painting chipboard flooring?

j.e.j.

My hallway has bare chipboard flooring which we'd like to eventually carpet over or put an acrylic/vinyl covering on, but at the moment we've not got the funds to do so.. so I was wondering how to make it look a bit better in the meantime.

Does anyone know, is there a paint that would be suitable for using on a chipboard floor? Parts of the floor have gone darker from where it's been walked on, so I was thinking a paint rather than a varnish? There's such an array of different types of paint and varnish available in B&Q I wouldn't know where to start looking, so thought I'd ask here if anyone has any idea what might be suitable for chipboard flooring.

olias

Are you serious? If its just a hallway, just buy a cheap offcut from a discount carpet store - or even just a cheap runner from the market, It'll cost as much, if not more to buy paint, thinners, masking tape and brushes.

Olias

j.e.j.

The hall's L-shaped, about 2.5/3 metres each direction. Yeah, if it was just a small area I could just get a small rug but the L-shape would mean buying 2 and they start from around £40 each.

Carpet off-cuts might be a possibility, not sure. There aren't any cheap markets nearby, unfortunately.

bridgedino

Aldi or Lidl regularly do runners for hallways. Normaly around £5.

Painting would look awful I would imagine

phill99

Painting chipboard will look like a dogs dinner. get some cheap runners. Try freecycle for free rugs etc.

j.e.j.

ah well, thanks for the warning, folks.

Looks like it's going to have to be carpet or cheap rugs, if I can find any. We've got a Lidl nearby, might be worth a look I guess.

It's getting to the stage now where I just don't want to look at the bare chipboard flooring anymore! And it being the hallway, it's the first thing people see when they come in, so was after trying to make it look a bit more 'inviting'.

olias

£40! ..........Have a look on ebay - I've just had a quick search and you can get 2.3m long runners for £11 with free p&p.

Olias

j.e.j.

no, the ones that start at £11-ish are smaller.

Actually, thinking about it, a runner might be too narrow in any case. My hallway is about 1 m 30 wide, so not a small, narrow hallway. I think a 60cm-wide runner would look too narrow. I'd need a couple of rugs measuring about 2m x 0.8/1m (ish!)

Anyway, I'll keep a look out. Sometimes supermarkets do rugs. Ikea also have some, though I think they start at around £15-20. Still cheaper than carpet, though.

At least I know now not to bother with the paint!

Gloomendoom

Painted chipboard can actually look very good. I painted the floor in our dining room with eggshell white. I think it looks ok and it's lasted ten years.

I cut shallow grooves in boards before I painted them to replicate random width floorboards and many people are surprised to learn that they are not real floorboards.

Perhaps not the best pic to show them off... but you can see them just.

art_for_arts_sake

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Painted chipboard can actually look very good. I painted the floor in our dining room with eggshell white. I think it looks ok and it's lasted ten years.

I cut shallow grooves in boards before I painted them to replicate random width floorboards and many people are surprised to learn that they are not real floorboards.

I'd second that. You can also get a rubber graining rocker or dragging brush which can be used either with traditional oil-based scumble or the more recent acrylic scumbles over a suitable undercoat to give a realistic wood effect.

amyjo248

You can totally paint chipboard and make it look nice. Nice light sanding is not worn evenly and then a sealing coat. I used something called KILZ but I dont' think it is nearby. Something that keeps the stains underneath and it is a little thicker than reg paint