Painting (?) A New Floor...

[Woodonglass]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

No problem using a brush.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Do you know where I can get the "Tractor" paint? I'm googling around and I don't see it anywhere. There aren't many tractor supply stores here in the 'Burbs.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Also, what's good for filling "imperfections" in the fiberglass. I've got kind of a lot of those.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Two more questions have popped into my head.

First, is the hardener going to effect how long the can of paint can sit?
The 8oz hardener says mix with 1 gallon of paint. That's probably 3 or 4 coats of my small floor.
Will the gallon be fine sitting between coats? It could end up taking me a month to paint the floor, if the weather doesn't cooperate, and if I get busy with work. Is the paint ok to sit for long periods after being mixed with the hardener?

Second: Is there an idea number of coats? Is it the thicker the better? First I was thinking 2.5, now I'm thinking maybe 3.5. (.5 meaning limited area just where the sand is going).

Oh and if you know where to get that tractor paint, that would be helpful. I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

1008com, I have to put my .02 in here. for one, no, don't use a brush for the intire deck, get yourself a 1 1/2 inch brush for cut in and a 3 to 6 inch roller to do the rest. These trim rollers are small in circumferance and will get very close to the edges. I also would not use sand as an additive to the paint. Sand is a natural abrasive, when walking on the paint it will wear through. 3m and other manufactures make silica sand and other products that I believe are better for the non skid, or you can simply tape off after paint and add Kiwi Grip or a similar product. these are much better non skid surfaces but can be harder to keep clean.

Why are you painting the deck instead of gelcoating? Painting a deck is going to be a maintenance issue down the road and will have to be redone. Gelcoat is do it once and last a lifetime if maintained.

Do you have pics of the deck? 3m filler will work to fill and fix any spots you want to fair out.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Well, in some other thread (that of course I can't find a link to right now, I must not have posted anything to it), the consensus was that you'll get the same result with paint but it will be easier to apply than gelcoat.

Here are some pics:

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

So the floor is new fiberglass, the walls are not new fiberglass. I removed the rug, painted the walls, then scraped off the walls. So my plan is to paint (or gelcoat) the whole floor and walls. I also have a bunch of blocks of wood that I was planning on glueing in and painting over. One is already glued in, it's the fire extinguisher mount. I have 4 more big-ish blocks and 10 or so smaller blocks that are going on the floor and walls, that were all going to be painted as if part of the floor.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

So any other input on this?

One person says use tractor paint, another guy says gelcoat.

I actually know nothing about gelcoat, exactly what it is, or how it works. I have read in other threads that the end result is pretty similar, and that paint is a lot easier to apply.

And as far as that tractor paint goes, I still can't find it anywhere.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

There's a Tractor Supply store in Taunton. They'll have the paint.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

yeeeeaaaaaah I'm not driving two hours to get a gallon of paint. Can anyplace that sells regular valspar paint order a gallon of this stuff? Doesn't lowes or home depot sell valspar?

 

[rickryder]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

I see it listed on their website....http://www.lowes.com/webapp/wcs/sto...ractor & Implement Enamel&CAWELAID=1024172165

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Perfect!

So if I get the tractor paint and the hardener and mix it together, is the hardner going to have any effect on the paints ability to be stored? Its probably going to take me two weeks total to paint this floor, considering my luck with timing and the weather.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

You don't mix the hardener into the paint until 30 minutes before applying it. I usually mix two cups of paint at a time and that requires 1 oz of Hardener.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Listen man, imo, you have a fiberglass boat, why would you paint it? There is a reason the exterior of your boat is fiberglass. The interior will need repainting eventulually. Gelcoat it correctly and it is maintenance free. Can't tell you how many times I have seen peeling paint on decks that should have been gelcoated.

Gelcoating is easy. Look through the threads here, there are many threads about gel coating. Gelcoat can be rolled on just like paint, you put two coats on without a wax additive and the last coat goes on with a wax additive so it seals the three coats from air and cures. Its so simple a caveman can do it.

Imo, anyone who tells you paint is just as durable as gelcoat is off there rocker,no offense of coarse. No paint, and I mean no paint will last as long as gelcoating.

Painting the outside of a hull can be ok with imron or similar products, but painting a fiberglass deck is silly when there is a much better product (gelcoat). The decks get walked on, traffic, things dropped on them, water constantly splshed or rain on them etc etc.

Painting to me is a short cut.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

I just thought of another question. Is that TSP cleaner going to have any effect on my cured 5200?

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Nope, not in the least. 5200 is chemical resistant. I don't recall anyone telling you that paint was better than Gelcoat. I agree that Gelcoat is better but the title of your thread ask about painting a floor. IF you are looking for the best most durable method then Gelcoating IS the way to go. The Tractor Paint with hardener is very durable but Not even close to what gelcoat is. Gelcoat is easy to apply with a roller and will give a somewhat textured effect to the deck. You might want to look into using it.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

Great. That stuff is magical. Why not just get a giant mold and make the whole boat out of 5200. Every year the ratio of the mass of my boat that IS 5200 creeps up higher and higher.

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

So I can't find that tractor and implement paint (despite the Lowes link, it's not available for shipping and not available at any stores around, plus it doesn't let you pick the color, so what color is it?

But I did find this paint which sounds similar: http://ipsite.org/19g9

Another question:
If I do one coat of paint. Add the "grippy" stuff to the wet paint, and then put two coats of paint over that, will that make the grip area more subtle, but still grippy enough to grab your feet? I used grippy paint before and it was more like sandpaper. I don't want that much grip.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

If you're gunna paint it and can't find the valspar tractor paint then I'd just use the Rustoleum Industrial Oil Based Enamel Sold @ Lowe's. You can go to Advanced Auto and get the FINISH ONE Acrylic Enamel Hardener from them and add it to the Rustoleum at the ratio of 2 ozs per quart. It'll work just as good as the Valspar

 

[l008com]

Re: Painting (?) A New Floor...

I can't find that either. The more I try to find paint on lowe's website, the more I realize their website is terrible. I'll go there and person and see what they have.

So if I were to mix the whole 8 oz of hardner with a full gallon of paint, how many days would I have to use all the paint before it got ruined? It would be significantly easier to mix the whole amount at once, especially since I'm not totally sure how much paint I'll need per coat. But I could 'schedule' things so I do a coat per day for four days straight if I need to.