this applies to your specific home, that's exactly what a survey and quote is for — we'll walk the rooms with you, talk through what needs to move, and answer anything on your mind before a date ever goes in the diary. And once the day itself arrives, our what to expect guide picks up exactly where this one leaves off.
