Job takeoff
Floor sanding and refinishing takeoff
Sand a wood floor back to bare timber and finish it again: dust sheets outside the doors and tape along the skirting (baseboard), the sealer and finish coat by coat with the abrasives for every grit in its working, the beading (quarter round or shoe molding) refitted, a threshold strip at each doorway and a skip for a carpet lifted first, with the lead test, the board preparation, the sanding, the gap filling and the doors off and rehung listed, and nothing certified.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 5Measurements in
- 5Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the floor sanding and refinishing quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Masking and protection materialsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the floor outside the doorways you gave, at the calculator's opening sheet size; one line of tape along the skirting (baseboard) round the room, against the edger's knocks and the finish; and the calculator's opening length of tape round each doorway to hold a sheet across it against the fine dust. The floor being sanded takes no sheets. Radiators and anything fixed that stays in the room are wrapped as well, which this count does not size.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 2 items | |
Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasivesFloor Sanding and Finish CalculatorThe sealer and finish for the floor's length times its width, on the system the row's page opens on, a water-based lacquer with one sealer coat and two finish coats, each at the thick end of its makers' spread rates, with the page's allowance for what stays in the tools and the can, in 5 litre cans in metric and 1 US gallon cans in imperial. The system is chosen on that page: an oil-modified polyurethane, a hardwax oil or a penetrating oil each brings its own coats and rates. Its working also counts the drum sheets and edger discs for every grit over the floor and round its edge, taken here as the room's perimeter, and the screening pads between coats: the sanding is listed work, and its abrasives are counted on this one row. Both sides of each doorway, a hearth and any fitted unit add edge the perimeter leaves out.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The finish lost to tools and containers: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Floor Sanding and Finish Calculator | 2.07 gal | |
Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding)Baseboard & Trim CalculatorBeading (quarter round or shoe molding) round the room less each doorway, in stock lengths with the calculator's cutting allowance, pinned to the skirting (baseboard) and never to the floor, so the boards can move under it; beading that splits coming off is renewed. Where the skirting itself came off instead, this is the same run refitted.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 61.65 linear ft | |
Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers)Floor Transition Strip CalculatorA strip across each doorway you gave, at the calculator's opening doorway width, where the finished floor meets another finish; a doorway where the same boards run on into the next room takes none. The doors lifted off for the sanding go back on their own hinges at the same time, once the finish has cured.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Floor Transition Strip Calculator | 3.15 ft | |
Skip (dumpster)Skip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe covering lifted first at the loose depth you gave over the floor, as mixed construction waste, with the old beading. Shown only where something is lifted. The sanding dust is not in it: it leaves in the machines' bags, emptied outdoors into a metal bin, since the dust from a floor that was oiled or freshly finished can warm up in a bag by itself.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 0.8275 yd³ | |
Masking and protection materialsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the floor outside the doorways you gave, at the calculator's opening sheet size; one line of tape along the skirting (baseboard) round the room, against the edger's knocks and the finish; and the calculator's opening length of tape round each doorway to hold a sheet across it against the fine dust. The floor being sanded takes no sheets. Radiators and anything fixed that stays in the room are wrapped as well, which this count does not size.
Why this quantity? | 2 items | |
Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasivesFloor Sanding and Finish CalculatorThe sealer and finish for the floor's length times its width, on the system the row's page opens on, a water-based lacquer with one sealer coat and two finish coats, each at the thick end of its makers' spread rates, with the page's allowance for what stays in the tools and the can, in 5 litre cans in metric and 1 US gallon cans in imperial. The system is chosen on that page: an oil-modified polyurethane, a hardwax oil or a penetrating oil each brings its own coats and rates. Its working also counts the drum sheets and edger discs for every grit over the floor and round its edge, taken here as the room's perimeter, and the screening pads between coats: the sanding is listed work, and its abrasives are counted on this one row. Both sides of each doorway, a hearth and any fitted unit add edge the perimeter leaves out.
Why this quantity? | 7.87 L | |
Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding)Baseboard & Trim CalculatorBeading (quarter round or shoe molding) round the room less each doorway, in stock lengths with the calculator's cutting allowance, pinned to the skirting (baseboard) and never to the floor, so the boards can move under it; beading that splits coming off is renewed. Where the skirting itself came off instead, this is the same run refitted.
Why this quantity? | 18.81 m | |
Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers)Floor Transition Strip CalculatorA strip across each doorway you gave, at the calculator's opening doorway width, where the finished floor meets another finish; a doorway where the same boards run on into the next room takes none. The doors lifted off for the sanding go back on their own hinges at the same time, once the finish has cured.
Why this quantity? | 0.945 m | |
Skip (dumpster)Skip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe covering lifted first at the loose depth you gave over the floor, as mixed construction waste, with the old beading. Shown only where something is lifted. The sanding dust is not in it: it leaves in the machines' bags, emptied outdoors into a metal bin, since the dust from a floor that was oiled or freshly finished can warm up in a bag by itself.
