We generally require that the entire floor is cleared of furniture and all personal belongings for a number of reasons listed below. Sometimes we can sand in two phases if the job site permits. We charge for this and can assess if it’s possible during the quote. 

Timing - sanding, sealing, and coating, individual rooms or sections of the home, dramatically increases the time (and cost) it takes to do the work. There are many steps to the process including using multiple machines, multiple sanding grits, hand scraping, buffing, pre-coating cleaning, applying multiple coats of finish, and contending with those dry times. All of these steps need to be duplicated for each area we sand separately. Along with the additional return trips, this redundancy of steps makes sanding room by room or in phases generally impractical. 

Aesthetics - Unless natural and clean stopping points exist on the floor, when we apply the finish we need to apply it to the entire floor at the same time. If we apply at different times there is a risk of leaving unsightly lap lines. 

Safety - Working with furniture or personal items in the room poses a risk to the safety of our teams, our gear, and your belongings. Our machines are large, powerful, somewhat unruly, and may damage items that are lying around as we work. Additionally, while we’re able to sand up to walls, uneven barriers such as sofas, chairs, dressers, etc. prevent us from sanding clean straight lines. Smaller items or protective plastics also tend to be sucked into the vacuums on our machines.

What do most clients do?
Generally most clients will move belongings into a different floor, a garage, or sometimes a rented storage box onsite.  

Do you move furniture? 
We do not move furniture or help move furniture. Our teams are trained to refinish and install floors but are not trained or qualified to move personal belongings or furniture. If you’d like, we can provide names of several movers in town who can assist with that stage of the work.