Painting over the subfloor
Wondering if any of you have had any experience in painting beat up subflooring in a brownstone in lieu of getting into refinishing them? I ask because I am moving into a 1906 brick house in Bed-Stuy and, to say the least, the floors have not been kept up well over the years. My parents…
Wondering if any of you have had any experience in painting beat up subflooring in a brownstone in lieu of getting into refinishing them? I ask because I am moving into a 1906 brick house in Bed-Stuy and, to say the least, the floors have not been kept up well over the years.
My parents own an old farmhouse in MA where several rooms have this done and I think it looks great and gives the rooms a nice feel.
It will be great to hear your thoughts on this.
Trudy, it sounds like the POs may have done what they did here: use liquid floor wax as a cheap alternative to refinishing. Once that stuff sinks into the wood it begins to separate the fibers, dry out the wood and cause splintering. Worse, it’s almost impossible to sand out.
I hired Verrazano to sand my first floor shortly after I moved in. You could actually smell the old kitchen floor wax as the sanders heated it up and melted it further into the wood. Bottom line, even urethane wouldn’t adhere to it after that so I wound up laying a new floor.
I would not do it if there is ever a chance you will need to refinish it. Old paint on floorboards is a pain to get off.
We refinished a subfloor that had very old paint around the perimeter of the room but raw wood in the middle. The paint wouldn’t sand off — a few min with the sander and the paint had melted into hard beads on the sandpaper, preventing the paper from making contact with the boards.
In the end, with tons of sandpaper wasted, we got it sorta sanded off and opted for a very dark stain to cover the color difference. Unfortunately it masks most of the old wood character too.
We painted a subfloor but have not been happy with it. The floor has been splintering and pieces of stuff – I don’t know what it is – keep coming out from between the boards. The paint isn’t the issue, it’s the condition of the wood. That said, I love the look of it.
You can paint plank wood flooring. Be sure to fill in all the cracks with a decent wood putty first. Its best to use a oil base semi gloss paint.
Listen to Mrs. L. She knows. We have some old wide plank subfloors that looked really beat. They sanded and finished up nicely, much to our surprise. Keys are whether the floors have been sanded much before. If they are still thick, from very little past sanding, you can go at them. The other issue is how bad the gaps between boards are and how many missing pieces there are because the old floors are hard to match. In fact, the more beat up they are, the more rich coloration and variegation you may find (although I would have been happier with less). Make sure to test finishes before you commit to anything.
Never done it myself but its a great look. Very country chic.
That aside, you might be surprised how well your floors clean up after a sanding. Our floors were abused for decades and I figured there was a very good chance they couldn’t be saved but I was wrong.
It’s not exactly “period” for a 1906 urban row house. But if its a subfloor that you some day intend to refloor, why not?
That said, you can do some clever and creative things with paint and floors, like this:
http://enonhall.com/images/03012007/done.jpg
We almost did this, but instead had the floors sanded, filled and finished- they look really rustic, and I’m glad we did not paint- It’s actually a lot of work to do, and will cost quite a bit to prep anyway. Have you compared the costs? You may find out it’s not worth it- particularly if you are thinking of eventually finishing them.