There aren’t too many things I enjoy more than my screened porch. Once the worst of the pollen season has passed the first thing I want to do is clean up the porch and get out there. This spring the floor is looking particularly drab. The floor is original to the house, boring 2” x 6” raw wood deck planking, dark and dirty. Time to clean, prepare, and paint the screened porch floor. I think it could also use a little color!
Years of Dirt Are Power Washed Away
Before I could paint (the fun part for me), I needed to prepare the wood floor for painting (not the fun part). The floor had several years of pollen, mildew, dust, and dirt on it so it needed a thorough cleaning. First, I power washed with water. After a few days of drying, it still had some dark sections so I sprayed those areas lightly with Clorox Bleach and power washed* it again. That did it! It looked clean all over.
* Make sure you use eye and breathing protection when power washing with bleach solution!
Doing It Right, Preparing The Wood Surface
After a couple more days of drying, I sanded it with a long handled dry wall sander. I didn’t go crazy here but I gave it an all over light to medium sanding then vacuumed it well. The guys at Sherwin- Williams, where I bought the paint, said that since the wood had never been painted before, the sanding would help the paint adhere. Also, I used a paint/sealer that was tintable so I didn’t have to buy a can of each.
Then using blue painters tape I masked off the frames around the screened panels. These will be painted white as soon as I can get to it so I don’t want the blue to show through the white paint later.
Time To Paint The Screen Porch Floor.
I got two recommendations on how to do this; the first was to use a contractor series roller with ½” nap, and the other was to use a 4” X 1.5” Cabot brush that is screwed onto a long handle. My “go to” guy at Ace Hardware who always seems to have the answers I’m looking for recommended this brush to me. He says it works well because it gets into the cracks between the boards better. This eliminates, or seriously reduces, the amount of “on your knees painting” that has to be done. I have to say the brush did work well and it was pretty fast. But in the very visible areas, I did do some additional “crack painting” with a 2 ½” foam brush…and it was not fun! (Perhaps I’m a bit too picky, but I was happy with it in the end.
I painted the screen porch floor with a second coat and let it dry for several hours before doing a close-up inspection. With a tad more touch-ups and covering some of the knots in the wood better, the porch floor is declared done. Can’t wait to move everything back and get in some “porch-sitting time.”
Very nice work on the wood flooring. Really like the cool blue color. We love our screened in porch we had built on 2nd year here. Pollen is a real problem, lots of cleaning and vacuuming. (We had indoor/outdoor carpet put down.) Thanks for the tips and pics. Enjoyment for years to come.
Yep, pollen can be a real pain, especially in spring in the south! But it’s worth it since we enjoy being out there morning and evening.
Any tips on how to clean the junk that falls between the board’s cracks and gets stuck on the screen under there?
Hi Emily, in the dining and seating area of our porch we use all season rugs. They can be vacuumed or taken off the porch and sprayed with water and cleanser if necessary. They are fairly economical and will last quite a while.
Thank you for an inspiration! We are considering something similar with a screened porch of our old house which we are now reconstructing.
The difference is that currently there is an old ugly ceramic tiles flooring which we want to remove and replace by some kind of wooden flooring (could be probably something “cheap and rustic”) and paint in a similar way as you did (except that it would be green in our case).
Any hints about particular wood type to use?
Thanks!
Our screen porch floor is constructed of treated lumber and is original to our house, which was built in the early 1980’s. We’ve lived here 11 years now and the floor is still solid and looks good. Some other long lasting options include Cedar and Redwood although they are more expensive. If you are doing the installation yourself and choose pressure treated wood make sure you follow all of the manufacturer recommended safely guidelines. You might want to check out the website http://www.decks.com as it is very informative about decking materials. Good luck on your project. I think green paint will look great!
Very late “thank you” as I was overwhelmed with tons of other stuff around the reconstruction in the summer… But big thanks for your comment and all the hints! I will share the result with you once we have it 😉
So glad our post was helpful! I look forward to seeing the results.
I love this shade of blue. What a wonderful, cheerful update. If only I had a screened porch. Maybe some day. However, my step-daughter is adding a screened porch to her home and I will share this with her – they are doing the work themselves and this will be very helpful.
Thanks. We have really enjoyed the coolness of the new color on our porch. So glad the post can be helpful for your step-daughter.