Paint or sand floors first

13 years ago

So, we have hardwoods acclimating in piles right now. There is one room my contractor isnt painting so that is my concern. I was going to prime and paint today but DH was horrified that I would paint before site-finishing the floors. I see the point both ways. Mostly because I am 1. not all that neat in general, and 2. the walls will be complicated with metallic paint below chair rail and raised stencils on a faux-plastered wall above. So on one hand I liked to get started and make a big mess without worrying about the floors but on the other, it might be harder to clean dust off my walls. So, which is worse? Site finishing with newly painted walls or painting walls/ceilings amid newly finished walls? Help?!

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Comments (9)

luckytiff02
13 years ago
You can do it in either order. But refinishing a floor is really messy and you are more than likely going to have to go back and re touch up your base boards... painting them once is hard enough. Just make sure after you do the floors and start painting that you keep a rag handy with mineral oil on it. You can buy glue remover for hardwood floors at any home improvement store (mineral oil) and wipe up any paint that gets on the floor. It wont hurt your floor I promise.

Here is a link that might be useful: Primera Furniture
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trisha57_ny
13 years ago
Where I come from, floors are always done last.
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If floor sanding dust sticks to fresh paint, the paint is either matte or not fully dry. We bought a reposessed house which needed painting and new flooring. Painting was first---as the base molding need to be removed. Used semi-gloss acrylic enamel. Three days later, I installed unfinished hard maple flooring, which required sanding. Using a USand machine(Takes longer than a drum sander, but almost impossible to screw up the flooring), I sanded for a day and a half(1,200 sq. ft.) in the living room, long hall, and three bedrooms. Not a problem with sanding dust as the particles not vacuumed up by the machine were large enough to not become easily airborne.
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paintergirl94
13 years ago
It depends on how good your floor guys are. If they use the proper equipment, you will see virtually no dust on your walls.
If you're worried about yourself being messy, you can apply the base coat for your complicated wall finish before and do the decorative treatment after the floors are finished.
It can be done either way. For me, it sometimes comes down to scheduling. If you do paint after floors are done, invest in a few good dropcloths.
Ideally, you want the floors done last, but it can be done either way.
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mclarke
13 years ago
Ditto on the previous poster's thoughts. Many floor refinishing processes these days are truly "dustless". Mine was.
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mjsee
13 years ago
And think about this...once the floor is refinished...every time your paint after that you will be painting with a finished floor in the room. ;^)

I no longer use a drop cloth when I'm painting in a hardwood room...I find I do better getting the occasional drip up in a timely manner if I don't have a cloth down. (When I used a cloth in the past I discovered paint can sneak under and dry...and then it's more work to get it up.) I also paint barefooted, so I can tell if I've stepped in paint IMMEDIATELY and then I don't track it. It looks a tad odd, but it works for me!
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User
13 years ago
I learned a neat trick ... WAX the floors really well with a paste wax

The drips don't stick and you can buff all those teensy speckles off with no effort.
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User
13 years ago
If its prefinished hardwood, you won't have dust but you may have marks on the wallls from the mallet. When my installers were installing close to the wall, they would occasionally mark up the wall with the mallet as they nailed it in place.

If you are doing a paint on the lower half that doesn't touch up that well, you should wait till they are done.
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wi-sailorgirl
13 years ago
When we had our floors refinished we had a lot of damage on, well, everything. Anywhere their electrical cords ran vibrated and wore the finish off (the painted staircase, for instance). Also we have wood paneling that wasn't painted very well and anywhere they hit that with a machine needed work. Personally, I'd paint last.
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spring-meadow
13 years ago
There was another discussion on this recently:

Here is a link that might be useful: Other discussion
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