I’ve painetd about 1/2 of the baseboard and door trim/jambs in my house so far. About 50% of that area has paint that ran under the tape. The tape is right up against the trim as close as it can get, but I still get some bleeding underneath the tape.
I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or what, but how can I prevent the paint from bleeding under there?
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Replies
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=45815.4
I've been successful with two techniques:
1) While taping, overlap the trim and the floor. Then using a really sharp utility knife, cut the seam between the trim and adjoining surface. Then paint with a properly loaded brush with light strokes near the tape edge.
2) Tape as above. Use one of those 4 inch mini rollers that has an end designed to also paint corners. Gently roll over the tape. This paints the edge without forcing the paint underneath.
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The key is to use a properly loaded roller or brush and then gently roll or paint over edge. The paint should flow effortlessly off of the brush. The weight of the roller should be all the pressure that is used. Both of these techniques will put paint on the trim or wall and but not force it under the tape.
Also, when using the brush, act like your cutting in the trim as if there weren't any tape. The tape should be insurance not a crutch. Take your time and use a steady hand. I can cut a fairly straight line today without tape but the technique above allowed me to practice that without fear of mistakes.
Don't use tape. Get a good purdy's or equivalent angled brush and do it freehand. Takes getting used to but works much much better.
If you paint all day long, then going freehand is not a problem. However, for those of us who don't paint all day, tape is a smart thing to use. The key is to use the tape as "insurance" and not as an aid.
I tape and then use a 2.5" angled sash brush for cutting in. I take my time and I cut in the trim as if there was no tape there. If I happen to go over the "line", then no big deal. The tape covered me...like I said, it was insurance. Using the tape, a light touch, and a properly loaded brush allows me to get straight lines with no bleeding of the paint.
I absolutely agree with the notion that free handing is faster and better. I will admit that learning the correct techique will take a while.
As for tape, get the correct tape. I was introduced to "Kleen Edge" (I believe) by a professional painter. When I have used it, I have never had a paint bleeding problem. It is vastly superior to standard painter's tape and is worth the extra cost. Try it, I think you will like it.
Bill
I guess I have a different outlook. I always press the tape down - on everything, with an inch putty knife. Seals it up good and tight. Rarely have leaks. Now if your floor that is getting mussed up is some kind of textured linoleum - good luck. You can't seal a straight edge on that any more than you could stucco. Though I suspect a few minutes with a scotchbrite pad might clean up all the oopses on a vinyl floor. The right tape - argumentative that it is, is a good thing to think about. Regular masking is good for a great deal of surfaces, but not all. Blue "painters tape" is good for painted work that has cured. Then there's the designer stuff that's also blue but usually has an orange core - you can mask that on a wall you painted yesterday. Which I suspect is why they market to designer types - multiple colors in a room, stripes, yada yada yada . Use that and it doesn't take four years to get done. Then there's lacquer tapes, since blue eats lacquer, designer is expensive, and regular masking can leave it mottled.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
First, I'm a hack in all things, esp painting ... that said, I do a lot of it on my own house with pretty good results. I'm surprised no one here has mentioned using a straight-edge instead of tape. I paint the walls first (cut in with brush and minimize the amount I get on the base), then when painting the base, i hold an 18" straight edge along the wall as i cut in the base. Truthfully, it mostly keeps me from doing the really dumb things like dragging my paint-soaked knuckles along the wall, but as someone mentioned earlier, if you treat it just as a back-up and not the primary means of keeping paint off the wall, it will work fine. I've used tape, and it works ok, but i hate spending the money and taking the time to put it on.
Bill.
The technique is to use an expensive, high quality brush and cut in by hand. It produces better results than tape.
It's easier to paint the trim first and then the walls, because cutting in is much easier from the direction of the wall. Painting the trim after the walls is asking for trouble.
Well, I'm a messy, and impatient painter. I paid to have my walls painted last week, but opted out of the extra $500 for trim. I figured it wouldn't be hard. I'm painting baseboard against carpet and using regular masking tape and not get any of it on the carpet, go figure.
Where it's getting on the walls is around door trim and top of baseboard. I do press the tape (blue 2" painters) against the wall, but only with my thumb. Maybe I need to use my straight edge to.
I've tried using a straight edge, it doesn't work. I have very poor walls (24 years old) and the straight edge doesn't give a good contact area, so paint bleeds through.
Cutting in would be nice, but I'm messy and impatient. I may try some foam brushes since they seem to not let the paint run away on you,. I'll use those on the side edge of door trim and the top portion of baseboard that touches the wall, and then use my brush for the middle/lower sections. Not sure how well that will work.
Well, if one insists on using tape; then, you might as well use the same trick that the equipment painters use: after applying the tape, spray the edge of the tape with a clear fix. On cars/equipment we used clear enamel; for walls, a spray-can of artist's "fix" will do the job (it's the stuff they use to stop a charcoal drawing from smudging)..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
I have always been amazed at the trouble some people will go through just to take a brush and paint a line. Tape is for spraying or as insurance against something that can not be touched up etc( stain grade built in etc).
I think that if someone is cutting themselves they have a tendancy to become a little bit of a perfectionist, i say before you cut in at your place have a good look at someone elses place, you will see that nothing is perfect ( even if sprayed ) and people only notice if something is grossly wrong.
Having said that... if you want a dead straight line and want to go to the trouble of using tape you may as well get a dispencer that will roll the tape slightly onto the trim, this will help with bleeding.
