Floor Sanders and Finishers
Scrape and sand wooden floors to smooth surfaces using floor scraper and floor sanding machine, and apply coats of finish.
3,720 people do this job in the US. $50,440 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 7 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guide sanding machines over surfaces of floors until surfaces are smooth.Done daily by most who do it. | 41% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply filler compound and coats of finish to floors to seal wood.Done daily by most who do it. | 24% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Scrape and sand floor edges and areas inaccessible to floor sanders, using scrapers, disk-type sanders, and sandpaper.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Inspect floors for smoothness.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Buff and vacuum floors to ensure their cleanliness prior to the application of finish.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Attach sandpaper to rollers of sanding machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Remove excess glue from joints, using knives, scrapers, or wood chisels.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).