HowTo paint/stain particle board sub floor?

meanwhile · #1 10/04/10, 11:54 AM

I have a small room that we had to rip up the carpet due to water damage. I do not have the funds to put hard wood flooring down right now and I don't want to put carpet back down. I wanted to paint or stain the plywood sub floor - it is that particle board type stuff. but when I went to the paint store, the man said "nothing" will apply to particle board since it is "glue" and nothing will stick to it??

I have seen photos in magazines of painted or stained or sealed sub floors? What did they use? Anyone here ever paint or stain or seal particle board sub floor? If so, how did you do it and did it work? Thank you

Head Roller · #2 10/04/10, 11:59 AM

KILZ primer will stick to anything.. I would roll a good coat of that and then a quality latex flooring paint... something meant for a garage.

meanwhile · #3 10/04/10, 12:08 PM

I found a piece with writing on it and it says: Huber Advantec and then some numbers. When I looked it up, it says I would have to use oil base products.

Would the Kilz stick to the Advantec too? Thank you for helping.

Rick · #4 10/04/10, 12:08 PM

Good advice.

Paint a scrap sample to show to the hardware store person. They need to know the truth.

palani · #5 10/04/10, 12:15 PM

Linoleum.

Trisha in WA · #6 10/04/10, 12:30 PM

I painted my particle board floor in my dairy milk processing room....so it took a beating. I used an oil based primer (kilz comes in oil based too) and an oil based deck paint. HARD AS NAILS and pretty too ;-)

texican · #7 10/04/10, 01:02 PM

Last I checked, 'degrees' weren't required to work in paint or hardware stores. Sure lots of folks working there 'have' degrees, but doubt the degree is in paint or hardware.

Flakeboard or particle board...if it were for long time use (and you don't want to get splinters [from flakeboard]) I'd put down a heavy duty paint, like they use for garage floors. I've seen folks glue down brown paper bag, feed bag, etc., to the floor, then paint it, then put extra coatings of sealant on top.

7thswan · #8 10/04/10, 01:07 PM

Strange, I paint the stuff all the time. If one is to use it outside, the shiney, smooth side goes outward. Then paint it. I went back and read- is this flooring, particle board or OSB? I know that particle board isn't supposed to be used as subfoor, but that dosen't meen it wasen't. The two are very diffrent. (woops, I ment Celotex instead of particle board, that's what I had to deal with on the floors of this house. Some clown in the 70's......)

AKwannabe · #9 10/04/10, 04:38 PM

I have painted two floors in my house (playroom/schoolroom and daughters bedroom). The first has very old vinyl in it and the second particle board subfloors. I did both the same. Kilz, regular house paint and then 3 or 4 coats of poly. The paint stuck to both floors just fine and have withstood the daily stress my kiddos put them though.

Wisconsin Ann · #10 10/04/10, 05:23 PM

As others said...Kilz will stick to most anything. (including fingers). There is another type, called "Bullseye" that is pretty much the same stuff. check the cans, or display, to find the right type. I'd probably opt for the oil one, although I'm pretty sure the new Kilz III will go over and SEAL anything.

It comes in white, but I believe you can have it tinted? Someone correct me if I'm mistaken. Or you can then just paint over it with a porch paint, or house enamel in the color you want.

We're painting the floor in the office in the new shed, (it's OSB underlay) while we get everything else done, then we'll lay the wood flooring. We made a truck topper out of OSB a few years ago...painted it with Kilz and it's been outside ever since. Looks just like it did when it was first finished. (well, except for where the coon chewed through the side....)

Tom in TN · #11 10/04/10, 05:52 PM

Meanwhile,

Advantec is a brand name of an outstanding sub-floor material. It is water resistant and extremely durable.

I have Advantec on a floor in one of my bedrooms that I painted with oil-based floor enamel at least 8 years ago. It is showing a little bit of use, but is still very acceptable.

I'd say that you can use any good oil-based floor enamel on it and have good results.

Good luck,

Tom in TN

dragonjaze · #12 10/04/10, 06:37 PM

Primer, primer, and top with a good, heavy-duty paint and you should be fine.

I like painted floors, actually.

meanwhile · #13 10/04/10, 06:42 PM

Thank you everyone -- I did find a phone number for the Advantec people and they said it can be painted but only with Oil base products. I was hoping to use water base since my son has really bad allergies.

I think I am going to use the Kilz and just see what happens! The worst that can happen is it will peel up or scratch after a while.

Thank you.

lemonthyme7 · #14 10/04/10, 10:03 PM

My SIL painted their kitchen floor and used a sponge and made a brick floor looking pattern on it. I thought it was real brick when I first saw it. The underneath coat was a cream color and the bricks were of course a brick colored paint. The trick is to just dip the sponge in enough to pick up the paint but to still leave some texture of the sponge so it looks like bricks. Not exactly what you were asking for I know but it is so cute!

Jackie · #15 10/04/10, 11:34 PM

We have an OSB shed (what we call particle board) and we just painted it with stain and did NOT use primer and it looks fine. Just latex stain. I can't believe they said that to you!

I just did my rabbit shed with oil stain. I don't care if some color from the OSB bleeds through or whatever so I didn't use a primer. Oil is pretty hard to come by so I managed to weasel some old old paint off my boss. It was mistinted paint that was colored wrong YEARS ago and stuck out in heated storage sheds. I got it for free! Did one thick coat already and it looks great. One more coat and I am going to call it done. It really looks like it would be quite washable.

meanwhile · #16 10/05/10, 07:11 AM

Good morning - the problem with this sub-floor is that it is a product called Advantec which is just glue stuff with some wood chips in it but not much. They said the water based products will not stick to it and will just peel off.

I don't know - I looked at the floor and it is rough and scratchy and since it is 8 years old, then I have decided to just give it a try and see what happens! I have water based paints and I have water based poly - and it is a small area and so, I am going to try it.

The room is small and so if it just does not work, then I can just cover it up later with linoleum or wood. We were going to do that later any way, I was just trying to make it look better for now until I can afford to do something else.

Thanks everyone. Have good rest of the week.

coalroadcabin · #17 10/05/10, 07:58 AM

meanwhile,

before you paint the floor, do a cost analysis on paint vs. peel and stick vinyl tiles. In a small room you could probably buy enough vinyl tiles to do the job for less than a gallon of Kilz + a gallon of floor paint. Especially if you look in the clearance section of your home improvement store. I was in Home Depot a few months back and they had peel and stick vinyl in long 'planks' with a wood look - I don't remember the exact price but I do remember it was less than 40 cents per square foot.

I'm not particularly fond of vinyl but when we had a similar situation in our kitchen we put down peel and stick vinyl tiles - it was easy to do, not at all messy and you could walk on it immediately.

7thswan · #18 10/05/10, 08:55 AM

Ya know, like Texican said, here back a bit ago on this site, someone did their floor with torn brown paper bags. Then coated it with poly. It looked just like Leather when done.

farminghandyman · #19 10/05/10, 10:57 AM

I would use a urethane floor paint,

Harry Chickpea · #20 10/05/10, 11:49 AM

Unless it was a big room, I'd just get a roll remnant and float a vinyl floor over it. Less time, likely cheaper, and no odor.