# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  sanding timber floors, before or after painting the walls?

## wire

Hi, I am having my house repainted and then the carpets taken out so the floor boards can be sanded and stained.  A friend suggested I have the floors done BEFORE painting the walls as he said the dust will be so bad, I will be vacuming the (painted) wall as the fine dust particles will be everywhere and it will just creat so much more work in cleaning up. 
Any suggestions?  Do the floors first?  :Confused:

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## sol381

SAND LAST... You`ll have real trouble keeping any paint off the floor even with drop sheets if you paint last.. Also the extra traffic and the use of ladders may scuff the new floor. The bags that sanders use these days capture close to 100&#37; of dust.. We had ours doen a few months ago and didnt have to do any cleaning of walls whatsoever. 
Sanding is always the last job.

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## Dusty

:Arrow Right:  Prepare and paint the walls and ceilings.   :Arrow Right:  Remove the carpets, underlay and do the preparation work and first coat on the skirting boards.    :Arrow Right:  Sand and polish the floors.   :Arrow Right:  Do the final coat/s on the skirtings.

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## OBBob

Yeah, you may find the guys doing the sanding knock the skirts in a few places, so they will need to be one afterward anyway. We've always sanded last.

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## Honorary Bloke

Floors should be done at the end. DAMHIKT!!  :Redface:   :Redface:   :Redface:

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## womble

we're doing our floors last, easier that way!

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## TassieKiwi

Last last last.  For a rally flash result, take the skirting off, pull nails out the back (which will leave the putty in the front), sand with 100, undercoat, put back after floor is finished, putty and paint, and then run a bead of matching silicon at the floor join. 
I am rather fussy tho, and no-one ever looks.  5hithot result, but.

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## MikeT

Damn - I shouldna read this thread. 
We've just decided to do the painting last.  Reason being - we're really stuck on the colours and want to see what the floors are like before we paint.  If the sander can stick to next week (it's 50/50) then we're stuck with it that way.  I'm going to be flat out getting the last of the plaster fix ups done as it is.  I imagine that at some stage in the future I'm going to have to paint the house without doing the floors so may as well practice now 
I was planning on doing the skirting last and painting it off the wall - not sure how that'll work.  I'm also going to tape plastic down on the floors right up to the edge (remember no skirtings) and also use drops sheets on top.  Hopefully that'll be enough.

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## pawnhead

> I'm also going to tape plastic down on the floors right up to the edge (remember no skirtings) and also use drops sheets on top.  Hopefully that'll be enough.

  I used a cheap masking tape recently and it lifted the poly which was about three days dried. When using it on a feature painted wall, it bled through all over the place. I would have been better off cutting in by hand with the amount of touching up and repairing I had to do.
I'd wait until the floor is well cured and use a good quality masking tape. 3M makes all different types for different applications. I don't know how they'd perform under the same circumstances, but if I bought masking tape again then I wouldn't be trying to save a few pennies. 
Good advice from Dusty about procedures. That's how I'd do it.

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## wire

Thanks everyone for responding  :Biggrin:  Just about all of you said floors last with valid reasons....sh#t, back to the drawing board  :Doh:

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