Refinishing Wood Floors - Before or After Painting?

Question

When do you refinish hardwoods?

In our first project, we refinished them after painting everything. Our thought was, since we were pulling up the carpet, it would be easier to not worry about ruining the new finished floors... but the sanding mess (even with a bag) was THE WORST. I spent f o r e v e r deep cleaning and even ended up repainting some of the white that just looked dirty.

Would it be weird to refinish first the tape roll out paper to preserve them from paint?

Dell Schlabach · Answer

Our crews always sand and finish the floors first, we cover with cardboard and tape all seams. Main reason is the dust everywhere when the project is almost complete, also is just more efficent for us, to not have floor sanding and finishing going on when we have guys trying to finish a project.

Raquel Baranow · Answer

i paint all walls (except kitchen & bath) with semi-gloss, it was easy to dust the walls after sanding floors. (Sand after painting)

Beth D. · Answer

Gerald David - that makes tons of sense (re: contractors)

However, I will add we are rehabbing my grandma's house. Besides gutting the bathroom, the rest is cosmetic that we will be doing ourselves... no one else will be in the house.

Winston Risser - yes hardwoods are throughout the entire house (we may need to patch the kitchen though - it's still hidden. I'm liking the idea of painting last for this project at least :)

Winston Risser · Answer

I know what you mean about the dust Beth Declercq.  Is the hardwood throughout the house ? I would paint last depending on the situation. 
  I agree subs don't care but , I paint all the time in finished area's . Guess it depends on who will be on the finished floor.

Gerald David · Answer

You do NOT want to refinish those floors until everyone else is finished and gone...other than carpet of course.  Even if you put cardboard down immediately after refinishing, the floor will take a beating.  Subs do NOT care about the floors!!

There are "dustless" sanding machines that will keep the dust down to a minimum.  But there will be dust nonetheless.  If possible, tape the rooms off you'll be sanding in to keep the sand in that room alone.

The only way around the dust is to install prefinished hardwood floors...provided all cuts are done outside.

Refinishing Wood Floors - Before or After Painting?

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