Painting a Wood Floor

Painting a wood floor

Painting Hardwood Floors – The Right Way!

Today, there is a growing trend to paint hardwood floors. Unfortunately, another trend is correlated with this increase.

This second trend is an increase in messy messes as DIYers take on the task themselves.

Fortunately for the hobbyist savvy enough to do an Internet search first, these are fairly easy mistakes to avoid.

So, without further ado, the number one fail people have when painting their hardwood floors? Use normal paint.

Normal paint is not made to withstand the daily barrage of wear and tear underfoot. Wet feet, gravel, high heels, friction... In a short time, the paint is worn down to the wood and looks terrible.

You need to use a "floor paint," meaning something that forms a solid film on the surface, a bit like lacquer. In fact, that's what it is: a pigmented lacquer.

If you're reading this, you're probably thinking "Well, no, duh!"

I can't tell you how many times I've seen this mistake made, so it has to be said.

Unfortunately, these floor paints can be quite expensive, as they have the normal polyurethane base for a hard finish, plus the pigment to give it the color.

The benefit of painting hardwood floors is that an opaque finish can cover up a myriad of issues. For example, the floor pictured on the left had a number of yellow spots and other imperfections. All of them were completely unnoticeable after painting the floor with floor paint.

I was using Farrow & Ball floor paint at the customer's request. I was concerned that it seemed to have the same texture as the emulsion wall paint. However, it was very easy to apply with quick drying times.

Although there are other floor paint manufacturers, Farrow & Ball offers you an abundant choice of beautiful colors because they are so well known. Of course, it will cost you a pretty penny.

Luckily, the process is largely the same as normal sanding and lacquering, but instead you use paint. Always be sure to check if your paint needs priming, how many coats of solid paint it needs, how long the drying time is, whether or not to lightly sand between coats. Make sure you do things correctly.

On the other hand, it involves painting hardwood floors without sanding the old finish and starting again. In this case, I doubt you'll need a coat of primer, but you'll need to prime the old surface well with 120 grit to get the new paint to adhere to the old finish.

This can only really work on polyurethane finished floors, as the paint may not adhere to an oiled finish.

For floors that have an oil or hard wax oil finish, you can try putting a few coats of colored hard wax oil on, but I haven't tested or seen this, so it's just a suggestion at this point.

The other great thing about painting hardwood floors is the fact that you can simply recoat whenever you want and it's extremely forgiving. You can't ruin everything!

One final thought to keep in mind is that paint gets into every little crack and crevice in the floor. If you decide at any time after painting the floor, that you want to restore the natural beauty of the wood, it may still be littered with paint dots and lines.

Personally, I think it's a crime to paint exotic wood or even hardwood for that matter. In fact, the only floor I think I can paint is pine flooring. Well, that's just my opinion anyway, the choice is yours!!