# Painting Masonite



## Call911 (Jan 3, 2012)

Hey all,

I have to paint a set of risers that are in an orchestra pit. We used to have black carpet, but it was damaged. The plan is now to paint the risers, but we are worried about music stands and chairs scratching it up easily. Any advice on how the paint the Masonite so it will last longer? Thanks!


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## DuckJordan (Jan 3, 2012)

Call911 said:


> Hey all,
> 
> I have to paint a set of risers that are in an orchestra pit. We used to have black carpet, but it was damaged. The plan is now to paint the risers, but we are worried about music stands and chairs scratching it up easily. Any advice on how the paint the Masonite so it will last longer? Thanks!


 
Standard Paint will work, use a coat or two of primer first, to help seal the masonite, then add a coat or two of standard paint. Unfortunately you'll end up having to either touch up or repaint depending on how much use they see, our stage gets almost daily use and only needs repaint and touch ups each year.


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## Footer (Jan 3, 2012)

Few pieces of advice here. First, prime it well. Second, don't use a latex paint. Use an acrylic. This is what I am currently using on my stage. They use the clear base and tint it as dark as possible. I just switched to it over the summer and have yet to have to touch up the deck after about 100 events on the stage.


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## krice (Jan 5, 2012)

I would suggest priming with a dark color (that way if you do scratch all the way through to the prime coat it's not white), 2 coats of paint, seal with polyurethane. You can get poly in a pretty low sheen, even flat I believe- it will add some resistance to your paint.

I use it to seal painted floors for musicals all the time it's the only thing I use to keep the floor safe from scuff marks and scratches.

Just make sure you get water based- it will dry in two hours vs. 24 hours if you use oil based. Although, oil based might be even tougher to scratch and beat up than water based.


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## MNicolai (Jan 5, 2012)

krice said:


> seal with polyurethane



Don't know that I would do that. We tried a polyurethane coat on some props a couple years ago; gave them to our fire dept for flammability testing and they burnt up like tinder. We don't use polyurethane for anything now.


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## krice (Jan 5, 2012)

I've used the water based polyurethane called polycrylic for years- it has never been an issue.

Maybe the oil based has no flame retardancy, or you know something I don't know.


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## avkid (Jan 5, 2012)

Water based is much less flammable, almost no danger once it has dried.


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## Teber (Jan 5, 2012)

Use Rosco's Tough Prime Paint -- that stuff is great!


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## sk8rsdad (Jan 6, 2012)

Teber said:


> Use Rosco's Tough Prime Paint -- that stuff is great!


It needs some sort of topcoat to be durable. Otherwise the pigment turns everything it touches black.


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## mstaylor (Jan 8, 2012)

An option that is not cheap is to Line-X them. It will wear like iron and be nonskid. I do not know about the flame retartant part of the equation. The other option is to use plywood instead of masonite. Masonite doesn't really absorb the paint, it just sits on the surface.


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## avkid (Jan 8, 2012)

mstaylor said:


> An option that is not cheap is to Line-X them.


 More like bankruptcy inducing.


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