Interior or exterior? Are you purchasing prehung or slabs and site hung? Or do you mean before or after the doors are installed in the openings?

I know stain is a bit different, but in one house the painters stained prior to hanging. The next house stain and final coat came after hanging. These were wood interior doors.

Interior MDF prehung for new construction.

We are painting ourselves and our builder wants to hang them first, but I was thinking it would be better to paint first.

This post was edited by kberrie1 on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 11:14

In my opinion put the first coat on before hanging them, this way you can be certain that the tops, bottoms and behind the hinges have a coat of paint on them. Then once they are in place and the bulk of the construction is done put the finish coat on.

Mine were sprayed before they were hung then painted again after they were hung.