Floor Sanders and Finishers
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Overview
Scrape and sand wooden floors to smooth surfaces using floor scraper and floor sanding machine, and apply coats of finish.
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Titles for this career often contain these words
FloorRefinisherHardwoodFinisherSanderScraperSurfacerBowlingAlleyMechanicRenovatorSandingMachineOperatorFloorerLiquidWallApplierWood
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Responsibilities and activities

Flooring installers and tile and stone setters typically do the following:

  • Remove existing materials from floors, walls, or other surfaces
  • Clean and level the surface to be covered
  • Measure the area and cut material to fit
  • Arrange materials according to design plans
  • Place materials and secure with adhesives, nails, or staples
  • Fill joints with filler compound and remove excess compound
  • Trim excess carpet or linoleum
  • Apply finishes, such as sealants and stains

Flooring installers and tile and stone setters lay the materials that improve the look and feel of homes, offices, restaurants, and other buildings. Many of these workers install materials on floors. However, they also work on walls, ceilings, countertops, and showers.

Installing floors and tiles requires a smooth, even base of mortar or plywood. Flooring installers and tile and stone setters or other construction craftworkers lay this base. On remodeling jobs, workers may need to remove old flooring and smooth the surface before laying the base.

The following are examples of types of flooring installers and tile and stone setters:

Carpet installers lay carpet on new floors or over existing flooring. They use special tools, including “knee kickers” to position the carpet and power stretchers to pull the carpet snugly against walls. They also join carpet edges and seam edges by sewing or by using tape with glue and a heated carpet iron.

Carpet tile installers lay modular pieces of carpet that may be glued into place. Installing carpet tiles may be an option where standard carpet is impractical, such as in designing a pattern over an area.

Floor sanders and finishers scrape and smooth wood floors, often using power sanders. They then apply stains and sealants to preserve the wood. (For information on workers who install wood floors, see the profile on carpenters.)

Floor layers, except carpet, wood, and hard tiles, install a variety of resilient flooring materials. Linoleum installers lay washable flooring material of the same name, cutting the linoleum to size and gluing it into place. Vinyl installers lay plastic-based flooring that includes vinyl ester, vinyl sheeting, and vinyl tile. Installers of laminate, manufactured wood, and wood tile floors are included in this category.

Tile and stone setters install pieces of ceramic, marble, granite, glass, or other materials. Tile installers, sometimes called tile setters, cut tiles using wet saws, tile scribes, or handheld tile cutters. They then use trowels of different sizes to spread mortar or a sticky paste, called mastic, evenly on the work surface before placing the tiles. Tile finishers apply grout between tiles after the tiles are set by using a rubber trowel, called a float, and then wipe the tiles clean after the grout dries. Stone setters may cut marble, granite, or other stone to a specified size with a wet saw. They use special adhesives to fasten the stone to the desired surface; in remodeling projects, they may first need to smooth the underlying surface after removing old materials.

Salary
Median salary: $38,850 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $31,230 and $48,390.
$39K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
$32K$36K$41K$22K$38K$34K$37K$32K$30K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K$100K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
Number employed
05K10K15K20K25K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
About Floor Sanders and Finishers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of floor sanders and finishers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
  • Exposed to Contaminants (98%)
  • Time Pressure (89%)
  • Hazardous Equipment (74%)
  • Hazardous Conditions (51%)
  • Responsible for Others' Health (42%)
  • Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites (40%)
SOURCES:
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Floor Sanders and Finishers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Color vision
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters often determine small color variations and must be able to distinguish among colors in patterns for the best looking finish.
Customer-service skills
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters must be courteous with and considerate of customers, especially while completing tasks in customers’ homes.
Detail oriented
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters need to be thorough and exacting to ensure that tile, wood, and carpet patterns are properly aligned.
Math skills
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters use math to measure an area to be covered and to calculate the amount of material needed to cover it.
Physical stamina
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters must be able to stand or kneel for many hours in order to spread adhesive quickly and place tiles before the adhesive hardens.
Physical strength
Flooring installers and tile and stone setters must be able to lift, carry, and set heavy pieces of flooring material into position.
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by floor sanders and finishers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), floor sanders and finishers typically hold no formal educational credential.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for floor sanders and finishers

There are typically no formal education requirements for becoming a flooring installer or tile and stone setter, although candidates entering an apprenticeship program may need a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certain high school courses, such as art and math, may be helpful for flooring installers and tile and stone setters.

Education level of Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
Only 4% of carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click the program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Number of degrees awarded in 2018
Education
Education level of awarded degrees
Assoc./Cert.
Bachelor's
Graduate
Gender
Gender of graduates
Men
Women
Race/Origin
Race/origin of graduates
White
Minority
International
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
AKMEWIVTNHWAIDMTNDMNILMINYMAORUTWYSDIAINOHPANJCTRICANVCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCDCOKLAMSALGAHITXFLPR
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most floor sanders and finishers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as floor sanders and finishers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where floor sanders and finishers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
  • In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
  • Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers.
We hope the ratio allows perspective about how salaries may compare to the regional cost-of-living.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers (ACS for all specialties)
AKMEWIVTNHWAIDMTNDMNILMINYMAORUTWYSDIAINOHPANJCTRICANVCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCDCOKLAMSALGAHITXFLPR
Employment
16% of Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 16% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 59% of careers.
16%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
$32K$32K$33K$40K$59K$0$20,000$40,000$60,000$80,000$100,000Self-employed not incorporatedSelf-employed incorporatedLocal governmentPrivate for-profitAll
Gender
Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers and gender
With 2% women, this occupation has a lower percentage of women than 94% of careers.
Gender of Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
Men (98%)
Women (2%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
$27K$32K$0$100K$200K$300KWomenMen
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
2%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women by 19%, and the difference for carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers tops that, with the median salary for men 21% higher than the median salary for women.
21%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers.
Race/origin of carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
White (73% )
Other (17% )
Black (4% )
Hispanic (2% )
Multiracial (2% )
Asian (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
$28K$29K$32K$33K$33K$0$20K$40K$60K$80KBlackOtherMultiracialHispanicWhite
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.