Has anyone tried painting a floor?

[gypsymama]

Our kitchen floor has particle board under it. We are removing the tile and I would like to paint it. My daughter, who is an artist, has offered to paint motifs on in.
Here's the problem....DH says no because he thinks the paint will be too wet and make the particle board come apart. I know I've seen pictures of wood floors like this painted over.
Anyone have any experience with this?

[Bearfootfarm]

Particle board isnt durable enough to use as a floor.
It's only meant to be used as an underlayment for the finish flooring

[seedspreader]

I wouldn't recommend leaving particle board exposed, although I have seen it done and stand up... I would not chance it.

That said, you can buy cheap 1/4 luan board and lay it over the top and paint it, and it WILL stand up to traffic for a while. Nothing will be as durable as manufactured flooring or hardwood or tiles... but I understand that not everyone has the money to do it the "right way" that people always talk about.

[Danaus29]

Or you could put down good 1/2 inch plywood and paint that. I've got a painted plywood floor in the duck/rabbit shed. Make sure you use floor paint. Don't buy cheap primer, use good stuff. The cheap primer we put down caused the paint to peel. I originally diluted the paint with mineral spirits like the can said, that part has held up. A good outdoor porch and deck paint would be the best paint.

[The Paw]

Painting the particle board will not saturate it or cause it to come apart. But I would go over the paint with a water-based urethane to keep the paint from wearing too quickly.

[Ken Scharabok]

I'm told it is standard practice among the Amish in the area to paint their floors.

Lot of old cartoons about painting oneself into a corner so it must have been a fairly standard practice at one time.

[||Downhome||]

I know its a little long but if you take the time to read this it is the proper way and will
save you money and time in the long run.

I was a product specialist for sherwin williams for many years and prior to that I was a painter. So yes you can paint your floor. but as it was pointed out particle board is not
to durable and your coating will only be as tuff as the substrate(the particle board) it is on even the tuffest epoxies. you would be better off puting plywood down and painting that. although I would not use a water-based urethane to coat your paint or any urethane for that matter. you would most likely just be asking for a failure between the two systems (separation between the urethane and paint) if you use the proper product it will be tuff enough on its own! I also would avoid water based products well the have come a long way they just are not as tuff as the oils. they may be more user friendly but take on average to cure up to two weeks where as a oil will cure in a few days. oils will take longer to dry but the longer a coating drys the better the adhesion(how well it sticks or the bond) Floors are one of the harshest environments for coatings I would use the tuffest stuff (oil base with a hi gloss or at least semi gloss the more sheen the tuffer the coating,paint with low sheen has pores in it which you will not be able to clean!)!
for the first coat I would reduce or thin with the appropriate solvent(usually paint thinner there are different grades though and some smell better than others) I always recommended 1/2 paint 1/2 solvent and put down a good coat not to thick but decent (that way it dries evenly) but by thinning you get a good bite (bond) to your substrate. recoat when dry to the touch. I would give it at least two full coats(it will give you maximum durability) including your prime coat(the first thinned coat) pay attention to the recoat time because enamels cure shiny and hard if you don't recoat before that stage you will need to abrade(sand) the surface in order for the next coat to stick. I would try to also stick to interior products as many exterior
products have mildicides and fungacides which may not be too nice in the house.
this would deffinatly be a summer project total time you would be looking at aprox around 5 days (1 day prime coat,second first full coat,third second coat and then two days to cure) and that would be 70 degree days with minimal humidity. higher humidity and lower temps could lengthen your project considerably. of course the way I advised you is the best you could just slap some latex floor enamel down but its not going to last.

[prairiedog]

is there any reason you cold not prepaint the sheets of plywood outside and then lay them down to cut down on the time the kitchen is out of order?

[gypsymama]

Thanks so much for everyones input, I really appreciate it!

It's ok if the kitchen is not available for a week, we will use the woodstove in the family room to cook on and just use paper plates. The Fridge will be in the dining room. If we wait till it's warmer, I'll just make a bunch on meals ahead and nuke 'em.

downhome: Thanks, lots of good and practical advise. I guess I will have to wait for it to warm up a bit outside...I'll just throw an area rug on the floor until ready to paint.

