How to remove paint from plywood floor?

V. Sexton
by V. Sexton

So my husband pulled up our carpet in the living room and painted the floor (it’s real plywood) now I want to remove the paint (it’s blue) and I’m wanting to just give it a dark stain-like look. Can anyone help me figure out how to strip the paint off wood? Bty we do have a child and a inside cat so leaving our home for renavation is not an option.


  8 answers
  • Pamela Pamela on Feb 20, 2019

    Hi ! A quick fix might be to just paint over it , with the color you want it to be . If you want more of a wood look , they make a tool that you run over paint , to give it a wood look & texture.

  • Linda Sikut Linda Sikut on Feb 20, 2019

    Hi V,

    The best ways to remove paint would be to sand it off or use a paint stripper. Neither of these options seem like they will work for you if you want to do it yourself. The only other option that comes to mind would be to hire someone to do the work then one of you take your child and your pet for a day trip while the work is being done. Wishing you the best.

  • Kelli L. Milligan Kelli L. Milligan on Feb 20, 2019

    You really can't strip plywood and sand , you'll go thru the layers. You can try paint strippers but plywood uses inferior wood that is soft

  • Brigette Fahey Brigette Fahey on Feb 21, 2019

    Paint over the blue with kilz (primer that covers anything and dries quickly) then paint the color you want. Since it’s just plywood you can then stencil it and make it custom and exciting. Michael’s has lots of different kinds of stencils and they are very inexpensive especially if you get the 40% off coupon from the Michael’s add in the newspaper on the day they put all the adds in it. If you can’t get a coupon just ask the clerk at check out if they can give you the discount because you forgot yours. They’re cool that way! ❤️

  • Mona Blake Mona Blake on Feb 22, 2019

    You will have to sand the paint off. Buy a belt sander with a vacuum attachment.

  • Natalie Natalie on Feb 25, 2019

    What type of plywood is it? A lot of plywood is cheap and doesn't have a beautiful wood grain. You can sand off the paint, but you'll run the risk of sanding through the layers of plywood, and then it won't look good sanded. You can use a a chemical stripper as well, but it can take a long time, and with a child and a cat, I'm not sure you'll want to have stripper on the floor for extended periods of time, let alone the super strong fumes that come with it.

    I would try out a stencil tile look, or opt for saving up for laminate to put over the plywood.

    Goodluck!

  • Bob Bolin Bob Bolin on Feb 20, 2021

    I would make another plan. I'm no pro at all but this would be a job I wouldn't do. I only have paint drips all over my old plywood subfloor that the previous owner carpeted over (then their cat apparently thought it was a wide open pee spot). My first choice would be to Kilz the whole thing (in my case since the floor has never been painted). Then lay down a laminate floor in the color you wanted to stain the floor. My second choice would be to (re)paint the whole thing some pleasing color and maybe stencil it followed by polyurethaning (?).

  • Vimarhonor Vimarhonor on Feb 20, 2021

    Hello. In our experience sanding wood can be an overwhelming situation to get it down to raw wood. We started diy doing it on our cedar wall logs and ended up hiring a contractor to take care of the comprehensive sanding and sealing of the floor- ceiling- and walls. It is a very messy job more than you might expect. In our situation it was solid log wood walls, and red oak floors.


    Concern with plywood it is still likely a laminated layered wood product I am not sure if there’s any health or safety concerns with sanding the plywood products that might have glue.

    I hope you find the perfect solution.