Painted Subfloors

Hi Kim,

I have been searching thru your blog trying to find out how you prepped your floors to paint them, but couldn’t find it. My husband and I want to do the same in our kitchen, dining room, hallway and bathroom. Did you fill nail holes and seams between the plywood boards?

~J.

Hi J.!

You know, because this was what we thought would be a very temporary floor solution, I did not take the time to fill nail holes and caulk the seams. In hindsight, and because we *still* have our painted subfloor (much longer than we expected), I would advise caulking the seams for a nice, smooth look. I would check with a paint professional at your hardware store and ask what caulk they recommend. As far as the nail holes go, usually the heads of the nails used for subflooring are quite large and unless they are deeply set into the plywood, I don't know if they are really fillable. The nails in my subfloor were pretty much flush with the surface. I just painted right over them and don't even see them.





I've used oil based porch paint for one bedroom in my home (after priming with an oil-based primer), but for the rest of the house, I used latex primer and paint. The oil based porch paint is preferrable in my opinion because it dries much harder and is definitely more durable. I was reluctant to use it in the rest of the house because it does take a while to dry and with kids and pets, there was no way we could stay out of the living room and kitchen for the duration of the drying and curing process, not to mention that there are more fumes with oil based products.

~Kim