Sometimes. It comes down to one number most owners have never been told, and in an apartment the answer changes what you are allowed to do next.
No obligation. Takes 30 seconds.
Floor Sanding and Polishing Sydney connects Sydney and greater Sydney property owners with qualified, connects Sydney property owners with licensed local floor sanders for engineered floors. Tell us the rough floor area and whether you're in a house or an apartment and we'll match it to a licensed contractor covering your suburb. Firm per-square-metre price after an inspection.
An engineered board is a thin layer of real timber bonded to a plywood or high-density core. That top layer is the wear layer and it is all there is to sand. Around 6mm takes two or three full sands. About 3mm takes one, carefully. Under roughly 2mm should be recoated rather than sanded, and a click-lock floating floor with a 0.6mm veneer cannot be sanded at all.
Lift a vent or a threshold and look at the edge of a board — the layers are visible, solid timber on top and a cross-banded core beneath. Failing that, the original invoice or the product name usually gives it, and most manufacturers publish the wear layer thickness. A sander who says they will 'have a look on the day' is guessing with your floor.
Engineered board is the default in apartment fitouts because it moves less than solid timber and because it can be laid over acoustic underlay to meet a strata by-law. That is a genuine advantage and it is why most of these floors are sound and only need a recoat. The failure we see is not wear, it is water — a leaking dishwasher or a balcony door, which delaminates the layers rather than staining them.
Replacing an engineered floor in a strata building is not the same job as replacing one in a house. Lifting the floor usually means the acoustic underlay comes up with it, and putting a new floor down re-opens the by-law and, in most schemes, the requirement for a test report. Budget for that before deciding between a recoat and a replacement.
Sydney.
Where this job typically sits. Access is usually a bigger cost driver than size.
| Job | Indicative price | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Sand and polish, per square metre | $40 – $70 /m² | Sydney rates run above the national average. Covers sanding plus coats. |
| Typical 3-bedroom home (~110m²) | $4,400 – $7,500 | Whole floor, sanded and finished. Condition drives the range. |
| Typical 2-bedroom apartment (~70m²) | $2,800 – $4,900 | Before any acoustic underlay, which is a separate line. |
| Single room (~15m²) | $800 – $1,400 | Small jobs carry proportionally more setup. |
| Acoustic underlay, supplied and laid | $25 – $60 /m² | Strata work. The test report matters as much as the product. |
| Acoustic test report | $400 – $1,200 | Field testing to demonstrate compliance where a by-law requires it. |
| Board replacement | $100 – $220 per board | Baltic pine and old hardwood profiles are both hard to match. |
| Extra coat of finish | $9 – $15 /m² | Three coats is standard; a high-traffic hallway may want four. |
| Parquetry restoration | $80 – $130 /m² | Slower and more skilled than strip flooring. |
| Recoat only (no full sand) | $20 – $35 /m² | Where the finish is worn but the timber is sound. Far cheaper. |
Prices are indicative only and usually quoted per square metre. What a floor costs depends on its condition, the timber, how many coats it needs and whether boards have to be replaced. In a strata building, acoustic underlay and testing add to it. You get a firm price after an inspection.
The core job — taking a tired timber floor back to bare wood.
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Getting owners corporation approval before the floor goes in — in the right order.
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Meeting the noise rating your by-law sets — and proving it.
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The softwood under most inner-Sydney terraces, and why it's treated differently.
Read more →Tell us the suburb and the floor area and we'll get it to the right person.
Call 0468 165 354