Since manufacturers have put suitable high-performance products on the market, the technique of painting parquet floors has made its way, to the point of becoming tendency. If your parquet (or your floor) seems sad or in very poor condition, take this opportunity to radically revamp your interior, without great expense. Be careful however, this operation requires care, a minimum of method and some simple and technical knowledge. easy to learn by everyone.
In this article, we reveal advice, mistakes to avoid, tips and tricks to allow your talent to express itself freely without losing your chance of success.
What floors can be painted?
This is a crucial question, because it is useless to embark on an adventure that is doomed to failure before it has even begun. There are many kinds of parquet flooring, solid wood, laminated or floating, in multiple essences.
Today, all the parquet floors and floors can be painted. Only the products and the way to work with them can differ. If we must find a restriction to this rule, we must look for it in the state of conservation wood rather than in its form or nature. Indeed, the paint is able to give a new aspect to the surface, but in no case to consolidate the work. A rotten board remains a rotten board and no product in the world can restore its former strength.
1 – draw up an assessment of the condition of the floor or parquet
As we have seen, the condition of the floor depends on the feasibility of the project. Conversely, this type of floor can be repaired much more easily than a tiled floor or waxed concrete. A blade is really damaged: we change it! The surface is studded with holes: we plug them. The wood is irregularly worn: we flatten it!
The two most common redhibitory faults are caused:
- by the deep attack of xylophagous insects. If the wood is gnawed deeply by termite galleries, for example, no repair is possible, the heart of the wood, reduced to the state of sponge, soon becomes dust. If the attack is recent and the supporting structure is still solid, it is essential to attempt decontamination before proceeding with the restoration of the surface. This treatment must apply to all the wooden elements of the maison and its surroundings. You will easily find companies in your area that specialize in this particular job.
- Over there failure of the rooms framework carriers (joists or sleepers). These elements, supporting the floor, but also the service loads, can in most cases be repaired, replaced or doubled, but this is a heavy operation requiring, most of the time, the removal of the parquet. You can assess the condition of the joists and sleepers by examining the surface of the floor: it should not show too large a hollow in the center of the room and the floor should not vibrate excessively when walking or jumping.
2 – Repair surface defects
If you want to paint your parquet, it is certainly to give a new youth to your interior, but also, surely, because it has a multitude of small surface defects or even unsightly scratches, exaggerating the difficulty of its maintenance.
Three cases arise:
- The holes and slots of low amplitude (≤1 cm) must be filled with a wood pulp of the trade (proscribe the waxes to be heated). It is preferable to use a hard product once dry, and of a color approaching the essence of the parquet. This precaution avoids shading during painting, which requires multiple layers.
- Holes and cracks importants are clogged with a mixture of sawdust and of colle wood for outdoor work. For larger holes, it is best to load this mixture with wood chips.
- For the damage crossing or the blades rottenit is essential to replace downright all or part of the damaged blade. To do this, locate the beginning of sound wood by probing with the tip of a thin screwdriver. At this point, draw a perpendicular line across the width of the blade. Drill a through hole in the axis of the blade, tangent to the line. Insert the blade of a jigsaw through this hole and cut the blade over its entire width, then over the length to be removed. Remove the damaged part, avoiding tearing the tongue and groove of the adjacent blades. Cut a piece of new blade to the dimensions of the hole. Cut, with a chisel, the part of wood located under the groove. Coat the grooves, tongues and tips with glue, then place the new end of the board in the hole, first threading the tongue into the groove of the adjacent board. Fill, if necessary, putty, the junction between the part and the blade. In this way, the repair will be perfectly invisible after sanding.
To replace one or more blades whole, lhe process remains valid. However, it will be necessary to reinforce the support by screwing (or nailing) the new plank on the joists and by screwing cross cleats, under the adjacent planks.
To replace pieces of engineered parquet strips, make longitudinal through grooves, ½ cm from the edges, with a wood chisel, or better still, using a router. Remove the central part (between grooves), peel off the few millimeters remaining in place, place and glue a new strip.
As long as you have the wood pulp in hand, push back any flush nails and close up the holes.
3 – Sand the floor
Sanding the parquet is an essential step. On the one hand, it allows to remove stains and the old varnishes or layers of vitrifications, but also to level the surface by eliminating small impacts and excess thickness caused by any repairs or warping. Finally, sanding evens out the color of the surface to be covered.
This long, messy and tedious operation can be avoided on a raw parquet floor in very good condition. If it is stratified, it must, at the very least, scratch the surface, but a thorough stripping is highly recommended. If it is waxed, remove all traces of wax using a specialist commercial stripper and rinse thoroughly. This operation is even recommended before sanding, so as not to clog the abrasives prematurely.
To sand the parquet floor in good conditions, use a sander specially designed for this use (rented from all professional rental companies). Forget the portable vibrating, rotary or eccentric sanders which take a lot of time and absorb a lot of energy for a result, often mediocre.
Method of using the sander:
- If the floor is very damagedattack a first passwith sandpaper or coarse-grain corundum (40/60)
- If it’s justremove scratches shallow depths or to revive dewaxed wood, the grain of 80 is sufficient for this first pass.
- Refine sanding with a grain of 120 or 180.
- If the goal is to simply frost a vitrified (or laminate) floor, to repaint without stripping, carry out a single pass with a grain of 220.
- The edges of plinths and the corners of rooms are sanded with a lighter machine, with a triangular shaped shoe.
aspire carefully dust between each pass. Pressing hard on the device is counterproductive, the pressure of its weight alone guarantees quality work. For a perfect result, always move the sander in the grain direction.
4 – Choose a “special parquet” paint
Manufacturers develop specific paints for floors, water-based, solvent-based or entirely synthetic. The most commonly used paints are:
- The paintings acrylics, water-based, offer excellent value for money. They are pleasant to apply (few odors and fumes) and dry very (too?) quickly. These are, on the other hand, the less resistant abrasion, which absolutely requires a protective varnish.
- Synthetic paints are the most efficient, but also the most expensive. They offer a hard surface, extremely resistant to abrasion and dry quickly. Most of them accept many supports (wood, tiles, varnish, laminates, etc.) and some do not require sanding or undercoating. Epoxy products, two-component, are the most covering.
5 – Painting methodically
In the first place, protect bottom of walls and baseboards with masking tape. The key to success is to follow a few simple rules:
- use a suitable roller to the chosen paint;
- start the application with edges and cornersover approximately 5 cm in width, then proceed in small areas (±1 m²);
- with a roller or brush, couches have to be crossed (wet on wet), the last passage always taking place in the direction of the grain of the wood;
- PULL the paint as much as possible, so as to leave only one layer very slim ;
- respect the drying time between layers;
- never tread the ground before the time indicated on the packaging.