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Painting a floor never sounds like it is going to work, but it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to freshen up a space for literally pennies. Even if you paint walls and update everything else in a room, if you have tired, old floors, it just detracts from the updated room. There are special formulations of floor paint that are made to withstand heavy foot traffic and survive the activity that a floor would normally receive. So when you are selecting your floor paint, make sure to purchase high quality paint; properly clean and prepare your floor before painting, and painting your floor will be one of the best decisions that you ever made.

Picking Paint
As you are preparing your floor for painting, you will need to calculate the amount of square feet that you have to cover, and then check to see how much paint you will need to cover that area. Before selecting your paint consider how you want your finished floor to look. While a high gloss finish is easy to clean, it can be slippery. If you select paint with a lower sheen, it may not be quite as slippery. For a high gloss finish you will want to use urethane paint, and for the lower sheen you will want to use an acrylic latex paint. You will also need to choose between oil based and acrylic paint. While oil based paint is usually more durable, it also takes a much longer time to dry, which can be problematic when dealing with a floor.

Preparations
To prepare the floor for painting, begin by cleaning it. Make sure that there is no grease on the floor, because your paint will not stick if there is. If your floor has been painted before, you should clean it with TSP before you paint it again. Remove any loose or flaking paint, and give it a light sanding to help the primer adhere to the old paint. Once everything is clean let your floor completely dry, and then you want to dust mop to remove any remaining debris.

Primer
If this is the first time that the floor has been painted, you want to use a primer that is designed for whatever material your floor is made of. After applying a thin coat of primer, let it dry completely. If you are painting new concrete, let it cure for about six months. Before painting a new concrete floor, you will want to make sure the paint sticks so you should etch it with muriatic acid before applying your primer. After it has completely dried, you can apply your paint.

Finish Coat
After your floor has been prepared and the primer is completely dry, you can apply your finish coat of paint. If you use an extension pole with your roller, painting a floor is very much like sponge mopping a floor. After getting your first layer of paint on, let it completely dry before applying a second coat. Then after you second coat is down, let your floor dry ad harden completely before walking on it or moving any furniture on it.

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