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Commercial floor sanding is a different trade to domestic. The areas are larger, the machinery is heavier, the dust control has to be genuine because the building carries on around you, and the finish has to survive hundreds of people a day rather than a family.
Courtship Flooring is a commercial floor sanding contractor working across the UK on sports halls, gymnasiums, school and church halls, squash courts, stage floors and parquet. Established 1987, our own team and machinery, nothing subcontracted. We do not undertake domestic work.
In a commercial building the rest of the site has to keep running while the floor is sanded, and that makes dust extraction a practical requirement rather than a courtesy. Our machinery runs with extraction throughout, and we manage containment so dust does not find its way into ventilation, adjacent rooms or equipment.
It matters most in schools and leisure facilities, where the hall is being sanded while lessons, classes and public sessions continue a corridor away.
The seal is what determines how long the work lasts. We use commercial-grade systems from manufacturers such as Bona and Junckers, selected for the actual workload of the room rather than a standard specification, and applied in the correct number of coats with proper curing between them.
Where a floor is used for sport, the finish also has to deliver the right level of friction. Too slick is dangerous; too grippy is dangerous in a different way. We can verify the result with a pendulum slip test on completion.
Large areas need planning that small ones do not: machinery access, power supply, material storage, working sequence and where the building keeps functioning while you work. We survey all of it before quoting, which is why our programmes tend to hold.
Overnight, weekend and holiday working is standard. On very large floors or multi-hall sites we phase the work so parts of the facility stay open throughout, and every stage has a confirmed date attached.
Sanding is not always the right call, and a contractor who only sands will always recommend sanding. If the seal is worn but intact, a screen and recoat costs far less and buys years. If moisture is coming up through the slab, sanding and sealing will simply fail again. If a floor is Granwood or a composite block, sanding will destroy it and it needs a specialist coating system instead.
We measure, identify the surface correctly and tell you which of those you are dealing with before any machine comes off the van.
Commercial floor sanding is a different trade from domestic work, and the gap is wider than most buyers expect. The machines are bigger, the dust extraction has to be genuinely sealed rather than nominally fitted, and the programme has to survive contact with a live building.
We work in halls of six hundred to two thousand square metres. At that scale a domestic belt sander is irrelevant. We use large planetary and belt machines with vacuum extraction that keeps the airborne dust down to a level where the rest of the building can carry on around us, which matters when the hall shares an air handling system with classrooms or a pool.
The second difference is sequencing. A commercial floor is rarely empty and rarely simple. There are wall bars to protect, sockets and floor boxes to lift and reset, inspection covers, threshold trims, fire exits that have to stay usable and a caretaker who needs the building back at a fixed hour. We plan all of that before the first machine comes off the van.
The third is documentation. Method statements, risk assessments, COSHH sheets for every product, insurance certificates and safeguarding checks for anyone working on a school site are all standard with us rather than something we produce when asked.
We are a commercial contractor and we work on commercial buildings. That means sports halls, gymnasiums, assembly halls, church and village halls, stages, dance and drama studios, squash courts, university and college facilities, leisure centres and clubhouses. If it is a timber floor in a building the public or a school uses, it is our work.
Within that we handle solid strip and block, engineered board, parquet, sprung systems on battens or cradles, and older floors laid direct to bitumen. Each behaves differently under a machine. Parquet in particular is unforgiving, because the grain runs in several directions in the same square metre and a machine driven the wrong way will tear it.
What we do not do is domestic work. We do not sand living room floors or private houses, and that is a deliberate decision rather than a shortage of interest. Commercial sports and hall floors demand different machinery, different finishes and different insurance, and the firms that try to cover both tend to do neither properly.
If you have a floor and are not sure whether it falls into our territory, send a photograph and the approximate size and we will tell you straight away.
Every quotation follows a site survey, because a commercial floor holds surprises and a price given without seeing it is a price that will change.
We measure the area properly rather than working off a drawing, take moisture readings in the boards and the slab, check the remaining wear layer, and record the condition of the existing finish. We note the repairs that are visible and, importantly, we flag the ones we expect to find once the old lacquer is off, so there are no awkward conversations halfway through.
The quotation itself is broken down rather than given as one number. Preparation, sanding, repairs, sealing, line marking and testing are separately priced, so if the budget will not stretch this year you can see exactly which element to defer rather than losing the whole scheme.
On programme, we work to a fixed start and finish date and we put it in writing. Most commercial sanding contracts run through school holidays, bank holiday weekends or overnight, and we staff accordingly rather than stretching one team across too many sites. For multi site clients we will phase the works across a year so the cost lands in the budget periods you need it to.
Sanding is only half of a commercial contract. What goes on top decides how the floor performs and how long it lasts before you are calling somebody again.
For sports and hall floors we generally specify a two pack polyurethane seal. It holds up under trolleys, staging, stacking chairs and the cleaning regimes that busy buildings actually run, and it keeps its slip resistance far longer than a cheaper single pack. Where a hall doubles as an exam room or a dining space we will discuss a harder wearing grade, because those uses batter a floor in ways sport never does.
Line markings go on between coats so they sit under the final seal rather than on top of it, which is the difference between markings that last for years and markings that lift within a season. We set out from the current governing body dimensions, and we will happily leave out redundant sets that are cluttering the hall.
At handover you get the cure times in writing, the aftercare guidance, the product data sheets, and a pendulum slip resistance test certificate if you have asked for one. Everything a facilities file needs, rather than a handshake and an invoice.
Commercial scale: full sports halls, multi-court facilities, school and church halls, stage floors and whole-estate programmes. If you are unsure whether your project fits, call and we will tell you straight away.
Yes, that is the norm. Dust extraction runs throughout and we phase or work outside hours so the rest of the site continues. We agree exactly which spaces are affected and when before starting.
By measuring. If the lacquer is worn but unbroken a screen and recoat is enough and costs a fraction as much. A full sand is reserved for floors where the timber itself is taking the wear.
No. We are a commercial contractor only. Domestic and residential work is handled by our sister company Ryan’s Restorations.
Yes. We work directly for schools, trusts and operators, and we also work as a specialist subcontractor within larger refurbishment schemes. We are used to main contractor site rules, inductions, permits and progress reporting.
As a guide, anything above roughly two hundred square metres, or any floor that is used for sport. Below that a general commercial flooring firm may be a better fit, and we will say so rather than quote for the sake of it.
Yes, as standard and in advance. We supply RAMS, COSHH data sheets for every product, public liability and employers liability certificates, and DBS details for staff working on school sites.
Our machines run on sealed vacuum extraction, we screen off the working area, and we agree with your site team which doors and air handling routes need isolating. The hall itself will be dusty. The rest of the building should not be.
Yes. Assembly halls, stages, corridors, dance studios and church halls are all regular work. The common thread is that they are commercial buildings in use, not private homes.
Yes, and for trusts and leisure operators it usually should be. We will build a rolling programme that spreads the spend across budget years and takes each hall out of use at the quietest point in its own calendar.
Tell us the area, the building type and how it is used, and we will survey it free of charge and quote a fixed price. Call 01823 674562.