Tenants is willing to polish the floorboards - any risk of damaging it?

Hi all,

I have a property where the tenants been living there for long time (over 6 years). The house has floorboards across the whole house and they need to be polished.
They said they are willing to polish the floors themselves if we pay for the rent of the polish floor sander (about $60/day). They are happy to stay long term which is something I appreciate.

Is there any risk of damaging the floorboards if I allow them to do it? I read other threads and polishing floors seems to be a tricky thing to do. But if they are willing to put the effort I may expend a few hundred dollars and have them happy for a few more years.

The other option is to say no to that and I'll pay for the floor polishing by a professional which will be around 2K I will pay for.

The tenant is a tradie that works in construction so he should have some idea however he told me he never polish floorboards before.

My main concern is if there is any risk that they damage the floorboards doing it themselves.

Any recommendation or suggestion is more than welcome.
thanks!

 

Yes - if you leave the drum sander in one place too long you can accidentally sand dips in the floor. Same with the edge sander.

 

I've been looking at this as a good enough option: Cabots CFP floor water based with no sanding.

I have been also using the cabots polish and to be honest, you get 12 months out of it and it does revive a floor.

Sanding is next level and a bad job with a sander looks really bad - you also need to prep, fill gaps, holes etc.

 

I would probably go with the $2k option and have a professional do it, that way you will be able to control the process and sealer colour etc. Given you have to pay for the sander hire and probably the sealer too.

Also I would avoid the high gloss sealer - satin or similar looks better these days and marks show up less.

 

Logistically, I don't know how you are going to achieve getting a professional in to do it. Where are you going to empty an entire house of belongings into? or house the tenants for a few days?
If you let the tradie tenant do one room he will either keep going because he's got the hang of it and is doing a really good job or he's going to do one room with less than ordinary results, give up, and suggest to you that it requires a professional.

Like @bunkai I've used cabots CFP water based stuff and I only get 12 months out of it. I've got better things to do on an annual basis without adding this to a long list.

 

Yes, there is a risk the floorboards will be damaged.

They have been there 6 years, so obviously tenants worth keeping. Spending $2K, tax deductible, seems only fair.

Do it professionally.
Marg

 

As someone who is very handy but did a terrible first time DIY floor sanding job in his PPOR many years ago, I can tell you there is a 100% chance the tenant won't do a great job and you will both be disappointed.

 

Thanks for that, I contacted Mr Sandless, they seem perfect for this. But they told me they work only when the floor has been polished before and needs a refresh. In this case can't work because the floors were not polish and there was a carpet on top of it. but I'll definitely consider them for the future. Thanks

 

Thanks all for your feedback, it seems that everyone voted against letting the tenant doing DIY
that gave me clarity to make the decision, 2k seems to be the way to go.

cheers!

 

Some times a full sand isn’t required.
If it’s all scratched up, could just be the top coats.
The professional might be able to give a light sand to remove the superficial scratch marks on the coats, then apply a recoat.

I just did mine (after all tradies were done), $500 light sand and water based coat (waterbased is more expensive).

I would be highly against having the tenant do it unless they did it for a living. But as @Propertunity raised, what’s going to happen with the furniture?

I moved all my stuff to the garage, then after the recoat, I didn’t walk in there for 12 hours, but when I did I wore socks. Furniture was left in garage for a week.