Menu
What's new

Screen Porch Floor -- Suggestions?

Dave Richards

Dave Richards

Member
Messages
2,930
Location
SE Minnesota
I'm looking for suggestions for a floor covering for our screen porch. Here's what we've got:
  • The existing floor is treated OSB glued and screwed to the joists.
  • The floor is level. Well, except where the edges of the sheets swelled after getting wet.
  • There's no more than 3/4" between the OSB and the underside of the sliding door threshold.
  • The siding on the house was trimmed right down to the OSB. Not fun to pull the siding off to put flooring under it but maybe we'll have to.
  • The floor is held back about 1/2 in. from the exterior walls to allow water to drain off. Of course being flat, the water doesn't do that anyway.
  • We plan to put car siding on the inside of the walls and leave it up off the floor a little.
  • the porch is 12 by 20 feet.
The contractor told us it was a new kind that is weather proof. I was skeptical but trusted his judgment. Not so happy with it now. So I'm looking for some suggestions on what I can put down over it. Carpet doesn't seem like a real good plan. I figure it'll get wet when it rains in and just hold the moisture against the OSB. I looked into those vinyl floor planks. They looked promising but this is Minnesota where temps can be 20 or 30 below zero in the winter and up around 100 sometimes in the summer. The manufaturer of the vinyl planks says they're only for temperature controlled environments. If would be nice if the surface was smooth so it can be cleaned with a mop--I don't want to pressure wash it.
Is there some sort of thick, somewhat flexible, durable coating that would go on reasonably smooth? Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Dave














 
On the outside? It's vinyl. And on the wall of the house, the same. There's nothing on the inside of the exterior walls yet but insulation and plastic sheeting. We'll be putting pine car siding on the walls. I think the photos are a little dark but the ceiling has pine beadboard.
 
How about one of those epoxy based coatings that use pea stone in the mix? They're somewhat flexible, and they look pretty good. I think there's a 'rubberized' variety, too. Depending on where you live, and who installs it, it might be a bit pricey, though.
 
Are the outer walls sitting on that floor too?

Outside of the already made suggestions of tile, vinyl, or epoxy/paint. Re-pitching the floor for drainage to a pipe and a rubber type membrane over it, then cover with a floating deck floor, but might get a bit cost prohibitive and doesn't appear you have the room to raise everything 3"-4". Looks like that wasn't really designed to have screens in it, but more of windows and open when it's not raining or snowing.

Also, I'm not sure that the insulation in the outside wall is a good idea, not a bad one if you put windows in the openings, but right now it's probably more of a sponge than and insulator.
 
Darren, you're right. There's no room to add anything to repitch the floor. It really was designed to be screens only. That's all we ever wanted from the beginning but we have insulated in case a future owner wants to put in windows and seal it up. We've made provisions so water won't get into the walls. The walls do not sit on the floor. There is about a half-inch gap around the exterior walls to allow for drainage but as I said in the beginning, the water doesn't drain because it is flat.

Everything I've heard from the various manufacturers of vinyl flooring says no go because of the temperature range it'll be exposed too.
 
I've never seen it used myself, but a company called Synta makes a "deck restore" product I've seen on sale at the Borg. Gives more of a textured finish than epoxy paint.

Let us know what you end up doing. :lurk::lurk:
 
Matt, I went to Home Despot on Sunday to look at that product. Frankly it is pretty ugly. The surface is very rough and looks like it would catch an awful lot of dirt. Might not be a problem on an exterior deck you could pressure wash once in awhile but I don't want to be pressure washing the floor in our screen porch.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top