Should You Install Drywall or Flooring First?

When you are remodeling a room and have everything stripped out, it can be difficult to decide which surface to re-install first:  drywall or flooring. From the perspective of keeping things clean and undamaged, which should go in first?

Best Answer

Install drywall on the walls before installing floor covering. This recommendation does not apply to subfloor.

Because

• Protection: Both drywall work and floor installation create a mess, but drywall’s mess far exceeds that of flooring. By putting in the drywall first, you separate drywall and its dust from the flooring later on.
• Change Easier: If you were to install flooring first, pushing it against or close to the wall studs, the drywall would then extend over the flooring. This effectively traps that edge of the flooring under the drywall, making it more difficult to remove the flooring.

Important Note

This recommendation refers only to the installation of floor covering on top of subfloor. Floor covering is the topmost layer of flooring, such as laminate, tile, or vinyl. When installing the subfloor, this should go in first.

Qualifiers

When the drywall is being installed in the ceiling, it matters less because that issue of drywall trapping floor covering is eliminated. Still, you have the issue of mess to deal with, which can be significant when hanging drywall on a ceiling.

If you have the following conditions, you may want to consider installing flooring first:

• You are hanging a significant amount of drywall
• The flooring is unfinished wood.

This point was brought up by a commenter at the Fine Homebuilding forum, stating that the humidity spike caused by drywall finishing and the painting can cause the flooring to “swell and buckle.”

Sources

Tier 1 – Trade Forum

Fine Homebuilding’s forum has a good discussion of whether drywall or flooring should go in first, along with that point about drywall finishing’s humidity having the potential to affect raw wood flooring.