Hardwood Floor Sanding and Wall Painting -- Which First?
Scott Dudek
Hello,
I am remodeling a bedroom, which will include both painting all
walls and ceiling, and sanding and finishing the hardwood floor
which is presently hidden by carpeting.
Should I paint first or sand the floor first?
Paint First:
Pros - Use carpeting as natural dropcloth (no paint on hardwood)
Cons - When sand floor and stir up dust, need to wipe down newly painted
walls.
Sand First:
Pros - Dust stirred up from sanding is wiped off walls during pre-painting
wipe-down, which would be done even if didn't sand floors.
Cons - Could get paint on floor or scratch the surface while painting
ceiling, walls, and baseboards.
The question is predicated on the assumption that sanding the hardwood floors
stirs up a lot of dust. If that is not the case, then this might
not be a relevant question. At this time I'm not sure if I will sand
the floors myself or use a professional.
Thanks,
Scott
Freezout
du...@gwis.com (Scott Dudek) wrote:
>Should I paint first or sand the floor first?
>
>Paint First:
> Pros - Use carpeting as natural dropcloth (no paint on hardwood)
> Cons - When sand floor and stir up dust, need to wipe down newly painted
> walls.
>
>Sand First:
> Pros - Dust stirred up from sanding is wiped off walls during pre-painting
> wipe-down, which would be done even if didn't sand floors.
> Cons - Could get paint on floor or scratch the surface while painting
> ceiling, walls, and baseboards
Couple of other cons you might want to add to painting
first:
Con- Paint may need quite a while to fully
cure before sanding dust wont affect it.
Maybe not, but perhaps some painters
here can tell you.
Con- Sanding machines and edgers might bump
the walls and cause a few nicks in paint job.
Topher Eliot
du...@gwis.com (Scott Dudek) wrote:
>
>Hello,
>
>I am remodeling a bedroom, which will include both painting all
>walls and ceiling, and sanding and finishing the hardwood floor
>which is presently hidden by carpeting.
>
>Should I paint first or sand the floor first?
>
>Paint First:
> Pros - Use carpeting as natural dropcloth (no paint on hardwood)
> Cons - When sand floor and stir up dust, need to wipe down newly painted
> walls.
>
>Sand First:
> Pros - Dust stirred up from sanding is wiped off walls during pre-painting
> wipe-down, which would be done even if didn't sand floors.
> Cons - Could get paint on floor or scratch the surface while painting
> ceiling, walls, and baseboards.
>
>The question is predicated on the assumption that sanding the hardwood floors
>stirs up a lot of dust. If that is not the case, then this might
>not be a relevant question. At this time I'm not sure if I will sand
>the floors myself or use a professional.
>
>Thanks,
>Scott
Believe me, it stirs up plenty of dust. Very fine dust which will
float in the air and cover every square millimeter of surface that is
not hermetically sealed from the room being sanded.
I would do the floor first, and do the painting wearing just socks.
If you need to use a ladder, duct-tape rags over the legs to prevent
scratches. DON'T DRAG OR PUSH ANYTHING ACROSS THE FLOOR. Dripped
latex paint will wipe up easily from the freshly refinished floor.
Topher Eliot
el...@alum.mit.edu
Visit the house maintenance archive at http://www.geocities.com/heartland/7400
Douglas Rudoff
However, if you are installing new hardwood floors I'd do the floors
first, then the painting. As I discovered if you do it the othe way
there is so much unavoidable wall damage done when installing a
hardwood floor that you have a lot of touch up painting to do.
--
Doug Rudoff
dou...@speakeasy.org
Allen J. Cheung
I've run into the same situation when I needed to fix up a small home. I
painted first. Here's my argument for painting first divided into three
sections (dust, time, damage to finished walls/floors) that you seem to be
most concerned about:
1. Painting first is not a con when it comes to Dust
For painting first: Unless you have extremely dirty walls there will be
minimal if any cleaning of the walls before painting (Others say the paint
will last longer if you clean it real well before, but in my experience
there has been no noticeable difference). Either way dust will have to be
cleaned off the walls after sanding.
Against sanding first: If you sand first you will have to thoroughly clean
the walls before painting, and it will be impossible to get all of it. And,
it's better to have dust in front of the paint rather than behind it. So
Sanding first will require more time for cleaning the walls and will
inevitably result in painting over the dust.
2. Waiting time
For painting first: You will have to wait for the paint to dry. Usually
not more than a couple hours.
Against sanding first: You will waste time waiting for the floors to be
finished. This could take a couple days or more depending on what type of
floor, finish, etc. You will also take some more time to carefully cover
the finished floors when you paint, which I read on the can of polyurethane
is not recommended until it cures which I recall was about a week
3. Damage to floors/walls
For painting first: In your case you won't have to worry about spilled
paint or covering the floors. So the floors will be absolutely safe and
require no additional work. Worrying about the machinery damaging the walls
is not a problem unless you are very careless and besides if the walls are
damaged you would have to do some repairs plus painting either way. And
it's not like you will have to repaint an entire wall, just a few areas that
have nicks or scratches (I've personally never ran into that problem, and
don't see how that is possible unless you accidentally get your sanding
machines vertical with the wall or decide to bang your machinery into the
walls)
Against sanding first: As long as you clean up the spilled paint
immediately or carefully cover the floors this shouldn't be a problem, but
it is always smart to both cover the floors and clean up the spilled paint
if you really want to protect your finished floors. In addition as I said
earlier, covering floors after finishing is not a good idea. So here you
risk getting paint on your floors and having to clean that up plus spending
time covering the floors and risking further damage by placing something on
the floors after finishing.
COMPARATIVE SUMMARY
Painting first is superior in each of these 3 categories. I've had no
problems painting first that would outweigh the disadvantages of sanding
first. You should have no problem sanding the floors yourself, it will save
you a great deal of money to just rent a machine if you have the time. Be
sure to read up on sanding floors before hand to make things go smoothly.
And make sure you buy some good ear plugs, mask, and use quality tools and
finishes on the floor/walls.
http://php.iupui.edu/~ajcheung/
~*คง|งค*~Allen J. Cheung~*คง|งค*~
--------------------------------------------
Scott Dudek wrote in message ...
PBroussard
>I am remodeling a bedroom, which will include both painting all
>walls and ceiling, and sanding and finishing the hardwood floor
>which is presently hidden by carpeting.
>
>Should I paint first or sand the floor first?
We always let the floormen do all their work except for the urethane coats
before applying the final coat on the walls and baseboard. More covering up,
with the eggshell finishes we typically use, it works better for us. They sand,
stain, and seal with a urethane sealer, then we come in, finish the walls and
baseboard, they come back and top it off with 2 coats of urethane. Sanding a
finish off the floor will leave dust on the bottom two feet of the wall and
baseboard. Do not however, use this method between coats of urethane. They
should be applied within a few days of each other.
Paul Broussard, Broussard Painting Contractors
pres., chief bottlewasher, Baton Rouge Dart Assn.
"Careful. We don't want to learn from this." -- Calvin
Topher Eliot
If you do paint first, don't make the mistake of thinking
it's OK for any amount of paint to spill on the floor. If
you get paint down in a crack between boards, it could easily
go lower than you want to sand, and remain as a visible line.