Looking for some thoughts here … my background is interior trim, and I’ve run across this issue so many times.
When you consider the best route for everyone concerned, painters and trimmers, when is the best time to hang the trim, and how far should it be finished when you do it? I’ve done jobs where I show up and the paint is finished, and the contractor says, “Now don’t ding up the paint.” Right … I’m going to hang the doors, run base and casing, etc., and not ding the paint. And is the trim also going to be pre-finished?
Purely from the trimmer’s point of view, I’d rather go in right after the drywall finishers, run raw trim, and let the painter handle it from there. I know painters who like that, saying they don’t want anyone dinging up the paint after they’re done. They can finish the trim without masking the walls, then mask the trim and paint the walls.
So what are your opinions? Is there a best middle ground, considering both quality and overall labor cost?
Replies
BEMW
The way I always do it is to prime and single top coat my trim before installing. I paint all my walls completely. I install my trim and second coat it after its up and caulked between the trim and walls were necessary. I always make sure to have all the necessary touch up colors for the walls where necessary. Makes cutting in a whole lot easier this way. Touching up dings is no biggie if you have the colors and its not months after the paint job in which case the colors dont always match up due to fading and dirt.
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Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
There is no best.
Communication is important. I like to talk top both trim carps and painters to get them working together. Schedule impacts this too. Most often we get the rock sprayed with primer by the rock finisher. That gives the base coat and helps harden it off to prevent scuffing the rock. Sometimes the trim is pre-primered, sometimes has first coat of paint when installed. Then the painter comes in to spackle and finish paint every thing.
Excellence is its own reward!
Everyone's replies make sense for their situation (thank you to all), which makes Piffin's "there is no best" remark a valid one. But they are in fact all "right" answers.
Prime the drywall, and do 1st finish coat, then we trim out completely, then finish all trim in place, mask and put on the final coat....call for carpet.
I do a lot of historic restoration, and have to do all phases of work. The best situation is to have a painter on hand to make sure all trim has been back primed (especially crown molding) and even end primed if at all possible. Otherwise the crap they sell us will move constantly and cause painting call-backs for years.
I like to install all trim first, prime everything and caulk. The walls can get the first base coat at this point, but don't have to. All that's important is to paint out the trim finish coats (mine are almost always oil paint, gloss sheen) so that the last wall coat (oil or acrylic) can be wiped off the trim. You can't go the opposite way. Acrylic or cheaper latex paint will absorb oil paint on contact and you have to re-paint if you get trim paint on the walls or ceilings.
I don't know about "touching up" spots. For a high quality job without and blushing, you have to repaint entire wall or ceiling surfaces. My clients don't accept anything less, and neither do I from my painters.
If you plaster you have to trim first.
It makes a lot of sense to paint drywall before trim, the time savings make up for the expected work damage.
Pre-painting trim gets dicey. Painted trim should be primed only, but you can 2nd coat it and deal with the issues. The last time I checked you needed to put two coats over paint prep, but maybe someone knows something I don't, or they don't look back as hard as I do.
Stained trim can be stained and first coated before install, putty and finish. If you finish one coat then you are borderline quality with any finish. If your finish guy will defeat the pre-coats by sanding thru then forget about it. Install raw and give the painters the house.
You have to balance the house and the trades, every job is different, and the subs will keep you guessing. Nine times out of ten the schedule is porked when you are at finish and all of this is meaningless unless you have invested in your subs. If you are a sub then you have to stand up for what it takes to do your job, and walk when you get burnt over and over.
Blah blah blah, just talking points...