Should I put a coat of polyurethane over this?

[francienolan]

We've just painted the wood boards of one of the bedroom floors with grey gloss paint and it looks really lovely. I will be putting on a second coat as recommended but have read a bit about using polyurethane on top of that for increased durability. Should I? Online it is easier to find recommendations about putting it on plain unsanded wood rather than painted surfaces.

Personally wouldn't bother.

If you use a polyurethane topcoat and a patch of your floor wears overtime, you won't be able to patch it -- you'll need to sand everything right back and start over.

If it's left as paint you can try and patch it or rub it back a bit and re-coat.

In reality a bedroom has low traffic and would probably be fine under either scenario but... I'd stick with something you can patch up.

PS. wood makes a better key than paint. That's why people use it on naked wood.

I'd still choose a natural hard wax oil for wood that can be patched.

Trade like using polyurethane on floorboards because it dries quick. They sand back and put 2/3 coats down in a day.

Perfect thanks so much!

I think once the second coat of gloss is on it will be fine. This room will be our room first but then a guest room once we've done our actual bedroom up so it'll be low traffic anyway. And we'll have leftover paint on hand for patching.