What comes first, the wood floor or interior door

amykath

9 years ago

Can anyone tell me which makes more sense, installing the wood floor and then pre-hanging doors or vice versa?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Amy

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Pinebaron

9 years ago

Flooring last

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Comments (14)

Aims
9 years ago
Our doors are on and we aren't even close to putting floors down.
snuffycuts99
9 years ago
Our floors are just about done. I think they're supposed to start hanging doors and doing trim as soon as they're finished.
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HerrDoktorProfessor
9 years ago
Our tile floors went in right after the first coat of paint was done. Hardwood and carpet went in a few days before we closed.
shifrbv
9 years ago
Normally you want to avoid damage to hardwood flooring. When everything is installed, bathrooms, doors, ceilings textured and walls painted, tile -time for hardwood.
lepages
9 years ago
In our recent build the flooring came first. Then the trim subcontractor came in and installed the baseboards, trim, doors.
galore2112
9 years ago
"Hard"wood floors dent easily compared to truly hard floors like ceramic tiles.

I installed the wood floors first because I wanted a perfect transition from floor to door frame (without caulk). Further construction caused a few scratches in the wood floors so installing the wood floors last would have avoided that.

But then, even when our cats accelerate with their claws extended to gain traction (futile on a wood floor but hilarious), they scratch up the floor. That's just what happens to wood floors I guess.

I would install the doors first, if you have a smooth wood floor and want the no scratch look last until your house warming party when at least one guest will have shoes that ding your floor. This will require your contractors to be super careful.

I would install the doors last, if you have hand-scraped, pre-dented and pre-scratched floors. That way at least you avoid the caulk look at the bottom of your door frames.
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worthy
9 years ago
All I know is how I do it: doors first, wood floors last. Ceramic or stone goes in early.

However, the trim carpenter should be provided with samples of the finished flooring to know exactly how much space to provide.
amberm145_gw
9 years ago
Caulking the bottom of doors?!? I assume you mean the jam and trim? If the door trim is installed before the floors, they should be cutting the trim back and running the flooring underneath. Baseboards should always go in after the flooring. That's the whole purpose of base board.
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galore2112
9 years ago
Caulking the door frames where they meet the floor is standard practice in single family homes in Dallas at least. This is less work than cutting back the jamb. The whole purpose of base boards is to hide the gap between floor and wall so of course they go in last.
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snuffycuts99
9 years ago
They put cardboard over all of our hardwood to protect it after installation.
amberm145_gw
9 years ago
I have installed hardwood floors myself. Cutting back the door jam is LESS work than trying to cut the hardwood around it and then filling with caulk. And it's a more professional looking job, too.

Of course, if you can leave a sample of the flooring so the trim guys know where to stop the jam, that's even less work.
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PRO
CROWN MOULDING by Spectacular Trim
4 years ago
Hardwood flooring goes first. Wheni install prehung doors, the jambs and door are crefully fitted to the final rough opening which includes the finished floor. The last thing I want is the flooring crew to undercut my jambs, remove the doors from their hinges and risk dmaging them, or adding an unexpected bump in the flooring which takes me coming back to pull the door, recut to the new floor height and possibly adjust the door. Doing it after flooring is in means the customer gets it done one time.
Michael Mercer
3 years ago
Floors always before doors
Eliminates quite a few issues/steps

What comes first, the wood floor or interior door

Pinebaron

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