As professional painters we get asked this question all the time. The short answer is “it depends”. During residential renovations, the flooring should be replaced first. The reason is fairly simple. Frequently, when flooring is renovated and changed the thickness of the new material is different that what is being replaced. Often-times hard surfaces flooring, such as wood flooring, laminate, or tile, will require the baseboard molding to be removed and reinstalled after the new floor goes down. This means that some repairs will be required before the painting is done. Quality painting contractors should be comfortable working over new flooring, and doing the work in this order will save the client time and money.

During commercial building renovations, the exact opposite applies. Typically we “the painters” remove the vinyl base molding, repair any damage this may cause, then paint the walls. The reason for the difference is that the vinyl base is a prefinished product so the flooring contractor can install them once the floor is laid with no damage to the walls.

The post What Comes First-Painting the Walls or Floor Finishing? appeared first on Mike's Quality Painting.