Is floor paint on concrete purely aesthetic or actually functional?

Question

I have a large thatched barn recently (6 months) laid with a concrete floor to replace the original mud floor. The concrete was dusting badly, especially near where a table tennis table sits, so I have now treated it with two coats of diluted (1:5) pva.

My question is whether the addition of floor paint (at some considerable expense and effort) is going to serve any useful purpose or whether it is purely aesthetic. The surface is currently quite rough so I do not need to add any anti-slip coating. All I need is a durable surface that will not powder.

Answer 1

I would have said one reason for painting would be to create a stable surface, but you seem to have that covered by your use of PVA.

The main reasons for painting (that I can think of right now are):

• Aesthetics (as you've mentioned), it will tone down the "industrial" nature of concrete flooring and match your colour scheme.
• Durability, this covers physical damage such as scuffing etc.
• Maintainance, it will be easier to clean up spills etc. from a painted floor and you won't get water stains etc. either.

So you've covered 2 out of the 3 I can think of, though a couple of coats of the appropriate floor paint might be more durable than the PVA. The question then becomes do you need to take care of the 3rd point?