Why this quantity? | 0.6 m³ |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Masking and protection materials0.2 h (0.1–0.3)
- Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasives2.4 h (1.2–6.0)
- Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding)3.4 h (1.9–7.5)
- Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers)0.5 h (0.3–1.0)
- Skip (dumpster)0.6 h (0.3–1.9)
About 7.0 person-hours in all, between 3.8 and 17.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Floor layer1 floor layerhalf a day
- Carpenter1 carpenterhalf a day
About 1 day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Masking and protection materials0.2 h (0.1–0.3)
- Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasives2.4 h (1.2–6.0)
- Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding)3.4 h (1.9–7.5)
- Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers)0.5 h (0.3–0.9)
- Skip (dumpster)0.6 h (0.3–1.8)
About 7.0 person-hours in all, between 3.7 and 17.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Floor layer1 floor layerhalf a day
- Carpenter1 carpenterhalf a day
About 1 day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Sanding takes a floor back to bare wood by cutting through the old finish and a thin skin of the timber beneath it, which a solid board can give up several times over its life. An engineered board, whose wood is a layer over a core, takes only as many sandings as that wear layer allows: a few on a thick one, once or none on a thin veneer. So the floor is looked at before a machine is hired: whether the boards are solid or engineered, how deep the nails sit, which boards are loose, split or cupped, what is on them now, and how far the gaps between them have opened. Old paint on a painted border, or an old varnish, can contain lead: it is tested, or presumed to be lead, before a drum touches it, and then worked as the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule requires in US housing built before 1978 (a sander only with a HEPA shroud and vacuum among them), or as HSE's guidance on lead advises in Great Britain. Old floor tiles, or the black bitumen adhesive under a covering, can contain asbestos, and are sampled before anything disturbs them.
The page opens on boards found under a carpet. The carpet, its underlay and the gripper come up and go in the skip, every nail is punched below the surface (a nail set does it in North America), every tack and staple is pulled, and loose boards are screwed down clear of the pipes and cables beneath. The open floor is then sanded along the boards in passes through a sequence of grits, coarse to fine, with a drum or belt sander, and round the walls and in the doorways with an edging sander (edger). Between the coarse and the finer grits the gaps are filled: wide ones with slivers of matching timber glued in, narrow ones with a resin filler mixed with the floor's own fine dust. The sanding, the preparation and the filling are listed as work; their abrasives are counted in the finish row's working.
The finish is a system rather than a single tin: a water-based lacquer (a water-based polyurethane) over its sealer, an oil-modified polyurethane whose first coat seals the wood, or a hardwax or penetrating oil worked in and wiped off. The finish row takes the system chosen on its own page, coat by coat, in the cans each market sells, with the screening between coats its maker asks for. A solvent-borne finish dries with the room ventilated to the outside and any pilot light or open flame turned off, and oily rags and pads are laid flat outdoors or kept in a water-filled metal container, because an oil cures by warming and a crumpled rag can catch fire by itself. The doors come off their hinges for the sanding and go back once the finish has cured as long as its maker gives, before the furniture and rugs return.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Look the floor over, solid or engineered, loose, split or cupped boards, the gaps and what is on it now, and have a painted border or an old varnish tested for lead and old tiles or black adhesive under a covering checked for asbestos before anything is sanded.
- With the furniture out, lift the carpet, underlay and gripper or the old covering into the skip, prise off the beading, lift the doors off their hinges, and seal each doorway with a sheet taped round it, masking the skirting, the radiators and anything fixed that stays.
- Punch every nail below the surface, pull the tacks and staples, screw down loose boards clear of the pipes and cables beneath, and replace the odd split board.
- Sand the open floor along the boards with the drum or belt sander at the coarse grit, and the edges and doorways with the edger at the same grit, emptying the dust bags outdoors into a metal bin as they fill.
- Fill the gaps, slivers glued into the wide ones and taken down flush, resin filler with the floor's own dust in the narrow ones and the nail holes, then sand through the finer grits and scrape the corners by hand.
- Vacuum, wipe with a tack cloth and lay the sealer and the finish coats, screening or abrading between coats as the maker asks, with the room ventilated to the outside and any pilot light or flame out, and oily rags laid flat outdoors or kept in a water-filled metal container.
- Once the finish has cured, pin the beading to the skirting and never to the floor, fix a threshold strip where the floor meets another finish, and rehang the doors on their own hinges.
- Take the fine dust off every surface, and hand over the finish maker's care and recoat instructions before the furniture and rugs go back.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Joist or subfloor renewal, and boards beyond the odd one.
- Bitumen or old adhesive taken off.
- Moving the furniture out and back.
- Staining the timber a colour.
- Laying new flooring of another kind.
- Trimming a door's foot, or an undercut, to clear a raised floor.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the floor sanding and refinishing quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the floor sanding and refinishing takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Floor length 5 m · Floor width 4 m · Doorways 1 · Floor sheeted outside the doorways 4 m² · Covering lifted first, as a loose depth over the floor 0.03 m, it orders: Masking and protection materials, 2 items; Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasives, 7.87 L; Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding), 18.8 m; Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers), 0.95 m; Skip (dumpster), 0.6 m³. Opened at Floor length 16.5 ft · Floor width 13 ft · Doorways 1 · Floor sheeted outside the doorways 43 sq ft · Covering lifted first, as a loose depth over the floor 1.25 in: Masking and protection materials, 2 items; Lacquer, varnish, oil or polyurethane (poly), with its sealer and abrasives, 2.07 gal; Beading or skirting (scotia, quarter round, shoe molding), 61.7 linear ft; Threshold strips (transitions, threshold bars, T-moldings, reducers), 3.15 ft; Skip (dumpster), 0.83 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the floor sanding and refinishing takeoff run?
- 5 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Floor Sanding and Finish Calculator, Baseboard & Trim Calculator, Floor Transition Strip Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the floor sanding and refinishing takeoff leave out?
- 6 things, each named on this page: Joist or subfloor renewal, and boards beyond the odd one; Bitumen or old adhesive taken off; Moving the furniture out and back; Staining the timber a colour; Laying new flooring of another kind; Trimming a door's foot, or an undercut, to clear a raised floor.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The floor sanding and refinishing quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.