Timber floor refresh

You just missed a floor sander who was shilling his business all over the forum yesterday!

Years and years ago my father and brothers did our hallway in an old house with a (presumably) hired sander machine. It was a LOT of hard work, a LOT of dust, and there were a few bits gouged out of the boards where the sander got the upper hand.

Twice when I've bought a house I got a fella in to sand and polish the boards, and it was a great job and from experience totally worth the expense. Last time was nearly 20 years ago, so I'm no good to you with a recommendation or a price - but in my experience, pay to get it done.

I'm no expert but I'd getting the scuffs, etc. don't look too bad and should be pretty easy to sand out based on that photo.

Any idea what type of wood it is? To me (and again, I'm no expert), the wood looks like it's heavily stained so I'd say you could end up with the sanded floor being a lighter colour than what you currently have and possibly patches where the older, darker colour remains e.g. where the boards meet looks like a low point which won't be sanded unless you go quite heavy with the sander which will obviously be a lot more work. If that does happen, you could 1) sand it down heavy to remove all the old varnish; 2) revarnish in a similar dark colour or 3) depending on how it looks, leave the "two-tone" and apply a lighter clear varnish.

If you go DIY, I'd say start in a small corner of one room and see how it goes for you first