Paint it Green

I recently tackled the floor in the laundry room which had been vexing me for some time. The original epoxy floor (white) was delaminating. A while back (probably when I moved the machines out to declog the dryer vent for the umpteenth time), an entire layer of the stuff peeled off, leaving an undercoat which was full of air bubble pock marks. 

The floor situation in here is tricky because of the threshold. The epoxy floor is flush with the wood in the hallway and I want to keep it that way. That rules out tiling, or wood or pretty much anything except a poured or painted surface. Also, I have radiant heat so removing the built up subfloor is decidedly not DIY.

I decided that applying a painted floor was a worthwhile experiment. If it holds up, great. If not, I'll grind it down and learn how to apply an epoxy one (correctly, lol).

Of course this project took on a greater dimension than what appears, hahaha. First the baseboards came off and were sanded down, cleaned up and primed before being reinstalled. I sanded the floor with 120 grit with my Festool sander/extractor system. The big white wall on the left got a fresh coat of paint.  

It seems that every project has a glitch and for this one it was the gas line. Being stubbornly self reliant and that small inconvenience called Covid </Sarc>, I did not want to call in a plumber to reattach that gas line. That meant keeping the dryer attached to the line and painting the floor in two sections.

This also gave me an opportunity to change the folding table support. Previously it was a solid piece of ply standing on edge, which blocked off access to the rear of the machines. I can't tell you how many times I've had to pull out the washer in order to shimmy into that space to check the dryer vent hose. 

Now it is open and I can easily access the dryer vent, and the water and gas shut off valves. I built the frame from poplar and screwed it to the wall and shelf underside.   

Back to the paint, I used Benjamin Moore floor paint in satin. The color is Clover Green. I did not prime because the paint dealer told me that this paint has epoxy in it. My thinking was that it should be compatible with a roughed up epoxy substrate. 

I started out with a roller but found that I preferred brush marks to roller marks. It took like 4 or 5 coats and they took forever to cure. The paint would be dry to the touch within about 12 hours but remained tacky-ish for like a week. I have read that paint with a lot of colorant in it takes much longer to cure. 

I remained patient and waited about 2 weeks between coats and it did eventually cure and lost all tackiness. 

It does have some scuff marks but is otherwise holding up well. It cleans up nicely with some mop and glow. I like it.

I liked the green so much that I decided to have a go at Kit's ratty pine bookshelves. They were previously a very tired white, having been painted eons ago. I think they spruced up quite nicely. The color is the same (Clover Green) but this time I used BM Advance in Satin. I must say, I do like that paint -acts like an oil but cleans up with water.

Finally, paint it green and black. I made this cabinet in the 90s when I was a student. The original top was aniline dyed green but had completely faded out. Same green and a custom black, Satin Advance. The top is hinged and flips up. 

Peace and Love