Floor Sanders and Finishers
Scrape and sand wooden floors to smooth surfaces using floor scraper and floor sanding machine, and apply coats of finish.
- Median pay
- $50,440
- Doing it now
- 4,700
- By 2035
- Up 1.4%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
a year
across the country
300 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Inspect floors for smoothness.
- Scrape and sand floor edges and areas inaccessible to floor sanders, using scrapers, disk-type sanders, and sandpaper.
- Guide sanding machines over surfaces of floors until surfaces are smooth.
- Attach sandpaper to rollers of sanding machines.
- Apply filler compound and coats of finish to floors to seal wood.
- Remove excess glue from joints, using knives, scrapers, or wood chisels.
- Buff and vacuum floors to ensure their cleanliness prior to the application of finish.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Building/Construction Finishing, Management, and InspectionSee 14 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Leading and persuading
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $50,440 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.