Does anyone have painted floors?

[Marianne]

Here's the skinny - As a lot of you know, we're living in a construction zone, building our house as time and money permit. We're just about done with the second story, still have a lot to do on the lower level = $$

At the top of the steps, we have a big room, roughly 28' x 14'. There is currently just a plywood subfloor, but some of it's kind of rough. We didn't use tongue and groove material since it was going to take on quite a bit of weather before we could get a roof over it, and we just planned on having to deal with it later.

This room will be used primarily as an art/craft studio for me. I have an Italian garden theme going on, hand plastered walls, plaster stenciling, etc. I want to do a painted floor, maybe even worn paint look (shabby chic kind of techinque) on the floor. Then if I end up spilling paint or something, it won't be that big of a deal. We also have cats that are mostly upstairs (hair and occasional upchuck). So, painted floor and area rug by furniture sounds good to me - labor intensive, but not bad cost wise as I have scrounged paint and got the 1/2 cans of primer from friends and family.

DH's concerns: Massive amount of sanding and filling screw holes, cracks, knots. He can't picture it as he's never seen a painted floor and he's basically a wall to wall carpet kind of guy.

Does anyone have a painted floor? Do you like it? Pro's and Con's?

I'm considering using just wood glue to make a self leveling filler for screw holes and knots. I also think that sawdust and wood glue (maybe thinned with a bit of water) would make an acceptable filler in the cracks that could be leveled with a wet blade as I went along, and then just light sanding on the rest of the floor. I want it to look old, so some texture is a good thing. I'll use an oil base primer before painting, so it should cover all the glue without problems.

We've used floor leveler in the past with mixed results. One was almost impossible to sand smooth after it cured, then a couple years later, it started breaking up.

Any comments are appreciated!

 

[Wannabefree]

My livingroom is currrently as you describe :/ I wanna know TOO!!! We thought about painting ours as well, and there is floor paint available, we have seen it, just haven't tried it yet. If you do it, I want to see pics!

 

[framing fowl]

I think the wood and glue would be a fine wood filler, especially if you're painting, not staining. My parents have a painted staircase at their house. Mom painted it a base color (light yellow) and then did handpainted multi-color lines to similate a rag rug going up it. Super easy, especially if some texture is okay. Easy to clean, no fuss, no muss! Do it... I think you'll love it!

 

[framing fowl]

Just google painted floors and look at some of the images and creativity people have with it! Especially if you have a bunch of different colors/can of paint -it's a great way to use it up.

 

[framing fowl]

PS... this is probably obvious but make sure you do a clear coat over it to keep the paint from wearing so fast.

 

[Marianne]

I looked at the floor paint a long time ago. Lousy colors available then. I know someone in another state that has a wonderful RED painted floor in her kitchen and living room, then just an area rug in the LR. With white kitchen cabinets, the room just pops!

I'm assuming she rolled on a couple coats of urethane over the paint, but maybe not. It's just her living there, so no heavy traffic.

Originally I wanted to brown bag the floor (looks like leather when you're done), but DH wasn't digging that idea at all. Now I kind of like the worn, weathered look better.

Our banker said that his daughter (with 6 kids) has nothing but painted floors in her house.

 

[Marianne]

I think the urethane is the only thing I'm going to have to buy. Oh, and maybe some more wood glue!

Okay, I think I'll go clean out a part of that room, put a critical eye on it.....and start working on a section to see how bad the prep work is going to be.

 

[Damummis]

My LR floor is painted grey with deck/floor paint. With all the traffic why have nice floors? They clean just as easy.

 

[~gd]

The one thing you didn't mention is HOW STABLE is the floor? this is vital. You need to know this even to select the type of glue to mix your proposed glue/wooddust filler. If it was planned for tongue and groove flooring over the subfloor it may be very flexible and you will have 'fun' trying to keep filler and paint on it unless the paint and filler is flexible too.
I have had great sucess with 1" nominal exterior grade plywood applied with the good side, A side of A-D grade plywood up over properly sized and installed floor joists. It was stable enough that I was able to fill with a plaster type filler leveled with a tape knife. I then shuffled around with my socks on (bare foot might work) and only sanded where I 'felt' it was needed. Used a 'hard' primer and paint (out wears soft paint about 3 to 1) nine years later it is starting to show wear(loss of shine) in high traffic areas only.
On the other hand a bedroon used as a office was set up for wall to wall carpet which I removed after three years. It flexed so I used 'soft' materials, Vinyl based filler (worked well) and conventional floor paint. No cracking or peeling but I have recoated traffic lanes 3 times. The last time I taped off the traffic lanes and painted a contrasting color so it looked like a runner to my desk with a area rug around the desk. I think it is going to work out ok but it has only been down a year. I hope this was some help.~gd

 

[Marianne]

Well, now we're thinking. Both DH and I understand what you're saying. In our situation, we used 2x10 DSS joists, some areas are double joisted, placed 16" OC, crossed braced every 4', etc, basically better than standard construction. We used 3/4" exterior grade plywood for the subfloor. Absolutely no flex with the DSS joists, but now we're thinking about the plywood as that would be the weaker of the two. I can't remember the grade of exterior plywood that we used, but it wouldn't have been the cheapest thing on the shelf.

Later, after some discussion with DH: I think because of the type of structural support we built and walls underneath, there should not be flexing with the plywood. I'm opting for the hard filler and we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for your comments, it's always a good thing to double check ideas before you get started.