Get on board

IF you’re looking to transform or liven up your home’s floorboards, staining or varnishing them might be the most obvious options, but painting them is the most hassle-free – and the most on-trend. Because yes, paint is more likely to show up dirt and chips, but surely that’s just shabby chic?

Paint can cover up problems as much as it shows them up. Period floorboards often have modern boards mixed in where repairs have been done over the years, or you may need to patch in new boards yourself to replace damaged ones.

Painting the boards makes it easier to disguise the new ones than with wood stain or varnish.

As long as the boards are in good condition, you should be able to use a wood scraper, sandpaper and a handheld sander to clean them off and make them smooth – remember to bang down any protruding nails with a nail punch and hammer, and remove staples and other remnants of the previous floor covering.

Sometimes the boards are in such a bad state that only sanding them with an industrial floor sander will do. Hiring a sander – and an edger for where the sander can’t reach – isn’t particularly expensive, but it’s hot, hard and dusty work.

Once you’ve finished sanding, it’s important to clean the sanded boards thoroughly to get a good final finish. Vacuuming them only goes so far and you’ll also need to wipe them over, ideally with methylated spirits. Removing dust and debris between coats of paint may also be necessary, and to really clean out the gaps between the boards, run a knitting needle, butter knife or screwdriver down them.

Newer boards may contain resinous knots, which will need to be sealed with knotting solution to prevent the resin bleeding through and spoiling the paint. Alternatively, you can use Ronseal Knot Block Wood Primer & Undercoat (from £7.98 for 250ml, B&Q), which seals the knots, primes and undercoats in one, saving you time and effort. Even if you don’t use this product, you will need to apply wood primer/ undercoat to the floorboards – try diluting the first coat with about ten per cent of white spirit so it penetrates the wood better.

After priming and undercoating the boards, you may find that yellow marks appear. If normal paint won’t cover them, use a stain-block paint – Polycell One Coat Stain Stop aerosol (£6.96, Tesco Direct) is a good one because it dries quicker than most stain blocks. If you need to use the room again soon after your work, a quick-drying floor paint is your best bet – water-based ones dry fastest.

However, if you can close the door and wait a while for it to dry, a solvent-based paint will be more durable long term and should require fewer coats than a water-based paint. Again though, back to the pros of a water-based paint, and it shouldn’t yellow over time like a solvent-based one. Basically, you’ll have to work out what benefits are most important to you.

You can also use ordinary wood paint to cover your floorboards then protect it with clear (nonyellowing) varnish, but while this is a cheaper option than a specialist paint, I wouldn’t recommend it. Bear in mind that normal paint is not designed to be walked on, and will wear over time – it pays to pay out more now.

Product of the week

SUMMER is the ideal time to tackle exterior repairs, and u-can Render Walls, Render Repair Mortar (£7.38, B&Q) makes it an easy job. Ideal for small to medium-sized repairs, the kit contains two packets of powder (use one at a time or both together) and a tub to mix them in. The product is easy to work with and there are clear instructions, plus a list of tools needed.

How-to...

HOW do you visualise how something will look when it’s painted? The answer is by using a new app by outdoor experts Cuprinol, Hammerite and Dulux Weathershield. The free Outspiration app – available to download at cuprinol.co.uk – will help you transform your outside space. Take a photo of what you want to paint, and the app enables you to see what it’ll look like in a range of colours – there’s even an option to view the colours in different lighting and weather conditions.