paint walls and molding or put in new floors and moldings first? (hardwood, stairs)

[amyla]

I see the advantages to both-which would you do and why?

[nuts2uiam]

You don't say what type of flooring. I have hard wood and we painted first then the floors were installed and polyed.

[Cecilia_Rose]

Paint walls.
Install flooring.
Lay molding on saw horses. Outside if possible. Prime and paint. Let dry.
Nail painted molding to wall. Set nails. Fill holes. Touch up molding.

This is how I do it. Others may differ. Personally I think its much easier to paint or stain your molding before you put it up. Goes faster too.

[golfgal]

We paint first. It's a lot easier to paint if you don't have to worry about spills, etc. It's easy to touch up spots as needed after the flooring is installed too.

[Rowen]

We painted the walls and molding first but at the time we had wall to wall carpeting that was installed by the original owners and didn't care if paint spills got on it because we ripped it out and then had hardwood installed.
If you're installing new molding, cut it outside otherwise you could have a huge mess to clean up.
We have wall to wall carpeting upstairs in the bedrooms and when we painted I always put down a layer of plastic sheeting first then covered it with painter's tightly woven canvas.