Porch Flooring

[Holmes Anderson]

I plan on painting it the typical Gray.
I understand the water issues that you don't water standing on the wood.
This what I have to work with.
What did the old timers use on these old porches ? Isn't T&G the typical flooring material used ? Attachment 502402

I usually see T&G porch decks on old Victorian houses that have a roof with generous overhang, knee wall instead of railing, and relatively steep pitch of the porch deck. They are sometimes screened-in. Those t&g boards don't see much rainwater. If yours failed, then there is a reason that it failed so maybe something has to change. If you just want to rebuild it the way it was originally built then pull up a couple of boards and see how it was built. Is that metal railing original?

[Mike Burke]

I will do some digging to see if there is any of the original flooring underneath. I doubt it though.
I'm sure the metal railing is Not original. Someone probably redid this porch in the 80s and thought they would "remodel" the porch and get rid of all the original material, maybe because it was rotten, like you mention. That would be my guess.
Thanks

[dennis thompson]

We have front, side and back porches. I got tired of refinishing them every few years and had them replaced with Trex. Wash them off each spring and I’m done. Needless to say, we are very happy with the change.

[Jared Sankovich]

Every old porch I've come across was tongue and groove, and painted. Typical decking doesn't look right (imho) as a porch.

[Tom M King]

Every porch around these parts has T&G flooring. My Grandfather's house, built in 1870 had Heart Pine T&G on maybe 1,000 sq. ft. of wraparound porch. It lasted until 1981. I know because I was the one that changed it to treated. I bought my first floor sander for working on that porch. Even before I changed the wood, it needed some work and new paint every year.

The first paint job on the new flooring lasted a few years, but after that the recoating was much more frequent.

Painted wood just looks right on the old houses, but it's an ongoing maintenance thing. I think I would only use it on museum houses now, that have an upkeep budget.

[Mel Fulks]

The painted canvas ,going back to at least 1890 , keeps the paint on. Stops the frequent maintenance. Selling it to the “I ain’t ever
heard of that before “, people ; Is only possible with pics and brochures . It was also used on ships, …..the ones in water ,not the
ones in the Smithsonian.

[John Pendery]

Another good option I’ve installed is a thermally modified or “torrefied” porch flooring product (usually ash but maybe this is changing?). There are a couple different manufacturers here in the US. It’s a very stable and durable alternative to tropical hardwoods. Comes in several widths and the ends of the boards are milled in such a way as to create a structural butt joint that can break mid span (16” oc), saving a bit on waste depending on layout.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Painted canvas was on it's way out back in the 1960s in NE Ohio.
The decent oil based paints that worked best were all slowly being phased out.

Those metal posts supporting the roof give me the willies.....

[Mel Fulks]

In the 1960’s the paint was different. There are many good paints now , and there are many pressure treated hideous decks now.
Something is always being discarded . Linoleum was discarded and replaced with inferior stuff , now linoleum is expensive enough
to be good again !

[Mel Fulks]

Another thing about the painted canvas. Paint soaks into canvas it’s not just a top coat.
When you see a painter with paint on his shirt today ….you will see it again . You can scrape
dried paint off of wood and and metal , but you won’t scrape it off of cloth .

[Cameron Wood]

Another thing about the painted canvas. Paint soaks into canvas it’s not just a top coat.
When you see a painter with paint on his shirt today ….you will see it again . You can scrape
dried paint off of wood and and metal , but you won’t scrape it off of cloth .

If you were putting canvas on a porch floor, would you glue it down?, tack the edges? what glue? what about seams?

[Mel Fulks]

I’ve only done one, used I think ,plastic resin glue. In the early days of canvas porches the canvas was ‘glued’ down with paint.
Today I would use 3/4” good 1 side plywood and Tite Bond 2. Plywood would be splined and glued.
Sorry, I didn’t address the seams . Canvas is sold like sewing cloth , what they call a selvege edge, meaning a woven strip on
both factory edges that does not unravel. I would overlap one piece over another 2 or 3 inches.

[Mel Fulks]

There have been magazine articles about canvas porches ,but I don’t remember which ones , I do remember they were old house mags.
Try google too.

[Tom Bender]

We installed cedar decking carefully primed and painted both sides. In 5 years it was peeling so we removed it, scraped it, dried it in the sun then reprimed and painted both sides. 5 years later it was peeling again so we went with Trex. 10 years later it's still fine. Also covered the t 111 with good quality vinyl siding and aluminum soffits. Only 2 door frames still have painted wood in the weather. Now we can grow old in comfort.