Should You Paint Before or After Flooring?

15
Nov

Blaze
House Painting
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If you’re in the process of remodeling your home, you’re probably wondering should you paint before or after flooring. At first glance, it might seem like a minor detail, but the order you choose can impact the final quality of your project. Many people assume that painting first is best to avoid spilling paint on the new flooring. However, the pros tend to disagree.

So, which order should you follow? In this post, we’ll discuss the best way to approach this so you can make the right choice for a professional-looking finish.

Whether you’re a landlord or tenant, if you live in the Sacramento area and you’d like to paint your home, we can help. Call us to schedule your free estimate or give us a call at (916) 424-4008. We serve all of Northern Sacramento including Rocklin, Folsom, and Yuba County.

Flooring or Painting First

Installing new flooring and repainting the walls is a simple way to give your home a facelift. But if you’re planning to renovate, should you paint before or after flooring is installed?

Most professionals suggest starting with flooring. Although many homeowners worry about paint dripping onto the new floor, that issue is easily prevented by covering the floors with drop cloths. Installing flooring, however, is a labor-intensive process that often creates dust and debris, which isn’t ideal when you have freshly painted walls. By completing the flooring first, you can avoid scuffing or scratching your new paint while moving tools, materials, and heavy equipment in and out of the space.

Additionally, flooring installation can also change the height and alignment of your baseboards and trim. When you paint after the floors are in, you can paint the trim and walls at the same time for a seamless finish.

What’s the Process?

Now that you know whether you should paint before or after flooring, it’s time to get to work. Here’s what the process looks look, whether you do it yourself or hire professionals:

The first step involves removing the old flooring, clearing furniture out of the room, and making sure the subfloor is clean and level. Pulling out the old flooring is going to kick up a lot of dust and debris. If the paint job is fresh, the dust is likely to stick to the walls, ruining the finish. Additionally, when bringing the flooring material in, it’s really easy to scuff the walls, which means you’d have to repair and repaint. That’s why we recommend waiting to paint after installation.
In most cases, the next step is to remove the trim. The type of flooring you’re installing will impact how high the trim needs to be placed. If the trim needs to be repaired, this is a good time to fix it.
If the walls are in rough shape, now is the time to patch them up, especially if you’re planning to install epoxy flooring. Remove wallpaper, patch up dents and holes, and sand before moving on.
With the old flooring ripped out and the room cleaned up, the new flooring can be installed. Before moving on, make sure you allow any adhesives, finishes or sealants to fully cure. This helps prevent damage when painting.
Once everything is cured, you can start prepping for painting. Cover the floors with high-quality protective materials like rosin paper, drop cloths, or contractor-grade plastic sheets. Use painter’s tape to hold the protective material in place. From there, you can proceed with priming and painting without worrying about dust from construction damaging the paint.

What About Ceiling Work?

Just like installing flooring, ceiling work can be quite messy. So, where does it fall in the renovation timeline? In most cases, ceiling work should be completed first. Ceilings tend to produce falling dust and paint drips that you won’t want landing on your new floors. Plus, the last thing you want is to place a ladder on the new flooring and risk marking it up.

When doing ceiling work, you’ll want to start with any repairs or texture adjustments before moving on to painting the ceiling. From there, you can install the floors. The final step is painting the walls and trim. Following this sequence helps keep your workspace clean and prevents unnecessary rework.

Does It Matter What Type of Flooring It Is?

Although different flooring requires different preparation, the best order for your project is still installing the flooring before painting. Hard-surface flooring like hardwood, laminate, tile, and luxury vinyl typically requires cutting that creates lots of dust. Plus, it’s really easy to ding or scuff a freshly painted wall with the materials.

If you’re staining the hardwood flooring, you risk splashing the stain on the walls and ruining the paint. Even if you’re installing carpet, there’s potential for the carpet roll to damage the walls while being placed. You may be able to get away with painting before carpet, but you’ll likely need to touch up or repaint the baseboards after.

What about Epoxy Flooring?

Even though epoxy flooring has a different process from other types of flooring, the general rule still applies: finish the epoxy before painting. Epoxy installation can be messy. Preparation involves grinding and etching which creates lots of dust and debris. The process itself can also cause splatters that you don’t want touching your painted walls.

Because epoxy needs a perfectly clean, uncontaminated surface to bond properly, you also want to avoid any paint dust, chips, or sanding residue falling onto the floor while it’s curing. Once the epoxy has fully hardened, painters can safely mask the floor and protect the surface without risking damage.