Painting a floor or go for a carpet?

[MacarenaNonsense]

Our house is up for sale and viewers are all commenting on the state of the wooden floor. Lots of scratches and worn areas - definitely seen better days.

To try and get a sale we want to do something.

But needs to be cheap...

So dithering between painting the floor (never done it, would probably need to get a handyman in to help?!) or just going for a cheap-ish carpet.

Grateful for thoughts. Is painting a floor really difficult, and messy?!

Depends on the room really - some rooms would look great with a painted floor, others not so much. What's the style of the house/room?

Is it a proper wood floor or wood flooring?

Painting a floor is not difficult and you can do it quite cheaply with a tin of floor paint, which will set you back about £30. You need floor paint not ordinary paint.

You will need to prepare the floor for painting. It depends on things like is it varnished, does it need sanding etc.

The painting itself doesn't take long and depending on the paint will be dry in a few hours. I did half the floor, let it dry and then the other half.

Pick the colour carefully, just as you would with a carpet.

Large area rugs in neutral colours are in trend at the moment, pop them down in as many areas as possible. Then paint the rest.

@Ozanj The cost of rugs though! 😱 I was shocked. Even IKEA rugs to cover the area of the living room came to about £600.

It's a 90s house. A one off. Dark wood everywhere (so can feel a bit dated but fits with the area) and a very big floor space in each room.

@KirstenBlest I think there may be a varnish on the wood (it's real wood though, not engineered). It's hard to tell as it's so worn but there is a slight sheen in places.

[quote MacarenaNonsense]@Ozanj The cost of rugs though! 😱 I was shocked. Even IKEA rugs to cover the area of the living room came to about £600.

It's a 90s house. A one off. Dark wood everywhere (so can feel a bit dated but fits with the area) and a very big floor space in each room.
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Try local auction houses, they will have rugs regularly, and will cost far less than new

We have bought a number, from very large, to smallish, and very pleased with them.

@MacarenaNonsense, could you revarnish it. You'll need floor varnish.

Do you have carpet in the rest of the house? Which rooms? I hate carpet but if just to sell the house, I think they may be the easiest option if a painted floor would look out of place. No point in buying rugs if you don't want them in your next place.

If it's dark wood and you're going for a light colour, it will take two coats of something like Zissner and then two of the floor paint.

Can you take a photo so we can properly advise?

We painted our old bedroom floor mid grey (years ago before grey was everywhere!) and it looked amazing. Cheap as well. We got some sort of paint from the wholesaler that could be used on concrete too and it lasted for years.

if you've got solid wood floors, don't paint them.

half the buyers will appreciate wood, and might sand and stain them

half won't like paint

the rest will like paint, but not the colour you chose.

We painted over dark varnished floorboards in white. Looked awesome.

Made the room look bigger

[quote MacarenaNonsense]@Ozanj The cost of rugs though! 😱 I was shocked. Even IKEA rugs to cover the area of the living room came to about £600.

It's a 90s house. A one off. Dark wood everywhere (so can feel a bit dated but fits with the area) and a very big floor space in each room.
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How big is your house??? A 2 sq mtr rug in IKEA is £35 and there's cheaper still available www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/stoense-rug-low-pile-off-white-10425526/

@bumbledeedum That one's only 139cm on one side rather than 2m square.

Living room is 4m x 4m. Kitchen is 5m x 5m.

Those are the two rooms which are really scratched and worn.

And couldn't really have rugs in a kitchen.

And couldn't really have rugs in a kitchen.

Maybe you can try so called "indoor outdoor" rugs?

Just get a nice fresh, neutral carpet put down (and lino in the kitchen).

Job done.