Cost involved in painting previously unpainted/untreated floorboards?

[Skang]

Hi

I am thinking of painting some floorboards in our house. They have never been exposed or painted before.

I'm trying to get an estimate of how much it will cost to do it ourselves but am not sure exactly what we need to do.

Do we need to treat or prime them in some way? How many coats of paint are they likely to need? Do we have to varnish them? Are there any other costs? I suppose stuff to fill in the gaps..?

Thanks in advance!

You need to rent a floor sander (actually two, the big one for the main bit of the floor and a little one for round the edges.) You need to get at least one, preferably more nail punches.

First thing you go over the whole floor, systematically, finger-tip searching for anything that is stuck in the wood. Things I have found wedged in floorboards in the past have been: nails, bits of copper wire, staples, tacks, long-lost earrings and a small-calibre bullet. If it's not supposed to be there, pry it out. If it's one of the nails holding the boards down, use the nail punch and a smart blow of a hammer to knock it down. You've got to get them all below flush for the next bit.

Floor sanding, a task that should be done calmly, methodically, and by someone else. It's not terribly skilled work, it's just horrible.

With the floor sanded, you have bare, clean wood to paint on. Check the directions on the can of your chosen floor paint for how to proceed.

You almost certainly won't need to sand bare floorboards in the way described above if you're going to paint them with floor paint. That's why it's MUCH easier and cheaper than having oiled/varnished/waxed wood which needs much more prep.

Lift whatever is covering them now and remove all staples, glue etc and scrub the boards, you might need to use a bit of sandpaper if there's old paint spills or similar to smooth out. Punch in any protruding nails and/or make sure any screwed down boards are firmly in place. If there are any really large gaps you might need/want to fill them. Look for online tutorials or get a decent DIY book.

Buy floor paint.

Follow the instructions on the tin.

Voila.

Well, maybe. You tend to find that older floorboards are splintery, filthy, have got years of seepage-through-the-carpet and all manner of other shite on 'em. Quicker and easier to sand half a mil off them back to clean wood rather than trying to get the surface clean enough to paint. But then my approach to these things is just to throw machine-power at them. Opinions can and do vary.

I just painted the fuckers. Didn't even use floorpaint upstairs, they look fine. I dont' think I even mopped them, although I would do that if I did it again, it was a PITA coming up against manky underlay dust. I carried a pair of pliers and a hammer and punch around with me and dealt with tacks and nails as I went along. The grey floorboards downstairs (international floor paint in slate) have held up better than the white floorboards upstairs (a tin of satinwood I had lying around). Floorpaint is expensive and I wouldn't necessarily bother with it if you're doing white, as you'll probably want to repaint regularly. But worth it downstairs. You will want to do two coats. Floor paint went off overnight from what I can remember. Took me two days to lift the carpet, remove the gripper rods and paint our massive living room, allowing overnight to dry between coats.

Thanks for the replies.

I have looked at some tutorials but they all seem to differ. Is the consensus that I wouldn't need to varnish or wax them after the paint??

They don't look splintery at all, this house is only 1979/80.

It's the downstairs hallway I mainly want to do So it will take some planning as to how we will get downstairs!