Painting - Painted old wood floor

I need advise , My husband and I for one aren't good at doing it yourself projects, but decided to try painting our very old well torn wood floor , staining would not of been a good deal here, we were advised to use non skid floor ,porch deck paint, we decided on dark battleship grey. we put down one coat, it didn't hide the darker spots of previous staining that had wore off. this was after we sanded, clleaned the floor first, so we let it dry, and did another coat , it looked streaked in spots , So we went to a satin finish in same color that helped the streaking, but this paint is not scuff prove like it says it is What if any thing can we use to seal it and keep it from getting scuffed.
It has 2 coats of non skid and one coat of satin finish paint so far. Would appreciate any and all advise

The performance of the paint should be the province of the manufacturer. Semi-gloss paint will be less durable than gloss. Paint takes time to cure to serviceable hardness. Alkyd paint usually 24 hours, latex 7 days.

You will have better coverage over old finishes using a primer to seal the old and kill the old color and other defect of color.

Generally, the paint should be its own protection. Adding something along the lines of varnish will not make a soft finish hard.

Thanks for the reply, I wish it would harden .but its our dineing room and every time we pull a chair out from table or move a piece of furniture around it scuffs and scratches the floor. We have been constantly haveing to go back over where the chairs scrape the floor . So then there is nothing we can do to protect the floor from it I guess. Our only resort then is to either put down a new wood floor or carpet it. Which we plan to do sometime down the road Again thanks for reply

This has nothing to do with your paint, but you might try turning your chairs over and applying felt to the leg bottoms. I did this in my kitchen after I applyed new poly to keep from scratching the finish. It worked quite well.

Elizabeth

Thanks Elisabeth, I will try that and see if it works.

One would think you could put polyurthene or some kind of protective coating over the paint. But I was told that if I did it would take the paint off. I see where other people put a protective coating over paint. We didn't want it where it would be slippery to walk on but now its too dull looking as well as scuffable. And we need to be able to mop it to keep it clean as well. The paint we used was the type that you could clean brushes and rollers with soap and water. I don't know if that is considered Latex or not.

Water-based or latex paints require 7 days to reach serviceable hardness. These are the paints you clean with soap and water.

Hi Mary,

I have used poly over paint before, but not on a painted floor. I would think that if you used a water-based poly over your latex paint, AND after the paint had cured, that you could coat it with poly. You might try a test section. If it works, you will probably need several coats sanding between each.

Best of luck. I can imagine how frustrating this is for you.

Elizabeth

Thank you both Elisabeth and Chfite for your replies, So Chfite then you are saying that there is no need to poly coat my painted floors that it will with stand, scrubbing, and furniture being moved around etc and it will not scruff or peel etc after it has set for at least seven day?

Elisabeth,
I figured if you can poly coat painted wood furniture etc that you could do the same with painted floors too. guess I will wait a bit and see what it looks like after a few scrubbings with mop and if it doesn't look good will try to see what I can use to seal it, This is a large room and I really don't want to have to keep repainting it If our finances were better we would of gone with carpeting. and we hope to do that sometime down the line.

thanks MaryF

As a rule, paint needs no protection. Many times, folks don't know that latex needs to set for up to 7 days to harden. So the surface gets scratched or peeled because it had not hardened. Paint is frequently used on surfaces with less wear, such as: walls, woodwork, and doors. Floors have to be the greatest challenge for paint in the typical house.

For what it is worth, I would have done the same. The gloss will be more durable because it lacks the compounds used to make the finish less glossy.

Some sort of glide or pad on the feet of your furniture will help the finish last. This would be true of regular hardwood floors without regard to what finish had been used.