Painting floor not advisable
BY CATHY MASSTRI

Riverside Press-Enterprise

Painting a floor is "not a good idea," said John Tinker, who works for a third-generation business that specializes in hardwood floors in Redlands, Calif.

Though there are many quality special paints on the market, "typically, they don’t have the wear properties," he said.

That doesn’t mean that it always can’t be done, says another home-improvement expert.

"You must sand" first to give the paint something to stick to, according to Brandon Scott, a design consultant in Palm Desert, Calif.

Damaged hardwood floors are always good candidates for such a task. You can use a solid color; add a border; create a diamond pattern; stencil on intricate designs; or paint some areas and leave the wood exposed in others. You can also apply several coats of paint for a bold result, or wipe on a thin layer for a weathered look.

If you choose to stain, you can get creative — score a pattern into the wood (to keep the stain from bleeding) and use contrasting shades to create a faux-marquetry effect. Or why not simply opt for unusual shades, since stains are now available in vivid colors. Again, you have to sand first in order to get an even application.

(You can sand and stain an old vertical-grain Douglas fir floor all you want, Tinker said, but it still won’t look that good — it was installed as a subfloor and was never meant to be seen.)

Whether you paint or stain, when it’s done it’ll need several finish coats on the top.

"You have some people doing some great-looking things to floors, but then not protecting it," Tinker said. He definitely recommends using urethane products.

And if you don’t like the results, "you’d just sand it down and restain it," Scott said.