Forum
« coop sales records Woodworker to Copy Table Legs? »
February 22, 2009
Repaint floors? Convince us
Last week I sought advice on refinishing our previously painted floors. Curse the fool who painted every milimeter of floor space (and two staircases) in our house a dark brown that is not wearing well, but here we are. We experimented with a random orbital sander and chemical paint stripper on this small section, and as you can see the results were not pretty. We are now considering repainting instead of refinishing. If we were to refinish we would choose an ebony or black sable color, so we are considering painting everything black, sealing well, and living with the idea that we'll have to maintain regularly. At least we'd have the 'look' we want. It seems like making a bad thing worse, but we're just not sure we can handle the refinish, nor can we afford a professional job on 2300 square feet. Convince us to repaint, or not. Please.
Comments
Strippers are very messy. If you are doing it yourself, perhaps your need a stronger/rougher sand paper to take off the layers of paint. I would not paint them. Sand them down and use a dark stain - like Jacobean - to cover the imperfections.
Posted by: Northie at February 22, 2009 2:54 PM
you cannot strip a floor with an orbital sander...you need to rent a drum sander and edger with the coarsest paper made (i seem to remember 20 or 40 grit)and work your way up to a finer grade...but it is real easy to fuck up pine flooring...hire someone when you can afford it
Posted by: eman1234 at February 22, 2009 2:54 PM
why don't you check out my website and give me a call. I don't mind looking at this - even if it is not something you can do now, I would be glad to talk to you. I am working in Brooklyn this week.
Steve
www.thetinkerswagon.com
347-813-9635
Posted by: thetinkerswagon at February 22, 2009 3:33 PM
Hi there,
My husband would be happy to arrange an appointment with you to give you an estimate. We´re willing to give the best price that you could afford. You could go with refinishing or repainting for an affordable price.
We have references and here are 2 recommendations on the forum: http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/06/plasterer_paint_1.php
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/03/recommendation_20.php
Wecan can be reached at 774-955-3804 or willianprates68@hotmail.com
Hope to hear from you.
-Aida
www.pratesplastering.web.officelive.com
Posted by: Aida008 at February 22, 2009 5:59 PM
It would be best to wait until you can afford a professional sanding job.If not Home Depot rents a large sander with four 9" disks, it's easy to keep flat unlike a drum sander that requires a lot of experience. It's about $80 a day plus a lot disks. It works well to refinish a floor and is worth a try on the paint
Posted by: edifice rex at February 22, 2009 8:04 PM
From the looks of it, those floors are pine, which is very soft, which in turn is why it's going to be very hard to get the paint off. The surface looks very uneven, and I'd guess you'll have to do a lot of sanding to even them out enough for a sander to get at the paint.
If they are pine, Northie's advice is very good (sand as much off as you can and use a dark stain to hide the imperfections). You could also consider putting a finish wood on top. Cork might be a good option as it's great to walk on and thin enough that you wouldn't have to mess with your door undercuts or molding much.
Posted by: JimHill at February 23, 2009 10:03 AM
have you tried the Silent Paint Remover? It's an infrared heating device that pulls up every layer of old paint. I know you have an entire floor to do, but it might be worth a try. I'm using mine to tackle 120 years worth of painted moldings in my entire house, and it is working miraculously!
http://silentpaintremover.com/
Posted by: honeycut at February 23, 2009 1:41 PM
One other thing: I have heard people say who are stripping woodwork (not floors) that once they get the woodwork stripped, as in your photo above, but still have little bits of paint visible in the grooves, that sometimes putting varnish on and then stripping out the varnish with varnish remover (easier than removing paint) will pull the old paint out of the cracks.
Posted by: mopar at February 23, 2009 2:46 PM
I had a (not very good) pro sand the pumpkin pine floors in my 3 story house which had ALL been painted with thick brown oil paint. Even he got all the paint off and the wood sanded smooth. I can't believe that your floors have more paint than mine did. You would never know that mine were ever painted. I did not user stripper. You will not regret using a pro with the right equipment.
Posted by: jfss at February 23, 2009 9:54 PM
I had a (not very good) pro sand the pumpkin pine floors in my 3 story house which had ALL been painted with thick brown oil paint. Even he got all the paint off and the wood sanded smooth. I can't believe that your floors have more paint than mine did. You would never know that mine were ever painted. I did not user stripper. You will not regret using a pro with the right equipment.
Posted by: jfss at February 23, 2009 9:54 PM
I love painted floors, however, unless you plan on wearing socks and putting pads under every stick of furniture and investing in Swiffer stock, everything shows on dark painted floors. They are gorgeous, but incredibly difficult to maintain... and to paint,... well.
Posted by: Pergolesi at February 23, 2009 11:36 PM
You might also consider the new sander Home Depot rents. Its basically a huge rectangular sander, which perfect for softer floors like pine. The regular sanders can gouge into the planks rather quickly, making waves and thin grooves which then break off at the worst time. This thing is alot easier to control.
I did some of the floors (the ones that were salvageable that is) in my place in Greenpoint with the rectangular sander, I won't go back ot the regular belt sanders. So far the other floor places haven't even heard of it. Any low spots can be gotten with a smaller palm sander.
Use a good sealer and at least three coats of oil base polyurethane. The current water base poly is still too brittle.
Posted by: browntabbystudios at March 2, 2009 11:19 AM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.