Whether a temporary fix or something more permanent, one of the most economical ways to revamp an interior concrete floor, is to paint it. Relatively simple and quick to do – Sharon, from our team, has been busy in her new house during lockdown. Here are her tips for getting the best results...

Sharon’s entrance hall painted with Eico Alterior Floor Paint.

Choosing the best paint for concrete floors

Sharon’s paint of choice was  Eico’s Alterior Floor Paint. An eco friendly interior floor paint that’s water based and made from 100% pure acrylic which makes it extremely hard wearing. It dries to a silky satin finish, has very low VOC’s and with low odour too, it makes painting the floor a much more pleasant experience.

It’s all in the preparation…

As with any good paint job, the key is in good preparation. It’s true this is rarely the fun part of painting but putting the work in here will really reward you in the long run, giving you a better finish and longer lasting results.

To start with, the concrete floor needs to be clean, dry and free from any flaking paint or dust, so sand off any old bits of flaking paint or adhesive and give it a good hoover over and a quick mop down to get rid of any final bits of dust and grease. Once dry, you’re ready to start painting.

Start with a good concrete floor primer

For Alterior Floor paint, you should always start with a thin coat of  Eico’s Grepp V primer, specially developed to help the paint thoroughly adhere to the substrate. The primer is white, so if you’ve chosen a vibrant or dark coloured floor paint, we’d always recommend asking for the primer to be tinted to a suitable shade for your top coat. Our team here at Celtic Sustainables are always happy to do this for you and it will help you achieve a more accurate colour for your finished floor..

Manage your painting schedule

At this point it’s worth mentioning time scale. The primer needs 4-6 hours drying time before it can be overpainted, although it should be touch dry in around 1-2 hours, depending on temperature and humidity. (Sharon even walked on her floor very carefully after only a couple of hours because she was painting a corridor that couldn’t be avoided, but it’s always best to avoid this as much as you can).

The primer coat is followed by 2 thin coats of  Alterior Floor paint which needs 6-8 hours drying time between coats and can take up to a week to fully cure. This means taking it easy on the finished floor for a good few days once you finish, to prevent any chipping and scratching while it thoroughly hardens. With all these drying times to consider, it’s definitely worth making sure you plan your painting to coincide with periods where you’ll be able to avoid walking on the floor as much as possible.

Here’s Sharon’s hall floor and bathroom painted with  Grepp V Primer and overcoated with Alterior floor paint.

Afterwards Sharon said of the Eico floor paint “It does seem to go a very long way” and “it’s put up with Abi [her daughter] leaving puddles of water all over in the bathroom.”

How to paint a concrete floor

Eico’s primer and floor paint can be applied by either brush, roller or spray. Sharon used a combination of brush to cut in around the edges and a roller on a long pole to fill in the main areas of her hall floors which was easy to do and gave good even finishes to her projects. Sharon's loves the Purdy range of brushes and rollers for long-lasing quality and superb finish results.

Cleaning up afterwards

Eico’s primer and floor paint are both water-based products, so cleaning brushes and rollers afterwards is really easy with water and a little detergent. But be aware, the paint starts to harden very quickly so don’t leave your tools for too long before you wash them.

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If you have any questions about painting a floor or if you need help choosing products for a project in your home, why not get in touch with our team who will always do their best to help and advise.

Eico Alterior Floor paint is available in 96 beautiful colours. Its a simply way to quickly change the look of a room and can be used on all primed concrete and wood floors . Free colour card available, make sure you check the "Eico" option.