New Steps (ready for primer)
Fence Reinstalled!
Porch Looking towards Kitchen Door from Front of House
Bluestone for the Stair Landing
It is a busy day here at the Sentivan household (which I why it has taken me so long to post)! Our carpenter/neighbor and his son are working hard on the front porch and the fence guys finally showed up to replace the post and reinstall the fence and gate. Both sets of steps and the replacement wood will get a primer coat today and paint next week! I also picked up new porch floor paint and bluestone for landing at the bottom of the new stairs this morning (with my 2 little helpers, one sporting a hardhat).
Porch Floor Paint Options
Our porch faces southwest and gets beat on by the sun! The porch flooring is pine tongue and groove. We have tried several different porch floor paint options over the last 11 years. Nothing has held up very well. So we are going to try again with something new.
Original Finish: When we bought the house we had a latex primer and latex paint on the porch (in darkred). The board were only a couple of years old but the paint peeled up after only a year or so of living here. They had also primed the underside.
Mr S. sanding the floor in 2002 (look at that yucky old siding)!
Applying the oil based porch floor paint
Try #1: After researching online, I decided to go more old school and use an oil based porch floor paint by Benjamin Moore. We completely sanded the floor back to the wood with a giant sander. Then we thinned down the oil paint with paint thinner and installed 2 coats (to help it absorb into the wood) followed by 2 regular coats. This held up for another 3 years or so.
Installing the Front Railings in 2006
Primed Porch Railings in 2006
Try #2: Next we sanded and scraped lightly and put on another coat of the oil paint.This lasted another year or so before starting to peel again. Also when we bought this paint the second time we had to buy it in quarts because the VOCs were so strong they were not allowed to sell it in larger quantities (at least according to the local Benjamin Moore store).
Try #3: It has been about 4 years since we have done anything and in addition to major paint peeling we have had a fair amount of rot. So we thought with the developments in latex paint it was time to give some another try. This time we are going with a Sherwin Williams product designed for high traffic floors called ArmorSeal Tread-Plex. As I understand it, it is typically used on concrete floors, but was recommended by a number of painters for porch floors. It was kind of pricey but not any more than a Benjamin Moore product. This time, the porch will be patched, scraped, sanded and primed with an oil primer (to ensure adhesion to the oil paint). Then 2 coats of the ArmorSeal will be installed. Fingers crossed we will get a longer life out of this paint!
