Sanding, refinishing & refurbishment
Sports court sanding, refinishing & refurbishment, nationwide UK.
Three decades of court refurbishment workflow. Dustless sanding, water-based or oil-modified finishes, full re-line, and EN14904 retest at handover — sized for the school summer holiday window when you need it.
The decision every facility manager runs into around year 12 of a sports floor's life is the same one: should I sand and recoat, or replace? For almost every hall under 25 years old with a structurally sound subfloor, refurbishment is the budget-defensive answer — typically 15–25% of the cost of a full replacement, in 5–10 days on site rather than two to three weeks.
When to refinish vs replace — your sports floor.
We run the same decision tree on every survey. It walks the floor against four conditions — finish wear, surface damage, structural movement, and subfloor health — and produces one of four recommendations.
Our court refinishing process.
The same workflow applies to a school multi-sport hall and a leisure-centre basketball court. The variable is duration — 5 days for a clean recoat, 10 days for a full sand-and-line. We run school summer-holiday refurbs as a standard programme: a typical 32m × 17m school hall completes start-to-finish inside three weeks, leaving a buffer for moisture testing and final cure before the school re-opens.
Pre-survey EN 14904 baseline test
Anchor the post-refurb retest. We measure the existing floor against its original certification category before any sanding starts.
Dustless multi-pass sanding
Bona FlexiSand and Bona DCS dust-containment systems — adjacent rooms stay open during sanding.
Plank or board replacement
Where required. We keep matched-grade maple stock for spot work so the finish reads continuous after refinish.
Sealer coat & cure
Fully cured before line-marking begins. Skipping this cure window is the most common cause of line-bleed on refurb work.
Game-line repaint
To original spec or updated multi-sport spec — a refurb is the right moment to add pickleball, walking-football or wheelchair-basketball lines.
Finish coats
Water-based or oil-modified polyurethane (see comparison below). Two coats minimum, with light buffing between.
EN 14904 retest & handover certificate
Confirms category compliance. The certificate is what your insurer and ESFA expect at handover.
Water-based vs oil-modified finish — which we recommend.
The single most common refurb decision is the finish chemistry. Both are EN 14904-compliant; they differ in cure time, smell, and aesthetic. For schools we recommend water-based; for high-traffic professional clubs there's still an argument for oil-modified.
Line marking, logos and multi-sport overlays during refurbishment.
Refurbishment is the right moment to revisit the line set. Halls that were laid for badminton-led use 15 years ago often want pickleball, walking-football or wheelchair-basketball lines added now — and the cost of doing it during a sand-and-recoat is incremental rather than additional.
Faithful re-line
Repaint of the existing sport set, exactly as laid. Right call when the line hierarchy still matches how the hall is booked.
Updated re-line
Add new sports during refurb — pickleball, walking football, futsal. We re-tier the line hierarchy with the facility manager during survey.
Logo & centre-circle
Painted or vinyl inlay — both EN 14904-safe. Inlay is the longer-lifecycle choice; painted refinishes more easily next mid-life.
Colour management
We re-tier the line hierarchy with the facility manager — primary, secondary, tertiary contrast — before paint goes down, never after.
The biggest miss we see on refurb work is treating the re-line as a copy-paste job. If your booking pattern has shifted in 15 years, the line hierarchy should shift with it — refurb day is the cheapest moment to do that.
Maintenance after refinishing.
A refurbished floor that's well-maintained reaches its next mid-life refurb at year 12; a poorly-maintained one needs another sand by year 6. Maintenance is the most cost-defensive line item on a sports floor budget.
Related sports flooring guides
FAQ
Common questions
Everything decision-makers ask about court refinishing before committing.
A typical 32m × 17m school sports hall completes a full sand-and-recoat in 5–10 days on site. A clean recoat (no full sand) runs 3–5 days. Spot board replacement adds 1–3 days depending on board count. We schedule against your calendar at survey.
Yes — school summer holidays are our most-booked window. A typical school hall completes well inside the six-week summer break, with buffer for moisture testing and final cure. We plan against term-end and term-start dates at survey, not after the brief.
Yes. We retest the floor against EN14904 at handover and provide a category-compliance certificate. If the original floor was certified to A3, we hand it back to you certified to A3. If the system has degraded structurally past the point where retest passes, we'll flag that during the pre-survey rather than at handover — refurbishment isn't always the right answer, and we'll tell you when it isn't.
A well-executed refurbishment extends a sports floor's life by 8–12 years, typically taking the floor from a year-12 mid-life refurb through to its year-25 full replacement window. Maintenance routines after refurb are the largest variable in the actual lifespan.
Refurbishment typically runs at 15–25% of the cost of a full replacement, depending on whether spot board work is required, how many lines are being repainted, and the chosen finish chemistry. We quote itemised against the survey, not on a list price.
Yes — every refurb we run uses Bona FlexiSand machines with Bona DCS dust-containment systems. Adjacent classrooms and corridors stay open during the sand. We also seal the room perimeter as standard so dust migration into adjoining spaces is essentially zero.
Our refinishing warranty covers the sanded substrate, the seal coat, the finish coats, and the line marking for 5 years from handover. The warranty document names the EN14904 category the floor was retested to, so any future contractor has the certification trail to work against.
Yes. We base out of London but refurbish nationwide. London projects move first on logistics; national projects book in at the same survey-and-quote standard.
Refurbishing this summer?
Send us your hall dimensions, current floor type, and the school holiday window you're working to. We'll survey on site, walk the decision tree with you, and quote against an itemised spec — including the EN14904 retest at handover.