I just finished a decent shift today painting my kitchen - doors, frames and window frames. At the end, I pulled off the masking tape (the tape you stick up where you want a straight line of paint to be, so that you can paint over it freely but when you take it off you’ll have a lovely straight edge of paint) and it looked like shit - the paint had gotten under the maskng tape all over the place giving a poor, wobbly finish (I’ve neatened it up OK with a cloth and white spirit).
My wife reckons professionals don’t use tape if they can possibly avoid it for this reason, and will freehand anything like a door frame. Is this the case? Or did I not take enough care with putting the tape up?
I guess that is why they charge the big bucks for Painter’s Tape.
In the process of renovating older homes, my father taught me that the tape is there in case you accidentally brushed the frame while doing the trim. It was not there to act as a mask allowing you to be careless with your work.
What sort of tape did you use? Be specific - what manufacturer, part number & how old?
IANA painter but I just had my whole house interior done by pros. Every edge with trim was masked using Scotch blue painter’s tape. Likewise every wall-to-ceiling edge. They were then painted and the tape removed an hour or so later.
During painting the guys weren’t slopping great gobs along the edge, they were painting more or less as if cutting in the edge by hand, but at 5x the speed they’d have worked if they were truly cutting in by hand.
There was still paint all over the tape they removed; it was catching a bunch of would otherwise have been mistakes. And there was virtually zero paint under where the tape had been.
I think you didn’t apply the tape correctly, and / or unwittingly worked paint under the tape with your technique.
The tape was nothing special - a generic masking tape you can get everywhere in the UK. I didn’t pay special attention to putting it on, so that could have been the problem. I also have an old flat - uneven surfaces left right and centre, so the tape was running down an undulating wall surface.
My guys would spend 2 minutes getting the tape right on any 3 foot run, then less than a minute applying the paint.
Whenever I’ve tried DIY painting, it’s been more like 10 seconds laying tape, 2 minutes applying paint, and 15 minutes trying to repaint the mistakes and leaks. Sounds like you used a technique more like mine than the pro’s.
Sounds like the paint got under the masking tape. I just saw the maintenence guy paint our inside hallway and it’s straight and the masking tape he used, said “Walgreens” on it.
I work as a painter over the summer. Nothing super professional, but I am an charge of most of the detail taping work. The blue painter’s tape makes a huge difference over regular masking tape. And freshness matters too. We use brand new tape for edges and the older tape for masking. It’s important to have the surface as clean as possible. Once the tape is down, I rub it several times with my fingertips to make sure it’s as stuck to the surface as possible. And yeah, just because the tape is there, you should still paint as if you were trying to get that edge perfectly.
I do “fine art” acrylic painting on canvas. Occasionally I want a super-crisp edge on an area and use masking tape. But canvas is relatively rough, compared to a typical wall, so what I do is: When I lay down the tape, I burnish the edge with the side of my thumbnail. Then I apply a coat of colorless painting medium on the edge, wait for it to dry, then apply another coat. Then I apply the actual paint, in two coats. When I finally remove the tape, I have a perfect edge.
Depending on the texture of your wall, you might want to incorporate some of this technique. The trick is the colorless painting medium. When it seeps under the tape, it’s invisible, and blocks the actual paint.
Painted my son’s bedroom several times with a lot of fancy stripes. Used the blue wide tape.
The trick I found was to let the paint dry well enough. Not just dry to the touch but hardened so it’s not so elastic. Otherwise when you pull the tape up it rips a rough edge.
Really? I think it’s much better to pull the tape the instant you’re done painting that spot. The lines are much cleaner, and the paint is much less likely to crack.
I painted theatrical sets for about 12 years (hence my screen name), and I hate hate hate masking tape. I can cut a straight line by hand way faster than laying down tape, burnishing edges, painting, and then removing the tape.
Or just use a lining stick, kind of a beveled straight edge.
And, if you use tape, you’re left with this big gob of painty tape that’ll probably fall onto some surface where you don’t want paint.
Oh, and if you need to use a chalk line, don’t use the red or blue chalk. It bleeds through. Use baby powder of powdered charcoal.
I just saw a test on the DYI channel yesterday. It was a program about nifty new tools. They did regular masking tape, blue tape, and the new green stuff called “frog tape” or something. The green one won, hands down.
One thing I’ve seen done when painting stripes is to paint the first color. Then mask the stripes, and paint the edges of the tape with the first color. That way any leakage is of the same color. That leaked paint will then keep any of the second color from leaking through.
The pros I know cut in freehand. An expert can paint much faster and cleaner freehand. Please note that I am not such.
My friend the remodeler has attempted to show me a method where you run a tiny bead of caulk along the edge of the tape to seal it, but I can’t manage that either.
With any kind of tape, if you don’t seal it down, paint oozes under it.
When I used to paint on remodeling jobs, most of the time, I just used a straight edged piece of thin cardboard (a beer carton panel works well, IME :p). Cardboard in one hand, paintbrush in the other. Reduce, reuse, recycle…that’s the motto :D. This only works where you have a perpendicular surface to work against, though.
For stripes or other areas where this isn’t practical, what others have posted with the blue tape.
