As title really. We need to repaint the wooden floorboards in our bathroom, which is obviously a wet and steamy environment. We’ll just be having floorboards – not rug or anything else to cover them once painted. Any special process, tips, paints to use? We googled it but there’s conflicting info. Presumably we need to sand the gloss finish off the existing boards, but not necessarily completely remove the old paint? And which paint is best to use – is there a specialist paint folk can recommend for exactly this? Ta for any tips.

Zinsser Allcoat waterbased. They do a Matt version which would be ideal. It can be tinted to any colour. Gives a really tough durable finish. Recoatable in an hour.

lambchop – cheers for this, I’ll look into it. All other tips and recommendations welcome.

Johnstones do something call Flortread which is very tough and available mixed to any colour.

Have you sealed between the boards? Could get very cold and draughty if you don’t.

Have you sealed between the boards? Could get very cold and draughty if you don’t.

bathroom – presumably first floor.

First floor, so drafts no probs. Thanks though. On that note – what do folk use to seal the gaps between wooden floorboards on their ground floor? Drafts coming up between the boards is an issue in our dinging room downstairs. Oldish house – say 150 years.

bathroom – presumably first floor.

First floor, so drafts no probs.

Surely you still have a relatively cool air trapped between the ground floor ceiling and the 1st floor? It will be also be common across the the full footprint of the house. When you heat the room above it will draw the cooler air in.

Unless I’m missing something?

Heat rising from ground floor warms the space below the first floor as plasterboard is not a good insulator.
Unless you live in a very small house with no structural internal walls, chances are the footprint is split into sections.

And that’s before we take into account the uninsulated central heating pipework running beneath the first floor.

It’s not a small house and there’s no issue at all with drafts coming up into the bathroom, though there is an issue with cold drafts coming up from beneath the ground floor floorboards (entering the cavity underneath through air bricks in the external wall, I guess). Not a massive problem but it would be good sort it one way or another if it’s not massively expensive. We live in a slightly elevated position in the north, and the back of our house gets very little light so it gets cold in winter.

If the existing coat is oil based gloss then make sure you prime with an adhesion primer first.
Zinsser cover stain, or Zinsser bin are easy options..

I say this as it’s quite likely you will be using a water based product. If you like the posh stuff then Farrow and ball have a new eggshell for floors.
Be warned though as water based paints will get a bit soft if you leave water standing on it for too long