Painting old linoleum?

I’ve been reading on painting a vinyl floors – sure, a good scuffing by sanding may have been needed in the past for adhesion of many paints to many surfaces, but many of the recent tutorials describe various brands of primer designed for good adhesion without sanding. These come in handy not only when you have a material you don’t want to disturb via sanding for safety reasons, and also just to save labor time (and cleaning up the resulting sanding dust) even when the existing covering could safely be sanded. With proper cleaning first to get off dirt and grease, but with no sanding at all, the reports on how the paint job holds up, when combined also with the right sort of paint and sealant topcoats, are quite positive.

I think flat, synthetic, commercial carpeting, if one decides nailing through existing coverings is an OK risk, or carpeting or something else dense glued on, is preferable, as it makes for a surface that is easier to clean (just vacuum, no mopping needed) and absorbs hallway sound. (Another option would be painting the risers and glueing carpeting strips to the treads – that would cut down on nailing needed to get a tight fit around the tread edges. Someone noted they took off the metal tread edging first, which, depending on your stairs, might get you down to nailing into bare, or just painted wood there, with no chance of disturbing asbestos fibers with nailing.)

If someone prefers paint to carpet, there is no reason not to paint it – just be sure to pick the materials (primer, paint, sealant) carefully, and be sure to not skimp on multiple cleaning passes with degreasing cleaner first.