Laminate floors are a floor covering that is a fusion of a particleboard wood base topped by an image layer and a transparent wear layer. Essential, Laminate floors are wood boards that are finished with high-quality images of the desired finish, like wood or stone, and topped with protective coatings. Laminate floors are most often used for kitchen floors, dining areas, bedrooms, and all the other areas which are not subject to excessive moisture.
Laminate flooring is one of the hardest flooring options but the con attached with it is the fact that it does not last forever as that top layer fades. Whenever your laminate flooring starts to show signs of tear or overuse then to fix it you will only have two options:
- Either you could tear it off completely from the floor and replace it
- Or you can paint over the scratches and scuffs
You can either hire a professional or you could simply DIY. If you plan on saving
some money and prefer to DIY, then painting laminate is unsurpassable.
The question is; how will you paint your laminate flooring?
There are in total 5 main steps that you have to follow; clean, sand, repair, prime, and paint. With a little patience and the right tools, you can achieve a very precise and aesthetically pleasing DIY makeover of your floor.
What Should be Considered When Painting Laminate Flooring
Spraying paint of your own choice on service is very easy but applying floor paint on laminate flooring is a very difficult task to achieve. If you want a perfect result from DIY you plan to do it. You have to make sure that you precisely follow the steps carefully so that you do it right even if it’s your first time.
1. Clean: The Surface Must Be Clean
The very first thing you need to make sure of is that the surface of the floor is clean. If you don’t put a carpet on your laminate floor and if it’s very old then there will be a lot of dust, dirt, over it and debris will be trapped on the surface layer as well. The thing you do not want is debris and other impurities messing up while you’re sanding. The first thing you have to do is to mop or vacuum the floor before you start working on it.
The next thing you must do is to check for the deep marks or scuffs that you need to fill in before applying the paint. The marks and scuffs are a result of the old flooring and the placement of heavy furniture on top of the floor. Furniture can leave visible marks and you need to fix them before moving to the next step. You can fix and fill these areas by caulking. It can look unappealing but don’t worry you will fix it with the paint.
Also, if there are any existing paint droplets on the floor, you’re going to want to remove those. While this guide is all about painting laminate floors, here’s a great one on getting paint off of them.
2. Sand: The Gloss Needs To Be Sanded Away From The Laminate.
You need 150 – 180 grit sandpaper or a sanding machine to remove the gloss from the laminate. The gloss layer is the very top layer that protects the texture of the laminate flooring below, in various cases this layer is plastic. You are not supposed to remove the plastic fully, instead, you have to make sure that the sandpaper takes the gloss away from the very surface of the floor. If the glossy layer is still present and you’re applying the paint the glossy layer will prevent the paint from binding anything to it. In simpler words, it will be easily lifted off the surface.
Sanding is a very delicate part of painting a laminate floor. You are supposed to check if you’re only taking away the top part of the laminate layer because if you sand aggressively there is a possibility that you will damage the softer materials below the glossy layer.
3. Repair: Any Cracks Which Might Have Resulted From The Sanding
If you’re painting your laminate floor for the very first time then you might’ve made some mistakes and accidentally sanded off too many layers. The main aim of sanding is to smooth out the surface of the laminate floor, to even out the surface. It is very important to make sure that there are no cuts or grooves where the paint would come off as uneven.
Caulking can be used and other materials to repair any sorts of cracks and holes, the main thing is to get rid of the sanding dust which might’ve gathered in the past step. It is important to smooth out the surface and for it to be clean.
4. Prime The Surface
Priming is a crucial step. A laminate floor needs to be primed before it’s ready for a paint job otherwise the paint will not stick. Latex can be used as a priming coat for a laminated floor. It is important to make sure that the primer is dried off before you begin with a paint job. Your primer should be left on for a day or two before you start painting. The laminate floor can accommodate two layers of primer before the painting begins. The additional layer of the primer helps smooth out the surface of the floor and priming is also a great way to seal cracks that you may have missed while caulking. An oil-based primer is highly recommended.
5. Painting The Floor
The final step is to paint. You can execute this step using various methods each of the methods has its pros and cons which you have to weigh yourself
- Paint roller: The easiest way to paint a laminate floor is by using a paint roller but you will need a sizeable paint tray
- Paint sprayer: Paint sprayer works best if you have a large, flat room to paint with no furnishings.
- Paintbrush: You can use it if you’re planning to avoid fixtures that can’t be moved like kitchen cabinets, other wood floors, or hardwood flooring.
We recommend you pick a resilient paint product like porch paint, latex paint is also a good alternative. If you want your laminate floor to match your tiles or vinyl plank you can use chalk paint for better contrast.
Conclusion
We have done our best to provide you with every detail that you should know before planning to paint your laminate floor. The process, if done precisely will yield perfect results.
