Painting A New Home, Addition, or Renovation: What's the Process?

As a homeowner or new home purchaser embarking on a home renovation, home addition, or new home construction, you probably have A LOT of questions. And for every question you ask, you get A LOT of different answers. One of the most common questions that comes up, and invokes the widest range of answers is: what is the order of the construction work.

Now, there are a lot of moving parts in any home improvement project, and those moving parts only increase in number and complexity as the size and scope of the project grows. So the order of work of your construction project, generally, is beyond the scope is beyond what this post intends to cover. If you have a good general contractor, you should have a pretty good idea of the order of work at this point prior to the start of work, and that order will change, but should remain mostly the same as discussed at the start of the project.

One area where there may be some discussion or disagreement is the order of work as it relates to finishing the walls, floors, tiling, carpentry, electrical fixtures, and painting. If you're nearing the point where decisions about painting need to be made, go now to this post about whether to hire your own painter or use your general contractor's painter.

Now that you've decided it's probably best to hire your own painter, unless you are working with one of the incredible contractors that I do work for, or one equally as concerned about quality and finish, here's the process that ensures the best possible finish across all surfaces and minimizes (if not eliminates) damage done to finished work as your project nears completion:

1. Prior to the Installation of the Flooring, Hang and Spackle the Drywall

After you have had your rough electrical and rough plumbing completed, inspections, passed, insulation installed and insulation inspection passed, it's time to hang your drywall. Don't install the floors yet. Finish the drywall.

At this point, you do not yet want your floors installed. The primary reason is that the insulation just went in and so you likely don't have heat or air conditioning. Wood floors installed in unconditioned homes can be a nightmare because of temperature changes and humidity fluctuations that cause the floors to expand and contract and often buckle. You don't want that.

So after the insulation goes up, install and finish the drywall to a level 4 or level 5 finish. Discuss with your general contractor and your drywall finisher your expectations for the appearance of the walls once they are completed. New walls are the responsibility of the drywaller, but the level of finish is a matter of expectation and cost.

2. Prime Your New Drywall & (Probably) Apply 1 Coat of Paint

Once the drywall has been finished and the sanding dust removed, it's time to prime your new drywall. This priming is done by your painter and even for homes up to 10,000 square feet can usually be done in 2 days.

Priming the new drywall now allows the drywall to be sealed prior to the installation of any cabinetry or carpentry work. It also allow you and your general contractor to see and identify any areas where the spackling and drywall needs to be touched up. Seeing these deficiencies in the drywall now--rather than later--allows the drywall installers to return to correct the issues prior to any finish painting being done, which is important to prevent the defects and touchups from showing in the walls after the finish painting is completed.

As for applying 1 coat of finish paint, there are two schools of thought. The first is that you get a better finish and you see more of the spackle defects, if any, by applying the first coat of color to the walls. You can also get behind areas that you won't be able to reach later, such as behind the cabinets and vanities, so areas of which may be exposed but not reachable with a brush or roller if the gap between a cabinet and vanity is too tight. All of this is true, and suggests that 1 coat of paint should be applied after the primer.

The other school of thought though is that it's just too early in the process, it will slow down the other trades, and it's possible that wall colors haven't yet been selected since you may not know what color tile or cabinets you want in every room. You may not have selected a floor stain color.

So whether to put a first coat of paint on the walls is completely up to you and your circumstances: if you have all of your selections made, have the painter put on the first coat of color. It may delay the schedule a bit up front but will save you time on the back end of the project. And applying the first coat now has far more benefits than drawbacks.

3. Install Your Floors and Tiling

After the drywall has been primed, seal your subfloors with a moisture barrier (this can be done by your painter or by the floor installer) and install your floors, but don't yet finish them. Finishing the floors comes later.

Note: Make sure to allow your hardwood floors to acclimate to your conditioned home for a sufficient amount of time prior to installing them. The amount of time of acclimation necessary depends on the wood, time of year, floor supplier, and other factors. I'm not a floor expert, so check with someone who is. But ensure that the floors are acclimated before being installed.

4. Hang Your Doors & Install Your Molding

You have the drywall installed and sealed, maybe even painted 1 coat if your circumstances allow, and your hardwood floors are installed over a sealed subfloor. Now it is time to hang your doors and install your molding.

It is possible that some molding won't yet be able to be installed because some of the cabinetry isn't installed yet. This happens, and is an easy fix once the cabinets are installed.

5. Almost Finish the Floors

Once the doors are hung and the molding is installed, sand and stain the floors and apply the first 2-4 coats of polyurethane or whatever clearcoat you and your contractor and floor finisher have agreed upon.

