That question can get you many different answers. I sand floors from time to time and it depends on how the floor is done. If you sand them yourself your probably going to make alot of dust, bump into the walls a time or two,and if you dont put a hole in the wall your doing good. If you hire a professional they might or might not have a vacuum system,if they do very little dust and no wall damage should be the result. Its always a good idea to clean your walls before you paint them. And I feel its not that difficult to cover the floor when your painting and being carefull not spill the paint. I hope this helps and goodluck with your project. P.S. make sure the shoe molding is removed prior to sanding if you paint first and your putting a stained shoe you have no problems,if there painted run a small bead of matching caulk to the gap at the base and you done.

A followup -- I'm now convinced a disc sander is not the solution. This weekend I'm going to rent an orbital floor sander. I plan on using 60 & 80 grit because I couldn't get the nails down more than 1/8 inch so don't want to take off too much wood. This outta be interesting... P.S. I don't see any reason then to prewash?

Hi there. Congratulations on your new house! We have done several painting (and repainting projects) on our old house which we purchased 6 years ago. We refinished floors as well so I hope my observations can be of help. I was told that I should paint first but I found that the edges of the molding looked battered after I did the floors. I found that if you finish the floors first, you can keep the sides of your base moldings looking fresh and new BUT -- this is important -- have your painter (or you) cover the floors completely with paper and blue tape otherwise you will have little flecks of paint on the floor that will drive you crazy (or at least they drove me crazy). They sell rolls of that brown paper at Home Depot. Also I would recommend getting a good professional painter -- don't get the cheapest b/c you will just be disappointed -- hopefully someone can recommend one to you. We've had three different painters and you could definatly tell the difference between the professional and the johnny come lately painters. Regarding the carpet, it seems to make sense to remove the old carpet, paint and then put down the new carpet. Good luck to you on your new house and I hope you have a smooth closing. : )

In the 10+ years of refinishing floorsi've done, i've never....NEVER come across a painter who wasnt sloppy. not just spills, but sloppy work. You can sit there and tell them no tape what so ever, they dont care. I absolutely hate painters, hands down. Theres not a single thing anyone could say to me that would make me change my mind. I've painted before, yeah it takes alittle long to do things right, but craftsmansip and quality dont have time limits. That being said There's is not an adhesive tape thats on the market that is designed to be on freshly finished floors. You have a couple of options. have them paint before, but the sanders are going to mark up the base/shoe a little bit, if the sanders are good, they wont gauge the trim, but it make get marked up a bit, which then would require touch up paint. You could also have the floors done up the last coat, then have the painters do their thing and then have the floor guys come back and apply the last coat of finish, but the only issue with that is if the painters are sloppy then you run the risk of having some specks of paint being coated over. The third is if there is base shoe, have it taken off, painted, and then installed after the floors are done, this would only require a little paint touch up and shouldnt require a complete tape job from the painters. These are just some i can think of off the top of my head at the moment, sorry bout the long post but i really dislike painters haha.