What should I use over a painted floor to seal it?
by
Millie
+12
It will have 2 coats primer, and two coats latex eggshell (Valspar). I don't want a really high gloss, and in fact would prefer a matte finish due to 2 small dogs in the house. I want to use a water-based product. I have read, and read up on this. One site says you cannot use matte finish, others say you can. I don't want yellowing either. What brand, type & formula, and what technique should I use?
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Ok if you don't want yellowing than oil based sealers will not be right for you. So, that basically means you're going to want to use poly acrylic. (it is water based) I have 100 year old hardwood floors that I sanded down and refinished and covered them with three coats of a satin poly acrylic and, three years later, they still look great! (and I used to have BIG dogs!) Satin is as close to matte as you can get and basically has NO shine. I like it because if the sealer is wearing off anywhere its no where near as OBVIOUS as with a high gloss floor.
polyurethane from your local home improvement center
the polycrylic instructions on the back of the can will explain the necessary steps
It is too bad you did not use gloss floor paint. Matte finish is not good for floors. I have painted many a floor in my house. Used oil paint originally till they changed the formula to make it noxious. Now I use latex high gloss. No primer, no finish. This floor done in 1989.
At least three coats of any good water based polyurethane. I like Minwax products. Dries fast and doesn't yellow over time. Lightly sand in between coats. For floors I use a sanding screen or red Scotch Brite pad. Your not really sanding, your just smoothing out the surface. Wipe down well.
Thank you! Have you used this over painted floors? And thank you for clarifying it's not sanding but smoothing.
You are most welcome Millie. I painted the white coat (one) first (this is really done on two floors that are open to each other.) I then drew the diamond design and painted every other "tile" brown. Only those coats, but I have touched this up after many years and not all "tiles" just those in traffic patterns or where furniture has scraped it, like in this room where we watch t.v. and use foot stools. No sanding at all, only a clean floor to begin with. Matte will show everything. I had a darling (but small) dog for 15 of the years I had this floor and also my 2 grandchildren were young (well from 0 to mid twenties) but they don't live in this town, just visited. These are two other painted floors. The bottom one is my kitchen which has a very small floor space. I intend to paint this white next. The upper is a large room which is kind of a pass through room, (cellar door) bathroom door, back door, other door. Both these floors are pine. The upper floor (in pic) we have painted twice. This is the room we usually eat in and I also entertain 3 women once a week here (playing Mah Jongg) I put an old wall paper border on the threshold and poly'ed it many times.