Do you decorate room or strip floorboards first?

[jgkgolf]

Hi,

I'm about to decorate the dining room (of our Edwardian house) which had the walls skimmed (a year ago) and I'm also planning to strip the floorboards?

Which do I do first, paint walls and ceiling or sand the floors?

I'm also not sure what finish to have on the floorboards, probably clear varnish , wax or oil, any recommendations or what to avoid?

And finally I can't decide whether to fill the gaps between the floorboards with PVA/Sawdust mixture before sanding or leave the gaps and put up with the draught and complaints from the missus?

Thanks, John

[Stuart]

Re the gaps .Do you have any old boards that you could slice up and glue/tap in to the biggest gaps .?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Do really need the advice of that questions?

If so...do you mind getting dust on a fresh coat of paint on the walls and ceiling?

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd decorate first, any spots of paint will come off with the sander. Other way round all you have to do is vac up the wood dust.

Depends on traffic and the apearance you want. Two packs are the most wear resistant. Check out

> And finally I can't decide whether to fill the gaps between the

Never had much faith in the PVA/Sawdust mixture method myself. You could cut tapered strips on a table saw, glue them in & plane/sand them flush, or lift all the boards and use a floorboard cramp to relay the boards with no gaps. This would leave a gap at one side equal to the sum of all the small gaps.

This caould be filled with a scribed board, or if you have pipes along one wall, covered by boxing them in.

[The Medway Handyman]

One assumes the OP is bright enough to allow the paint to dry completely?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

One assumes the OP is bright enough to put paint sheets down after sanding the floor and leaving the varnishing/staining of the floorboards last.

[Gully Foyle]

Surely only a fool would sand floorboards while the freshly decorated room had wet paint?

Always decorate top down. Ceilings, then coving, then walls, then skirting (and other gloss) and floor last. I'd recommend covering the floor while painting the room even though sanding will probably remove the inevitable paint drips.

[Stuart Noble]

Solvent based have a yellow tint and water based acrylics are more dull and cloudy. Worth putting up with the fumes and destruction of the planet

[andrewd909]

Once the floors have been stripped treat them as soon as possible, if left untreated any stains left by spills etc will be almost impossible to remove