What comes first? flooring or painting
magetol
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’m currently having my home built and overseeing the construction myself. I’m at the stage now where I need to do cabinets, flooring and painting. I’m being advised by a builder to first do the floors cabinets then paint the house. I would have thought that i should first paint, install the cabinets and then do the flooring. the house would have hardwood floors except for bathrooms and bedrooms. I could use some professional advice as to which way to proceed. thanks LMN
Replies
I know there's alot of
I know there's alot of differences of opinion out there and good arguments either way, but my personal preference is paint first (think ladders, buckets, etc on newly finished and soft floors, which is bad), then floors, and then have ur painter touch up marks from the flooring guys. It works pretty well for me, although I know plenty of other GCs who do the reverse.
Yeah, arguments both ways. Generally paint, cabinets, floors, if the kitchen flooring is vinyl, wood, or carpet. For tile floors it's often better to tile first, then put in the cabinets.
If you paint first there is inevitably some touch-up that needs to be done, but it's easier to touch-up paint than hardwood floors or carpeting, and the painters don't have to work as hard to keep from splattering.
(On the other hand, if the wood flooring isn't pre-finished then sanding will raise considerable dust, not a great thing for freshly painted walls.)
An issue can arise if you will be placing painted base/shoe over the edge of the hardwood. Generally it can be pre-painted, but it will still require considerable touch-up after installation, meaning a return trip for the painter. But you don't need ladders et al to paint baseboard.
Ye always do the floor last
Esp teh slob painter that i am.
Floors before cab's esp if
Floors before cab's esp if theres HWD in the kitchen ..
Welcome to BT... hope you can find your way back to this thread
We normally have the house primed after the sheet rock is hung. The painters I use spray, so if the floors, or cabinets were in it would mean a lot of needless protecting.
The painters may even want to finish coat the ceilings then, not a lot happens to them from here on out.
I prefer the floors to go in before the cabinets, tile included. Less possible damage to the cabinets, and much easier for the floor installers. I also like to have the floors sanded where ever toe kicks land, at door openings, and along walls. Saves on sanding later, makes the shoe go in flatter, and the door jambs set much nicer.
Sheet floorings go in after everything. Good luck.
I have always found that nobody wants to be the "last man" since then you can't blame the damage on someone else.
I see it both ways - do you really want to clean the dust from the floor sanding off of the newly painted walls? Or do you want to clean up the spilled paint from your newly finished floor?
I would always paint last, since I figure it is easier to cover the floors properly.
Do you really want someone to swing a flooring mallet near a newly painted wall?
Just my opinion.
magetol:
I used to share a house with a carpetlayer. He always wanted to be last man in, right before the furniture. Had plenty of spilled paint carpet repairs.
Kowboy
Here's the optimum way I used
Here's the optimum way I used to use on new homes I painted. I'd prime everything before the floor guys and tile setters and also get all the ceilings done with their finish coats. If the house had natural or stained trim, I'd just roll one pass around all the windows, cabinets, doors and base just enough to have the finish color behind and a bit above where the trim ended. I wouldn't do the whole wall. That would make it easy to cut in the walls once the carpenter finished trimming out and the cabinets and counters were in. I would always stain and varnish the trim in the basement or throughout the house if there was room to lay it out without other trades messing it up. You have to vaccuum the house up nice to keep the trim clean as you seal it.
Often I wouldn't even have to cut in the base just mask up about a quarter inch or so above the trim and dry roll down to the tape--I use a tape and paper masker. If the trim is going to be painted it's a waste to do this because the trim will have to be caulked anyway and the finish coat applied and run onto the wall a bit, then the walls are finished.
I always wanted to be the last guy in the house because everyone smacks the walls and I hated patching a finished wall and trying to make it look right without doing the entire wall again! I even wanted the carpet guys to be out since they sometimes mark up the walls especially in tight quarters. And in the old days they used to run the carpet up the wall a bit as they cut it to fit and that carpet backing was like 40 grit sandpaper.
The dust from even the best floor sanders still leaves a residue on painted walls that is real obvious if someone brushes against it or the sun shines down the wall...so I wanted to be the last one out the door before the walk-through.
It all depends on what kind of flooring you are going to install and the quality of the subcontractors working for you.
Are the cabinets going to be painted?
Is it field finished wood floors?
If you are installing pre-finished wood floors, they go in LAST!
If you are field finishing your wood floors, you can install them before or after cabinets, and you can paint before or after.
Need more information to provide the best answer
Thanks
D
http://www.mybuildingpro.com
Either way will work well, but your painting costs will be higher if they have to mask off everything and protect the floors.
Even on the nicest homes the walls are almost always sprayed right after the drywall is up and textured.
Having said that, if you desire to have a high gloss finish on your trim and you're anal about the final trim finish than I'd spray the walls with one coat of paint right after sheetrock, then when everything is done except for carpet, I'd mask everything and spray the trim/doors. Then the trim is masked and walls sprayed the final color, followed by masking and painting of the ceiling. Electrical trim out is last, as is carpet installation.
Hardwood floors that have to be sanded/finished in place should be done before trim is installed if the trim guys are careful. If they are not, then the floor should be sanded and a temp finish applied that will later be sanded off and the final finish applied after the painting and trim is done. If the hardwood floor guys aren't careful this is a mistake since they can dent and scratch a lot of work.
You are at a disadvantage since you don't know what kind of work your subs will do in the various situations like an established contractor will so you probably want to lean towards the more idiot proof senario.
I do everything from hardwood floors to trim to paint so I have the flexibility to treat each room separately, but most times I will do as much paint as possible after everything is installed....still clients want to see some color on the walls right away in case they want to change something a bit so right after sheetrock is done it's sprayed and resprayed later.
The painting schedule (in general) for my company is to have the painter dust all new drywall off and vacuum all the dust. Followed by spraying and back rolling primer on all the drywall immediately upon drywall completion (no finishes installed yet). We quickly pole sand the primer after and quickly dust and vac the site again (not a lot of dust at that point). Depending upon wall color we apply either a 2nd coat of primer (if white walls) or 1st coat of color, so owner can see paint color. We then install all finishes. After that the painter comes back and paints the trim, followed by final coat or coats of wall/ceiling paint. My painter prefers this method and it works well for me as well. It’s best to hold final coats of paint until the very end. There’s always somebody that causes damage somewhere that needs touched up and if you wait until the end you only need to touch up once (hopefully). As far as flooring first or not, it will depend upon the flooring. For any flooring that we cannot tape and clean easily we opt to paint first. For all other floors we typically install flooring first. We install builder board on all these floors anyways to prevent damage with appliance hauling etc., so they’re protected well. My painter does use a tarp under the paint bucket and sprayer areas in case there’s a spill, but that’s it, builder board protects just fine for everything else. Make sure to use safe release tape anywhere you tape it to the floor. Tape to the floor as minimally as possible.
You will need to watch the carpet installer. They were born w/out the gene that acknowledges wall and baseboard damage!