[||Downhome||]

i was responding back to prarie dog there you beat to the post though gypsy
momma and your welcome ive still got paint in my veins sort of miss selling it.
I was just in my old store kickin it with the guys yesterday. theres only one guy and the manager still there from when i was there but its still like a second home lol...


you could I guess but you are most likely going to end up seeing the cracks between the plywood would be my thought. I would Like to have it down with the cracks and screws all patched in with a paintable stainable wood patch.
and have the same film build over everything patchs and bare board. good idea though if they where pressed to put it into service faster. now this would be almost as expensive as puting down a laminate but they could prime
the boards with a recoatable epoxie primer and patch the cracks and screws
with the correct compound once its down then lay a good two part epoxie over that. prob be like if they got a deal on it 150 bucks for the epoxie kit,
60 for a gal of primer(the correct primer) and they usually dont sell small containers of the patch so im guesing another 60 there. so about 270 bucks or so. paint with the thinner maybe gonna guess 2 gals and a gal of thinner
less than 100 prob 75 dollars. the epoxie is real easy to mess up the primer has to be super clean, the epoxie can gas (bubbles in the finish) its as nasty
or nastier than the oil paint. if you dont let it sweat in(a certain amount of heat is created when you mix the two parts together that heat is part of the catalyzation) for the correct amount of time it will also fail on you. with the
epoxie if done correctly the tuffest floor you could get for the average person the tuffest floor to do right maybe 2 days as opposed to the five for oil
you could actually have it coated in a day and give it a day to cure.

[Ken Scharabok]

Have you considered peel, press and stick tiles?

You might also cruise salvage lumber yards for wood flooring. At the local one parquet is about the same price as cheap carpeting.

[fixer1958]

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lee92.html

How about this.

[||Downhome||]

I forgot about japan drier it could speed up your project... can only use it in certain oils though synthetic finishes are out I think if I remember correctly.(just read the can and make sure its compatiable) Also you can add a bit of real vannila to the oil it can help mask the smell quite a bit. if you wait till its warm enough you can just cook on the grill and make a camp out of it!!! smores mmmm oh ya back on subject..

[Ravenlost]

My mom's kitchen floor is particle board because in 30 plus years they've never gotten around to putting down vinyl flooring when they built an addition onto the house 38 years ago!

I painted it almost four years ago and let me tell you...particle board is not practical for the kitchen! It is very hard to clean and keep clean.

I am about to rip out carpeting in our upstairs hallway and am considering putting down hardwood...scrap hardwood that I would then stain and seal. If not that, I'm doing inexpensive peel and stick tiles. I just need something up there that's more practical for dogs. Carpet ain't it!

I have considered a painted floor, but the upstairs hallway will be particleboard subflooring once I rip out the carpet. Having experienced Mama's kitchen floor, there's no way I'm going to paint my subflooring.

[MushCreek]

In the house I grew up, one of the rooms had tongue and groove yellow pine planks, about 6" wide. They were stained fairly dark, and there were alternating black and stained squares. You could see that the pattern (about 12" square) was actually scored into the floor, the way boat builders used to scribe the waterline. The checkerboard pattern was diagonal to the planking. It was a very handsome floor! We over-coated it with polyurethane varnish, and it held up well. The pine was very old, so it was quite hard.

[highlands]

I have painted floors (polyurethane on plywood) and it lasted about ten years before there was significant wear. Repaint.

I have oiled floors made of siding. Re-oiled about ten years later. Never looked as bad as the painted floor.

I like the oil better for boards but for particle or plywood the urethane paint does well.

[heather]

our great room floor is painted plywood

we used a deck/porch paint & it's held up great for 2+ yrs

[pheasantplucker]

Start on the end, opposite the door.

[Mel-]

this house is 150+ years old and two rooms had the original poplar floors. they were painted originally, not stained. I repainted them with deck paint with polyurethane on top (2 coats). lasted several years before I decided to cover them with pergo.

[Soap]

We've used waterbase porch paint for painting floors & stair treads in 2 houses so far. Always do 2 coats. Going on 6 years in this house and holding up fine.

Last house we rented had a very rough semi-enclosed porch with lots of snow/dirt blowing in (LOL) and the painted floor started showing a bit of wear after 3 years.

I wouldn't paint a particle board floor, but then again I wouldn't keep a particle board floor either. When we bought this house the living room floor was kind of mushy near the window. When we pulled back the carpet we found there wa only particle board and it just tore into bits in our hands when we tried to remove it. We replaced it with 1/2" plywood.
soap