Floor Sanding & Polishing in Chelmer
Dyna Floors has been restoring timber floors across Brisbane since 2012. Chelmer is one of the few pockets in Brisbane where the houses have largely been left alone — big interwar homes on wide blocks, a lot of them still carrying their original floors, and owners who have generally decided the house is worth doing properly.
That changes the conversation. Most Chelmer enquiries are less about getting a floor looking acceptable quickly, and more about how to bring an eighty or ninety year old floor back without taking anything off it that cannot be put back.
Floor sanding in Chelmer costs $55–$75/m² for most jobs, with the full range $45–$90/m² depending on the floor.
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Key Facts
Floor sanding in Chelmer costs $55–$75/m² for most jobs, full range $45–$90/m²
★★★★★ 5.0 (20 Google reviews)
Wide-board and original interwar floors handled as restoration, not resurfacing
QBCC Licence 15343047, ATFA Accredited
Staircases priced separately, per riser/tread — not by square metre
Servicing Brisbane since 2012, 20+ years hands-on trade experience
Free quotes — no lead-gen directory guesswork
What it costs in Chelmer
Most Chelmer jobs land between $55–$75 per square metre, set by job size, floor condition and finish. Larger homes with a lot of continuous open floor often sit at the better end of that range, because the machine spends more time cutting and less time being repositioned. Board repairs, gap filling and stairs push a job up. For the full breakdown, see our Floor Sanding Cost Brisbane guide.
Most homes take 2–4 days start to finish as a general guide. A large Chelmer house with stairs, repairs and a stained finish can run a week. We confirm your timeframe at quote stage rather than after we have started.
Interwar and wide-board floors
Chelmer’s housing stock sits mostly between the twenties and the forties, and the floors reflect it. You get wider boards than the post-war suburbs — often 100mm to 130mm face width — laid in hoop pine upstairs and hardwood through the main living areas, sometimes with a proper border detail around the perimeter of the front rooms.
Those borders matter. They are the first thing lost when a floor is sanded by someone working quickly, because a border runs across the grain of the field boards and an aggressive cut rounds the join. We sand the field and the border in the correct sequence so the detail stays crisp.
Wide boards also move more than narrow ones. A 130mm board can open a gap in a dry winter that closes again by February. We take that into account before we decide whether to fill, and how.
Board depth on an original floor
An original interwar floor has usually been sanded once, sometimes twice, over its life. Each sand takes timber off the top, and there is a finite amount above the tongue before the boards start to break out around the fixings.
We check depth before we quote. If a floor has been taken too far already, a full sand is not the right call, and we will tell you that at quote stage instead of finding out on day two. Sometimes the answer is a light cut and re-coat rather than a full sand back to bare timber. That is a cheaper job and a better outcome, and we would rather quote it than sell you the bigger one.
Flood history
Chelmer sits low against the river and both 2011 and 2022 came through parts of it. If your floor has had water in it, the process is different — moisture readings before quoting, drying time built into the schedule, and an honest conversation about which boards will come back and which will not.
We cover this in detail on our St Lucia page, which deals with flood-affected timber across the river belt.
Deck sanding and re-coating in Chelmer
Brisbane sun and rain are hard on timber decks, and the rear decks and verandahs on Chelmer’s older homes cop plenty of both. We sand weathered, grey boards back to fresh timber and re-coat them with durable exterior finishes, bringing the colour back and protecting the timber. Deck work is quoted separately from interior floors — send us a photo and we’ll give you a straight price.
Doing the deck at the same time as the floors usually works out better, because the gear and the crew are already on site. Our deck sanding and re-coating page covers exterior finishes, drying times and what to expect on price.
Frequently Asked Questions
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$45–$90 per square metre, with most Chelmer jobs landing $55–$75/m² depending on floor condition, job size and finish. Larger interwar homes with stairs and repairs run higher. Free quote — send photos or book a visit.
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Usually, provided there is enough timber left above the tongue. Most Chelmer floors have been sanded once or twice already, so we measure board depth before quoting. Where a full sand is not on, a light cut and re-coat often gives a good result at a lower cost.
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Not if the field and the border are cut in the right sequence. A border runs across the grain of the main floor, and taking both in one direction is what rounds the join. It is a slower way to work and it is the reason the detail survives.
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They move more, yes. A wide board expands and contracts across a bigger dimension, so a gap that opens in a dry August often closes again in a humid February. That is worth knowing before deciding what to fill, because filling at the widest point of the year can push the fill out later.
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Common in Chelmer homes of this era and a lovely floor when it is done properly. Hoop pine is softer than hardwood so it sands differently and marks more easily afterwards. We would usually recommend a harder-wearing finish on it.
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Bona, Berger Seidle and Loba systems, water-based and solvent-based depending on the floor and what you want from it. See our water-based vs solvent guide.
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Usually, with the work area off-limits. With low-odour finishes it is far more manageable than the old solvent days — we map out room-by-room timing at quote stage.
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We run Lagler machines with Festool dust extraction, which keeps dust well under control compared with old-school sanding. There is always a little, but we keep it tight.
Explore More
Non-Toxic Finishes | Staining & Lime Washing | Water-Based vs Solvent | Queenslander Floor Restoration Guide
Serving Graceville, Sherwood, Corinda and Indooroopilly.