Figuring out which comes first—paint or floor—is a classic DIY chicken-or-egg conundrum
Install flooring first so you don’t ding up your new paint job.
Before beginning, you’ll want to remove all old materials.
Cleaning up between steps eliminates dust and dirt.
Painting is almost always the final step in any remodeling project.
When you’re remodeling a room, one of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make is whether to paint or install floors first. If you paint now, you risk damage when the floors go in. But if you start with floors, you have to worry about paint dripping on them. Quite a bit of thought needs to go into the proper order of flooring and painting—and we’re outlining how to find the best approach for your project below.
In most cases, it’s best to tackle flooring before you paint a room. Since there’s bound to be some light damage to the bottom of the walls and trim during any flooring project's deconstruction and demolition phase, you’ll want to do the flooring before you paint.
This might entail taking a sledgehammer and masonry chisel to a roomful of tile or using a pry bar and clawhammer to pull up hardwood flooring. It’s dirty work that requires a decent amount of muscle and elbow grease and it’s helpful to rent a dumpster to take care of the waste you’ll generate during the flooring project.
Installing new floors also necessitates removing baseboards and trim. You’ll need to patch and fill the nail holes when each trim piece is reinstalled after the flooring is laid down.
Remodeling projects like installing new flooring can kick up years’ worth of dust as you remove the old material. Keeping a clean workspace as you go—instead of making a huge mess and then cleaning it all up at the end—will save your future self from one less chore.
Allowing dirt to build up between steps only increases the likelihood of sediment getting trapped between the layers of your new floor. Particulates that arise from construction projects also create a thin coat of dust that can stick to both your ceilings and walls—another reason you’ll want to do the floors first and paint later.
Once the old flooring material is gone and you have a pristine subfloor, you can move on to installing your new floor. If installing flooring seems like a daunting task, you might consider hiring a local flooring contractor to do the work for you.
Proper painting techniques should always be applied in the last stage of a remodel or renovation before the final clean-up. While you can do the finishing work before flooring or other aspects of a project, you’ll almost always have to go back and touch up. And why create the need to do something twice when you can just tackle your project in the proper order to begin with?
To avoid paint drips and protect your fresh floors as much as possible, here are a few tips for painting:
Use painter’s tape to create a barrier along the wall edges.
Lay down drop cloths over the floor.
Use an angled brush for better precision.
Take your time when painting near the edges to reduce splattering.
Painter's tape will ensure crisp, clean lines, but only if you use it correctly. Wash and dry your surface before applying tape, then remove it as soon as the paint is dry to the touch.
While flooring before painting is a good rule of thumb to follow, there’s always an exception to any rule. You'll want to paint before installing flooring if you're working with laminate flooring, which doesn't require sanding, or installing a floor in a room with a lot of finished cabinetry. Always save painting until the last possible step to protect the finished walls.
If you’re generating any kind of particulate or moving heavy equipment and have people going in and out of the room, it’s wise to install your floor first and paint last.
If you’re short on time or would like the expert help of a professional, you can hire a local painting contractor to help.
Lay down the carpet before painting the walls. This may seem counterintuitive, as carpet is easily stained by paint, but other factors are at play. It’s extremely easy to accidentally scratch up or damage the walls when installing carpet, which would necessitate another paint job. Also, the risk of getting paint all over your brand-new carpet is minimal when you factor in floor coverings.
Many painters start with the living room, where people spend the most time. A living room can also set the tone for the rest of the house, so you can make minute adjustments to ensure a cohesive result. There’s also an argument for starting with the kitchen, as this highly trafficked area often needs paint more than other rooms. Some folks start with the various bedrooms, as it’s nice to have a finished cocoon for family members to rest in while the rest of the home is being worked on.
If this is your first rodeo, do the baseboards first. It’s easier and faster to tape these off when they have dried than taping off entire walls. Once the trim is painted and taped off, you can relax as you paint the walls, knowing that any splatter will end up on the tape.
