The order matters more than people expect, and getting it wrong means paying for the same job twice. The general rule is straightforward: decorate first, clean afterwards.
Decorating creates dust, drips and traffic. A carpet cleaned the week before the decorators arrive is a carpet that will need cleaning again.
Why decorating first is usually right
Sanding filler and old paintwork produces very fine dust that settles into carpet pile and stays there. Sheeting helps but never seals completely, and the dust travels through the whole property rather than staying in the room being worked on.
There is also the traffic. Decorators go in and out repeatedly, ladders are moved, and the route from the front door to the work becomes a temporary hallway carrying whatever is on the street outside.
- Sanding dust settles deep into pile and is hard to vacuum out.
- Repeated in and out traffic brings grit through the whole property.
- Drips and splashes happen even with careful sheeting.
- Ladder feet and tool bags mark and crush the pile.
The exceptions
There are a few cases where cleaning first genuinely makes sense, and they all involve contamination that would otherwise be spread around or sealed in.
The most common is a property being redecorated after a smoker or after a pet has caused odour. Painting over the walls does nothing about the carpet, and the smell will still be there when the fresh paint is dry.
- Smoke or pet odour, where the carpet is a major part of the smell.
- A property with heavy dust or damp issues being surveyed before work.
- A carpet being lifted and refitted, where cleaning is easier off the floor.
- A move in situation where the property is being cleaned throughout first.
Protecting carpet during the work
Even with cleaning planned afterwards, protection during decorating is worth the effort. It prevents the damage that cleaning cannot fix, particularly paint that reaches the backing and solvent marks that remove dye.
Thin polythene alone is a poor choice on carpet. It tears, it is slippery underfoot, and it traps grit against the pile so foot traffic grinds it in.
- Use a proper self adhesive carpet protection film or heavy dust sheets.
- Cover the traffic route from the front door as well as the work area.
- Tape the edges so nothing lifts and grit does not get underneath.
- Keep tins, trays and rollers on a rigid board, not directly on the floor.
- Vacuum before laying protection so grit is not sealed against the pile.
What can be removed from carpet
Water based emulsion caught while it is still wet usually comes out well. Blot it, do not rub, and keep working from the outside of the mark inwards with cool water and a clean white cloth.
Dried emulsion is much harder and often leaves a stiff patch of pile even when the colour is gone. Oil based gloss and solvent based products are difficult in a different way, because the solvents that remove them can also remove the carpet dye or damage the latex backing.
- Wet emulsion: blot immediately with cool water, good prospects.
- Dried emulsion: partial removal at best, often leaves stiffened pile.
- Gloss and oil based: risky, solvents can strip dye and damage backing.
- Wood stain and varnish: usually permanent, treat as damage not soiling.
- Filler dust: vacuums out reasonably well, but needs several slow passes.
Timing the clean afterwards
Wait until all the work is finished, including the second coats and the touch ups that always get forgotten. Cleaning between coats simply means cleaning twice.
Allow the paint to cure properly before a wet clean, since fresh paintwork can be marked by contact with hoses and equipment. A few days is usually sufficient, and for tight schedules dry compound cleaning avoids the issue entirely because there is no water near the new paintwork.
New carpet after decorating
If a room is being fully refurbished with new carpet, the order is the same but the reasoning is different. Fit the carpet last, after all the wet trades and decorating are complete, so the new floor is not exposed to any of it.
New carpet is worth protecting from day one. Barrier matting at the entrance and a protector application after the first year of settling in are both far cheaper than an early replacement.