Making a bit of a mess with masking tape...

edinburgher

I'm currently painting my daughter's room and it has recently been replastered after a few gaping craters were repaired by our plasterer.

I masked up the woodwork and applied 1 coat of Screwf1x Bare Plaster and 2 coats of some sort of trade brilliant white silk emulsion (forget the brand, also purchased at Screwf1x).

It took me a few days to finish as I work long hours and I made a total mess of removing the masking tape last night. A few 1cm wide or so sections torn right off and a generally ragged appearance.

I went around the edges freehand with the Bare Plaster paint again and I'll go over this with the brilliant white this evening. I probably should have sanded any ragged edges, but didn't realise this 'til after the event.

Any tips for future rooms? I'm thinking:

• Wash the walls beforehand, I didn't do this (although it seemed like the paint was adhering fine)
• Use low tack tape (not the nasty 5 rolls for £2 cream stuff)
• Use a Stanley knife to lightly score edges before removing (I did do this)

Anything else? Realistically there will be occasions where the tape is on for 2-3 days, I'm time poor

Grenage

Low tack tape is good, and whatever you do remove it as soon after painting as possible.

That said, you're better off not using masking tape at all - it's much faster. Any time you leave tape on beyond the paint drying, you're asking for trouble and it will take even more time to sort out.

googler

I fill any irregularities between wall and woodwork with acrylic (decorator's) filler, then overlap onto the woodwork with the wall emulsion, then undercoat and gloss the woodwork freehand.

Masking tape is more trouble than it's worth for edges like this.

edinburgher

googler wrote: »

I fill any irregularities between wall and woodwork with acrylic (decorator's) filler, then overlap onto the woodwork with the wall emulsion, then undercoat and gloss the woodwork freehand.

Masking tape is more trouble than it's worth for edges like this.

Why oh why didn't I think of this?! My freehand painting isn't that bad and I'll need to sand down the woodwork before priming/glossing anyway! Will give this a go...

googler

If you're using a dark wall emulsion, you may need two undercoats on the woodwork, but apart from that....

edinburgher

Would you mask corners/edges if you were painting one wall a darker shade than the others? I can't imagine I'd have much luck cutting in freehand for a 7' vertical stretch. Could I just try it and keep a damp cloth on hand for catching any overlap?

Grenage

You'd be surprised how easy it is if you paint with confident strokes.

Rain_Shadow

And use a decent sized brush. Undercoating and glossing skirtings and architraves up to walls is a lot easier with say a 2" brush than a 1/2" one. It sounds counterintuitive to do accurate work with a bigger brush but the bigger brush gives you much more control.

Le_Kirk

I recently redecorated a bedroom with different colours top and bottom. I painted the bottom, waited 48 hours and applied Frog tape (be sure to pick up the correct type) then painted the top and removed the tape whilst paint was still tacky. Perfect result. I am confident when cutting in ceilings to walls and walls to woodwork but not a horizontal split round a room.

googler

edinburgher wrote: »

Would you mask corners/edges if you were painting one wall a darker shade than the others? I can't imagine I'd have much luck cutting in freehand for a 7' vertical stretch. Could I just try it and keep a damp cloth on hand for catching any overlap?

No. I'd still do it freehand.

Practice makes perfect, but yes - I still keep a damp cloth handy in case something makes me jump

Double_V

I have found Poundland's masking tape very useful as its not very strong and works great with the jobs like this.
Have done 2 rooms using that tape and left for over a day and still it was removed with no mess.
Maybe your one was a strong one.