Frequently Asked Questions

The short answer to that is ‘no’ because our equipment is high-tech and designed to retain the sand dust that gets generated during the process. Our teams will also seal off other rooms so that the small amount of dust that does get out will not get to other parts of the property. When the job is finished we’ll of course tidy everything up and you’ll probably be left with a room that is cleaner than it was when we arrived!

​There are so many advantages to having a wooden floor that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Apart from being all the fashion now, they are superb aesthetically and make your home or office look completely different. A wooden floor is not only easy to keep clean and gleaming but is hypoallergenic too, so microscopic pests such as dust mites will find nowhere to hide. There’ll be none of the musty odours associated with even the best quality fitted carpets and rugs, and maintenance is a doddle.​

There are strengths and weaknesses to each of the more common wooden floor finishes of wax, varnish and oil. There is actually in truth very little to choose between them for a normal domestic or office floor that experiences average levels of traffic. Heavier-duty products will be needed for floors in places like schools and museums and restaurants, where wear and tear levels are above average.

Varnish and wax finishes for the home will entail some regular maintenance, but this is hardly onerous. Just take some care of it and make sure that it gets some regular recoating. Even the toughest varnish barrier will eventually start to wear through and before this happens you’ll need to get a fresh coat put down. As it wears, bits of dust and dirt will start to get into the grain and so before recoating the floor will need to be sanded down again to get it clean and smooth. In the case of oiled floors, there is no protective layer created on the surface as is the case with wax and polish. The oil is absorbed right into the wood and dirt and liquid are actively repelled by it. The one big benefit to having a wooden floor oiled rather than waxed or polished is that local repairs can be carried out relatively easily because they’ll blend in with the unaffected area of the floor.

In our two decades of experience in the homes and businesses of Putney, a lot of old wood floors do look terrible but there’s real treasure beneath that dried paint, old varnish and dirt! This stuff is all on the surface and in fact it protects the fresh, clean wood underneath. Sanding away the hard, dirty upper layer reveals the clean boards, which can then be filled and repaired before more sanding and the application of an appropriate finish.​

Gaps between floorboards cause creaks and groans and allow heat to escape, so we fill them in with strips or slivers of wood which are then sanded down. Where the gaps are very small we use silicon-based filler. By the time we’ve finished repairing your floor it will be as sound as a bell. ​