However, leave the final coat of clear protective finish until everything else in the home is complete, and then finish the final clear coat on the door.

THIS is the area where I get the most puzzled looks from clients, contractors, and anger from floor refinishers. Here are the objections: (A) from contractors--the floors are going to get damaged if we finish them this early; (B) from contractors--I have to cover the floors and it's too expensive to do that to keep them from getting damaged; (C) from floor refinishers--I have to come back for a "special trip" if we do the floors this way; and (D) from floor finishers and contractors: having to cover the floors will slow my schedule down.

Let me address those objections first, before turning the benefits of finishing floors and a home in this way:

(A) The floors will get damaged. This is true only if the contractor fails to cover them and protect them with a thick, durable floor protectant such as RamBoard or Trimaco. Whatever is use, ensure the floor has cured sufficiently to off-gas (talk to your floor refinisher) before covering it with a protective covering. Likewise, ensure that the covering has some breathability--you don't want your new floors being unable to breathe while the remaining features of your home or renovation are completed.

(B) It's Too Expensive to Cover the Floors--The floors are one of the biggest and most expositive features of your home. Covering floors properly to protect them during remaining construction is costly and time-consuming, But it is not prohibitively costly when weighed and considered against the total cost of the construction project and the benefits in finish and long-term beauty of the end result. Whether as a during-construction extra or a add-on negotiated prior to the start of construction, it's worth the cost.

(C) The Floor Refinisher Will Have To Make a Special Trip--At the end of each day, after the floors are stained and clear-coated, the floor refinisher leaves the job, takes al tools and leaves the house as the newly-applied floor coating dries. The only difference between delaying the final coat, and returning in consecutive days is that between the final clear coat and the second-to--final clear coat, there is a longer delay. The floor must still be screened a final time. The work and time doesn't change, only the time between coats.

(D) This Will Cause a Slow down in the Schedule--this is true. There will be a slowdown for several days to allow the floors to cure and then to cover, and ultimately to remove the covering from the floors. But this, at most 5-10 calendar-day delay is minimal compared to the cost of the project and the expected lifetime (30+ years) of the home and floor. It may even be an inconvenience to you as a the client, but the long-term benefits will last much longer then the frustration from the small delay.

Now for the benefits:

(A) No Dust: floor finishing creates a lot of dust and it is rare that a new construction floor refinisher uses a dustless process. Finishing your floors first allows you to avoid having fine-particle wood floor sawdust on all of your new cabinets, vanities, electrical fixtures, and painted walls.

And

(B) A Better finish: sanding the floors requires some pretty heavy machinery, and getting that machinery into tight spaces can be a challenge. When the machines don't' fit, the finish on the floor suffers. This is particularly true for the initial sanding and clear coating. Without having cabinetry in the way, the floor refinisher is clear to maneuver the machinery as necessary. It also allows the floors beneath the cabinetry to be finished as well, which does not happen when floors are finished later in the process.

6. Cover the Floors and Install Cabinetry

Once the floors have cured, cover them wit a durable protective paper and long-term tape and have your cabinetry and vanities installed. You may have to remove some floor protection, just make sure to cover it again once the cabinets and vanities are in place so the floor isn't exposed and there are no gaps where dust can enter beneath the protective flooring.

7. Paint the Walls, Molding, and Doors

Discuss with your painter your expectations for finish and desire for durability and use of the home. Do you want a sprayed finish on the trim and doors? Do you plan to paint again in a year or two, or do you want the paint to last? Do you have pets or children (or expect to)? Do you want to wipe the walls and clean them regularly?

All of this information will help you painter make recommendations regarding paint products and additional primers that might help you get the best finish and the most durability from you finished painted surfaces.

8. Install The Lighting Fixtures and Finish Items

Once the painting is done, you're ready to really start finishing the home with the detail items, such as lighting fixtures, doorknobs, countertops, mirrors, plumbing fixtures, etc. When these items are installed relative to each other probably doesn't matter, unless you have some unique items that are dependent on another, which sometimes happens. Otherwise, install your finishes.

9. Fully Finish Your Floors

Once everything else is complete, remove the floor protection and call your floor refinisher in for the final buff/sand/screening of your floors and apply the final clear coat. The final screening doesn't create much, if any, dust so your finished surfaces are safe. Likewise, its a very light buffing, so the machinery doesn't gauge or scar the floor at this stage.

10. Move In

Everything is done. You saved the floor for last, so the only person to walk on it will be you. Now go enjoy your new home or space!!