Painting - painting stained floor

My front porch appears to have an oil based dark red stain that needs to be repainted/stained. I have a can of alkyd porch and floor enamel but the directions say that it should be applied to new wood. Can I paint this over the oil stain? Should I prime the floor with stain blocker first? Or should I sand the floor before painting with the enamel? Half the floor is mdf (can't sand) and half is plywood. The mdf section is where the most wear is.

Thank you.

Welcome to the forums

If the stain has weathered some I wouldn't expect any problems applying the floor paint over it.

What color is the deck enamel? What brand? Are you sure you read the label correctly? I've never heard of paint that was to be applied to new wood only.

BTW if the porch floor is exposed to weather, stain doesn't offer enough protection for plywood or MDF.

Thanks for the reply. The porch is enclosed so the wear is uneven and mostly on the mdf. The upper plywood is like new. but since we recently painted the walls the floor needs to be anything but the red/brown it is.

The paint is Beauti-Tone interior/exterior porch and floor alkyd gloss enamel. Home Hardware brand i beleive. The caption says its a 'self priming gloss finish', 'for use on wood and concrete surfaces...when a durable finish is desired'. Under surface preparation is says 'do no prime horizontal surfaces', 'new or bare wood should be clea, dry and dull.' Under the section application is says in bold 'Do not use primer', on uncoated surfaces thin first coat with 10% paint thinner. The color is called stratford brown. A brown with less red than the previous stain.

After reading again the bucket, I think I should probably take some rough sandpaper to the floor and get most of the sheen off of the stain. I'm not sure about the mdf....how well that sands out.

thanks

Exterior stain hardly ever has much sheen but it is always a good idea to lightly sand smooth surfaces first. It shouldn't hurt to sand the MDF. You are only sanding the paint/stain that is on the floor now, no need to sand further unless there are any adhesion issues with the old coating.

I'm not familiar with that brand of paint but wouldn't expect you to run into any problems.

Great. Well I'm ging to give it a quick sand, after I dig out the sander and see how it goes....i'm just worried it's going to go bad and then I've gotta do something else....to fix the floor....
Well, my hubby isn't home so it's the best time to get things done in peace. :)

kara

Well I got the belt sander and palm sander going and gave it a good sand. I tried out the alkyd porch paint and it wasn't adhereing very well, I'm glad I only tried a small bit. There's flecks of spatter from the cieling on the floor and wherever there was still stain the paint was seperating like oil on water. So I guess this combo doesn't work. It also doesn't paint over latex primer or paint.

Now I need more options for flooring.

kara

Did you mix/stir the paint well? Were there any contaminents on the floor that should have been washed off? I have a hard time comprehending that type of problem - atleast not with the paints that I'm familiar with.

I'm not sure what happened. I guess the paint didn't really seperate that much on the floor now that I see it dry. But it does not cover the white paint splatters on the floor and after sitting overnight is still tacky and very sticky. I am going to the home improvement store today to see what my options are now.

I sanded the entire floor with a belt sander and a palm sander then wiped it with a damp cloth so I don't know what contaminants would be there. Thanks though.

kara

Some of the cheaper paints don't cover as well - this may be the problem, if so another coat should take care of your issues. Fresh air circulation will speed up the drying time some.

I wouldn't say it's a cheap brand but I did buy in as a seconds, maybe it froze or is old or something. I'm not going to bother it. I'd hate to do two coats and end up with sticky, goopy, paint on my floor.

kara

Freezing doesn't hurt oil base paints. As long as old oil base paint stirs/mixes well it should be fine to use. Unfortunetly the price paid doesn't always reflect the quality. Paint stores [like SWP, Benjamin Moore,etc] usually have the best products and the help is generally more knowledgeable.

It is possible that the paint was manufactured without the proper amount of drying agent. It should dry though. Oil base paints are always slow drying, some bases more so than others. Damp or cool conditions slow down drying time while hot dry weather makes for faster drying times. Air circulation always helps.