Ben Osborne

Ben Osborne is a well-known internet entrepreneur in the floor sanding and refinishing space. His websites and YouTube videos have a combined total of over 10 million views.

My Work Story

After leaving school all I wanted to do was work and earn. I didn’t have many qualifications to my name so the work was slim picking. At 17 I was working in a call centre, trying to sell double glazed windows and conservatories.

At the time, I was going to the gym 5 days a week and I was looking fairly buff. The manager of the call centre had a partner who ran a business in wood floor sanding and refinishing. He was looking for someone who looked like they were in good shape and wanted to earn a bit more money. That turned out to be me!

I had a short interview in the backroom of the office, in which the work and pay were described. I couldn’t believe my luck at £40 per day. I jumped at the opportunity and started sanding floors in October of 2004.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, my new employer didn’t have the experience he claimed he had. He had been sanding floors for only 3 months, not the 7 years that he said.

We learned all sorts of wrong ways to prepare, sand and refinish floors. It seemed we just had non stop issues with jobs and I couldn’t figure out why. Luckily, the boss wasn’t afraid of trying new things and we just about tried everything and anything until we were somewhat competent at sanding and refinishing hardwood floors.

However, it was a long 3 years, the first 3 years of my career. Learning how not to do it wrong is great, but it’s just not quite as good as being shown the right way.

Starting My Own Business

In January 2012, I started my own wood floor sanding business. I managed to scrape together enough money to buy some floor sanding equipment and a van. Scrabbled together a website and off I went.

Running your own floor sanding and refinishing business introduces you to a whole new swathe of issues that you hadn’t really run into at this point. Dealing with customers directly drove me to push my quality higher and higher. I still own and operate my floor sanding business and to this day I have never stopped pushing quality and speed up, and costs down. You can see my website at https://www.osbornewoodcare.com (please only get in touch if you are in the UK and would like a quote for restoring your wooden floors)/

Helping homeowners Do It Themselves.

The great thing about sanding and refinishing hardwood floors is that you can earn and learn at the same time! I began listening to audiobooks, podcasts, even university lectures whilst I was sanding floors. You wouldn’t believe how much you can learn while digesting that kind of content for up to 8 hours a day.

I was learning about internet marketing and internet-based businesses when one day it finally struck me. While listening to a podcast about people selling their own expertise, I decided to buy howtosandafloor.com. I figured, if I can help people do a better job on their wooden floors, cheaper and faster, that’s got to be worth something.

I recorded my first YouTube video in October of 2013. Little did I know just to what degree it would take off. It sputtered around for 2 or 3 months with a hand full of views per day. Then all of a sudden it rocketed up to the 20-30k views range and has stayed there ever since. That video is about to cross 2 million views. It didn’t take long for my website to ramp up to 20k visitors a month either.

My Goal

I hope to make this resource so universally comprehensive that anyone around the world can find all the information they need to resand and refinish their own floors. Full information on the tools available to them where they are, the products that are available, even information about their specific floor.

I am still very much pre-occupied with my own floor sanding business. However, I do intend to spend more and more time filling out this website. If you have read this far, thank you.

Should I use a drum or orbital sander?

This is a very common question people have when trying to decide how much firepower to bring to bear on their floors. The question actually demonstrates a lack of understanding of the process, which we will get into a bit. Sanding hardwood floors with an orbital or finishing sander can take significantly longer than … Continued

How Long Does It Take To Sand A Floor?

Planning to sand and refinish hardwood floors is tough, without knowing how long it takes to sand a floor. The answer to this question might surprise you! As a general rule, it takes 4-7 hours to sand a wooden floor in an average-sized room. People with less experience may take 50 to 100% longer. Many … Continued

Can you sand and refinish hardwood floors yourself?

Of course you can. The only question, really, is how good that sanding and finishing is going to be. No one can do something for the first time and be as good as someone that has been doing it for 5-10-20 years. With that in mind, do as much research as you can.

Can You Use A Steam Mop on Hardwood Floors?

Hardwood floors offer some great benefits including ease of maintenance, a classic look, and long-term durability. Of course, every hardwood floor will inevitably get grimy and dirty; this is when you might be tempted to use a steam mop to wash it. In this article, not only are you going to learn whether or not … Continued

Parquet Floor Restoration (Before and After)

Finally! I recorded this parquet floor restoration video a while ago. I have had it professionally edited, and it’s finally up. Unfortunately, the video quality is not the best. I am going to be buying a new camera so I can have higher-quality selfie-style videos. This floor was an iroko herringbone parquet floor, which has … Continued

Festool Rotex RO 150 Orbital Sander Review

Festool are known for their high prices. In some cases, I believe these prices are unjustified. With the Festool Rotex RO150, this is definitely one of those occasions! I recently spent a few hundred pounds on the Festool jigsaw and I ended up using my £60 jigsaw, which didn’t cut straight, instead of my new Festool … Continued

Refinishing Hardwood Floors Yourself (video)

[VIDEO BELOW] Hardwood floor refinishing is a subject that is fairly misunderstood. The mistake people make is in thinking its an easy straightforward process. “All it comes down to is applying sandpaper to wood and then applying a finish,” goes the thinking, “how hard could it be”. On the contrary sanding and refinishing hardwood floors … Continued

Painting Hardwood Floors – The Right Way!

Today, there is a growing trend for painting hardwood floors. Unfortunately there is another trend that correlates with this rise. That second trend is a rise in meteoric mess-ups as DIY home improvers take on this task themselves. Fortunately for the amateur wise enough to do a search on the internet first, these are fairly … Continued

Sanding Hardwood Floors by Hand

As I have said many times before sanding hardwood floors by hand can be a lot of hard work. Hard work that can be alleviated with the use of a floor sander. With that said, I have now spoken to way too many people that will be sanding their floors by hand no matter what. So it … Continued

Worried about sparks coming out from under the sander?

Hello! Been a while since I have posted on here so it’s about time I made a post. This time it’s concerning something that I think quite often scares people when they are trying to sand their floors. That is sparks coming out from under the machine, whether the floor sander or the edge sander. … Continued