When you decide to update your home, two of the most common upgrades are painting and flooring. One of the most commonly asked questions is which one you should do first, and choosing the right order of operations often saves homeowners both money and hassle in the end.

Painting Your Home After Installing New Flooring

Unlike replacing flooring and other potentially destructive parts of a home renovation, painting your home is rarely harmful to other areas of your home. While spilling paint on your new floor is always a major concern, the option is risking exposing your newly painted walls to the hazards of flooring removal.

One of the major reasons why it’s best to paint after you install your flooring is the number of hazards that arise with installing the new flooring, such as scratching or dinging your newly painted walls with the tools that flooring requires. This scratching is almost impossible to avoid when it comes to replacing your floor, and almost always requires patch work to be done.

Another reason to pain after your floors have been installs is baseboards and trim, which the new flooring touches while it’s being installed. If you paint your house before you install your flooring, the paint on the bottom parts of your walls will become damaged.

The height of your new flooring should also be a concern, as it may differ from the height of the existing flooring. This can become a problem if you paint before you install your new flooring because you can end up with a noticeable gap between your painted walls and the floor, which will need further work to rectify.

Preventing Paint Spills on Your New Floor

In case you’re still on the fence about whether to paint your home or install your new flooring first, keep in mind that protecting your new flooring from paint spills is very easy. Professional painting contractors should set up your room to prevent any paint from spilling on your floors and damaging them.

If you are replacing your own floors or painting your house yourself, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce the threat of spilling paint. The most effective way to prevent spilling paint is to use a pouring spout, which come in many shapes and sizes are most paint and hardware stores.

Covering your floors in drop clothes is an absolute must to prevent any damage to the floors and in the event you do happen to have any paint drips or splatter, your floors will be fully protected.

In most scenarios, paint your home after installing new flooring is the right choice to prevent any extra damage to your newly painted walls. The threat of spilled paint to your new flooring is very minimal in comparison to the risks associated with the removal and installation of new flooring to your freshly painted walls.