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Hello all! So, for the first time in my career I painted an almost black floor. I have learned in the past that it is pretty difficult to flawlessly seal a virtually black floor. I have access to Rosco Gloss and Flat, which I mixed to get semi gloss. Every time I have used a roller with these, they have dried pretty foggy. I tested the sealer on my sample with an ‘evenly uneven’ brush stroke, curtesy of Rachel Keebler 🙂 It worked pretty well, and I virtually could not see any strokes. Cut to the big floor. My crew did a great job as we have used this process before, but guess what..you can see EVERY stroke. I am not surprised. I learned once at Cobalt how to apply a self leveling sealer to a black floor and have it be perfect. That was a long time ago, and I don’t have have the money to use a sealer different than my good old Rosco. Does any one have any tricks to doing this with the sealers I have??? I let the designer know about the floor and I hope that a little bit of wear from the actors will make it a little less noticeable.Have you tried using an applicator instead of a roller? They’re fairly cheap at Home Depot. (I usually choose the synthetic foam over the lambskin, as I’ve had issues in the past with the lambskin breaking off little bits of fuzz into the sealer. Gross.) Both seal more evenly than a roller, and it’s usually a faster process as well.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Applicator-and-More-10-in-Lambskin-Pad-with-Block-11001/100585512
^^ I second the applicator method. With a clear sealer it is my go-to. Your sealer will also play a part. Higher quality floor finishes will self-level (usually to an extent and provided even application), but if you only have the option of Rosco, you could try thinning with water and doing additional coats.
Do you have money to use Rosco Premiere Clear? I had excellent experience with a roller application (on a marble technique) last spring. It comes in gloss, satin, and flat. When the students rolled it on, it seemed to self-level. It didn’t show repeated roller marks.
Can you buy floor polish (like Pledge or Zep) and apply with stain applicators?
I don’t know if anyone has ever tried janitorial supplies, but ALL MY BEST (and cheapest) floor sealers come from them. In particular, there is a line of floor sealers from Staples (there used to be a local place that carried this but staples bought them up now I have to go through their website). They used to carry three that I liked but they eliminated the satin I loved so much. The high gloss product is amazing. What makes these so great is they’re about the consistency of water so you can run them through a pump sprayer. So easy, fast and still so very durable. They’re also CHEAP in compassion. I do all my black floors with these. I pour them right into the pump sprayers, set it to a fine mist, walk around the floor with an even spray and let dry. I usually do two or three coats depending on the run of the show and the request of the sheen (the more coats, the glossier). If you want less of a high gloss, set the sprayer to have a more coarse spray. Water based. Easy clean up. Free shipping straight to your door. No brush strokes. Never turns yellow or cloudy. Never paint another black floor again!
For glossy floors:
For less glossy floors:
There is an ENDLESS amount of things I use these products for. They’re cheap enough that you can order a couple gallons and play around with them. I’d love to know if these work for anyone else!
I’d suggest Bona Traffic applied with a squeegee/sponge mop. It is made for sealing floors and levels well/dries clear.
Thank you, Kate, for discussing Brighton Diamond Floor Covering! I had to order it in Minneapolis because none of the Staples had any in stock, but it works like a dream and produced no clouding. It will be my new “go to”…
Yes to all the industrial floor sealers! I usually pick up Shine Keeper at Home Depot, which is made for linoleum floors, and apply it with a Wet Jet sprayer. It’s great and the sprayer gives such an even coat. It goes on pretty thin that way, so I tend to do 3 or 4 coats, but it looks beautiful and lasts forever. Plus you can control how shiny it is depending on how many coats you put on.
Have you used the Home Depot product on black floors? Advice on outdoor floor coating? Also, repainting on top of the sealer was no problem!
How do the floor sealers affect later repainting of the same floor? How would you prep for a new recoat of paint over a previous sealer?
I suggested using Bona Traffic and still do. However, it has a recoat time of 48 hours. If you go past that, it’s a lot of sanding before applying another coat.
Not so sure about other poly sealers. I would probably sand just to be safe.
I have found this to be the best all-purpose sealant, it doesn’t discolor and this particular mixture dries to a satin finish that doesn’t give the LD headaches.
[attachment=0]On-an-on.jpg[/attachment]I end up doing quite a few black floors these days, and generally when sealing, I use a combo. I’ve had better luck with different sealers in different parts of the country, and I say that because I am currently in Colorado where there is very little humidity.
I’ve found the Rosco clears tend to cloud out here, so my go-to combo (which is very cheap)
is about 3-4 parts Rustoleum Parks Pro Finisher to 1-2 parts Zep High Traffic Floor Finish.
The Zep is almost water consistency, so it stretches my finish much further, and also helps it to level out more. If I want a completely smooth finish, I apply with a pad applicator (as others have said).
The only caution I have with the Zep is that it does add inherent sheen (so if you’re going for a dead flat finish, you won’t get it with that addition).
I also don’t have much issue re-painting over it when the next show comes around (however, our floor is in dire need of replacing, so there are always weird lumps and bumps which we try to ignore… were it a nice, smooth floor, I might feel differently, and I’ll let you know if/when it happens, if the products perform the same way)
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