Refinish floor or paint first?

11 years ago

We're about to pull up wall-to-wall carpeting on our entire main floor and refinish the hardware floors that are underneath. After that, we will have the entire space painted. We followed the same pattern on our lower level and it worked well. One painter we are talking to, however, is strongly urging us to paint first, then refinish. I realize it's easier not to have to worry so much about newly finished floors but also know freshly painted walls and molding are vulnerable to splatter and dust from refinishing. Our floor guy is adamant about NO TAPE on whatever floor protection is ultimately used. I expect professional painters to be skilled at protecting floors. I've seen strong opinions on both sides of the debate about what's best done first, floor refinishing v. painting. Would appreciate experiences/insights from pros and homeowners who have done it both ways. Thanks.

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Comments (2)

gregmills_gw
11 years ago
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.
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User
11 years ago
I've generally had the opposite experience with painters but I do live in an area where there standards are rather high and there are lots of skilled and experienced painters. I do see occasional sloppiness. By my reasoning, houses are painted more frequently than floors are refinished. If a painter messed up floors every time they painted, they would go out of business.

I prefer to paint the walls and prime the trim, refinish the floors then do the final paint coats on the trim. I do use tape on the floor when I paint the trim. I put down Frog tape, do one coat, let it dry a short while, put on a second coat and carefully pull the tape soon after. That way there's little chance of pulling off any floor finish and I can easily clean off any paint that got under the edge of the tape.
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