I am in the process of refinishing floors and repainting walls. My questions is whether I should refinish the floors first and the repaint, or do it the other way around. When I asked a refinishing company, they told me to paint first and when I talked to a paint company, they told me to refinish first. Maybe there is no right answer.

 

Do all your prep work on your walls first.THEN sand your floors and whatever else that needs to be done to them. Reason being. All the dust you create on your newlly painted walls will have to be dusted down and the odds are by rubbing to hard you will leave burnish marks or shiney spots on the walls by rubbing to hard. I'm also pretty much doing the same thing exept installing cherry flooring. Then paint the walls ceiling trim. Good luck.

 

I have heard others say to finish the floors first, but then cover them so you don't get paint on them - there's a paper made just for this, but I'm having a brain f*@t on the name of it right now.

 

Here's the deal:

The painter is the last guy in

There's a few reasons for this in a GenCon-SubCon situation, but the one in this specific case is that the floor guys will ding up the (freshly painted) floor molding

They will swear up and down that they will not, so they don't mind coming in last

They WILL ding, if not gouge, the molding, which means the painter, if his work was done first, will have to come back

Granted, I understand completely why the floor guys want to be last, but it is not traditionally done that way
They should be after the finish carpenters, cabinet guys, you know the guys with heavy cutting tools that can gouge the floor
I have never, in almost 20 years, ever seen profesional painters mess up a newly refinished floor

You are a Homeowner acting as a General Contractor, and some of your "subs" will try to manipuate you to their advantage

The floors are done first
Then the painters come in

 

Slickshift, Does that reasoning apply to carpeting? Would you install new carpets before you paint?

 

In the same situations, for the same reasons, yes
A GC will generally will have the re-carpet guys in and gone before the painters get there
The tools they use tend to gouge the trim

Usually the same crew removes and installs carpet the same day with no time in between to paint anyway

They don't kick up as much dust in the prep as hardwood floor re-finishing, so it's not as important for that reason, mostly the damage

I have been in situations where arrangements were made by the GC and Painting Contractors to paint before the old carpet is removed, or if no carpet,before the new carpet is installed, then one guy comes back to touch-up the molding

I believe I would call these mostly scheduling issues, and were not otherwise for the convenience of either sub
It also cost extra

Professional painters take the same care with a sub-floor as they do with a new berber, so that's not really an issue


In new construction, or commercial, it can be a bit different

Also DIYers doing both jobs can arrange it a bit differently
If the DIYer pulls up the old carpet (or leaves it as a drop cloth), then wants to paint, and is careful about the trim while installing the carpet, or doesn't mind touching up the trim after installing the carpet, there's nothing wrong with that

But if you are acting as a GC and hiring Subs, Carpet then Painters

 

A lot depends on scheduling. IMO the ideal scenario is to paint first, then floors and then the painter comes back to touch up. As slickshift pointed out the painter needs to be last so as to fix/touch up any damage done by the floor people.

If the painter doesn't want [or can't] come back after the flooring is done then you should schedule them last. As long as they are meticulous with drop cloths there shouldn't be a problem.