If your office closes between Christmas and New Year, that break is the best window of the year for a full floor sanding and refinishing project.
With the building empty for a week or more, a specialist team can sand, repair and apply every coat of finish, then leave it to cure properly before anyone walks back in. It's the simplest way to start January with your office floor restoration finished, without disrupting a single working day.
Most of the office floor work we carry out happens overnight. We arrive after your team has gone home, work through the evening and leave the floor ready for use the next morning.
But overnight working has its limits. A full sand and refinish usually needs several coats of finish spread across several evenings, and each morning the floor goes back into service while the finish is still hardening. Furniture goes back in place, people walk on it and the floor never gets a truly uninterrupted run.
A Christmas shutdown changes that
With the office empty for consecutive days, we can work in longer sessions, apply coats at the right intervals and keep furniture off the floor for as long as the finish needs. The result is a better finish delivered in fewer visits, with none of the morning handovers. Our guide to commercial floor sanding with minimal disruption explains how we normally keep disruption to a minimum.
Coats applied at the correct intervals, rather than squeezed between working days.
Furniture stays off the floor for as long as the finish needs to harden.
Fewer visits, fewer morning handovers and a better result overall.
The scope depends on the size of your floor and how long the building is closed, but a week is enough for a lot of work. Typical shutdown projects include:
Full sand and refinish of open-plan floors, meeting rooms and corridors
Board repairs and gap filling in period buildings, where draughty gaps are most noticeable in winter
Floor staining to change the colour as part of a refresh, with on-site sampling agreed beforehand
Parquet repairs such as re-bedding loose blocks and replacing missing ones
Bona Resilient restoration for worn LVT, vinyl and linoleum in larger offices
Large buildings can also be phased, so the most visible areas are completed over Christmas and the rest is handled overnight in the weeks that follow.
Commercial lacquers are usually dry enough for light foot traffic within a few hours of the final coat, but they are still far from fully cured. Full hardness takes several days depending on the product and conditions, and during that time the surface is more vulnerable to scratches, scuffs and marks from heavy furniture.
Desks, chairs and rugs go back onto a finish that is still curing, which leaves it more exposed to scuffs and marks.
The floor has time to harden fully before the office fills up again.
That's one of the main reasons a holiday project tends to last longer than one squeezed between working days.
Your choice of finish matters here too. Lacquers and oils behave differently while they cure and age differently once in use, so it's worth reading our comparison of oil versus lacquer for office floors before your survey.
Christmas shutdown slots are limited because every office wants the same few days. Booking in November gives you time to get everything in place:
We'll assess the floor, recommend the right treatment and agree a realistic programme for the days available.
Agree exactly which areas are included, which finish is being used and what happens if hidden damage turns up under furniture or carpet.
Decide who clears desks, chairs and IT equipment before the break and who puts them back in January. Your facilities team, a removals firm or your fit-out contractor can handle this, but it needs booking too.
Sort out keyholding, alarm codes, security cover and lift access well before the building closes.
Finishes need a steady room temperature to dry and cure properly, so ask building management not to switch the heating off over the break.
Leave it until mid-December and you'll often find the slots have gone, or there simply isn't enough time to agree access.
If you're also redecorating, rewiring or reconfiguring the layout over Christmas, the order of trades makes a real difference to the finished floor. Our guide to how floor restoration fits into an office refurbishment programme covers sequencing, protection and handover, so the new finish isn't damaged by other trades before your team even sees it.
When your team returns, the floor should look and feel brand new. We'll leave written care guidance covering compatible cleaning products, felt pads for chair legs and entrance matting. We also keep a record of every product and finish used, which makes future maintenance far simpler.
Many clients use a Christmas restoration as the starting point for a maintenance contract, with a light recoat scheduled at the same time each year. It keeps the floor consistently sharp and pushes back the need for another full sand.
Written care guidance
Compatible products and daily routine
Product records
Every finish logged for next time
Annual recoat
Keeps the floor ahead of wear
If your office is closing over the festive period, now is the time to secure your slot. We offer free, no-obligation surveys across London and the Southeast. Call us on 0800 917 7770 or email info@quicksandflooring.co.uk to arrange yours.