Or get a masking gun, and bag the walls and everything, then take an airless to it ( be it beged barrowed or stole). Sprayed trim is the way to go in my opinion, that and sprayed walls. I am sure i will get a lot of greif over this so fire away. :)
james
No grief here... I agree that spray is the bestest way.
And taping is good for spraying... taping is a waste of time for brushing.
By the time you tape, paint, then clean up all of the bleeding... you could have taped, bagged, sprayed, cleaned up, had breakfast, played a game of monopoly with your kids, read the paper, taught your kids a funnier way to annoy your wife, taken out the trash, kissed your wife, complemented your wife on her nice outfit (always a good idea), gotten lucky because you complimented your wife on her nice outfit and took out the trash, stared out the window at your neighbor who is trying to brush his house (not well, I might add), laugh at your neighbor, offer your neighbor a beer while you explain the benefits of spray, help your neighbor tape and bag his exterior, spray his house, clean-up... and then (maybe) call it a day.... all before the Nascar race comes on!
woo woo Rich, glad there is another convert here. Last time i mentioned spraying i was told that " its ok for apartments and low end condo's but for the high end jobs roll or spray and back roll "
funny that someone would go to all the trouble to have a smooth wall and then cover it with stiple, may as well blow orangepeel, and then call it high end.....
FYI for anyone who has not sprayed.... when you spray you generally do the trim first, then bag the trim and anything else you do not want wall paint on and spray away.
I have been told that spraying takes too much time with prep and masking when someone with a brush and roller can just get to work, i say phooie, an adverage sized room takes about 30 to mask ( and thats going slow) and about 10min to paint, and about 5min to unmask, oh i forgot to include time to cycle the pump when you are done . i would like brush and roller boy pull out of a room in 1 hr and have lines as crisp as a sprayed job.
Where spraying really shines is in whole house applications, esp in new construction where you can have the place to yourself. man it is fast and looks clean.
Sorry to steal this thread about brushing straight lines but if you need them that straight and are going to use tape anyways just blow it.
james
Well, almost a convert! LOL
I spray the walls, but "damproll" (my term) for consistency. Spray on the walls is great, but the damproll will even out any heavy spots. In proper light, any spray inconsistency will show like a sore thumb.
On trim, however, I haven't seen a brush or pad come even close to what can be accomplished with spray.
Rich,
I used to have consistancy problems until i started using a primer/leveler on the entire job for smooth wall applicaitons. the one i use is tough hide, made by usg, it really gets the walls smooth, you can not backroll this stuff and it is applied to about 20mil wft. you put it on in two passes, cross hatched. since using that stuff and using only premium grade paint i have tossed the rollers, one key thing to do after laying the leveler that i do is go over the job with my pc drywall sander on low with a fine grit paper. this takes out any inconsistancy in the pattern and gets the walls soooooo flat.
Its a lot of prep but for top $ clients who know my work they will spend easily double to have canvas smooth walls, and almost perfect cuts at casings or wall color change areas.
james
Funny I should JUST see this thread.
My guys left 45 minutes ago and I kept going....figuring out the amt of paint I'm going to need for this house so my paint supplier has an idea of what he's going to charge me.
I figure I have btwn out and in, over a hundred gallons.
And yes, I'm doing it with some of my guys.
WHAT I TOLD MY GUYS AFTER WORK TODAY (MEETING)(for when the time comes)
A- If you want to paint with me dont tell me you know how cause you don't
B-Everyone thinks they can paint....they dont!
C-Attitude
D-Spend the time (attitude) on all the cutting in.
E-MAke the time up on rolling out but DO IT RIGHT!
there are places you can make up some time...
F-Keep all the paint tools seriously clean and sharp
G-Be sure to have your setup...set up right, such as your planks you may walk on, the staging I have here on wheels...etc etc.
H- Dont get in my way cause my stilts are too tall (ugh) and if I fall.....
(I'll be doing all the upper cutting-in inside).
I- Be sure the wires from the speakers are out of our way and the tunes are worthy of the color.
J- Don't tell me its boring and you need to smoke before you work or youre so outta here,,,,(you have no idea how many times I've heard this).
K-Mix all the same colors in one clean spackle bucket or two or three and mix em' all together.
L- Be sure to add Flotrol so we can paint out the holidays.
M-No beer till after work
N-Stay outta my way (did I already say that?)
O- If you see lumps bumps or pits dont fuggin' paint over em'!
P- Pee outside like the rest of us.
Q- Dont tell me you understand what I told you if you dont
R- Drop clothes where necessary and don't tell me later you didn't think it was necassary (such as over a baby grand piano)
S- Warn me if you see me up on my stilts and you just put extention cords and new dropcloths in my path.
T- OK OK.......I'm done....sorry
Be the end of the day here
andy
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Paint the walls first. Mask off around your trim. go over the tape/cut edge with your wall color paint. You should be able to zip around the room in a couple of minutes.
Now paint your trim. If any paint is gonna bleed under the tape it should be the color thats already under the tape.
I prefer to cut in, but I'll have to say that those 'straight-line' pads with the little plastic wheels do work pretty well, so long as the edge you are painting against is mostly straight and even. I think tape is usually a waste of time.
One sure fire way to get a razor sharp line w/tape is after laying the tape down where you want it, run painters caulk along the edge you don't want bleed thru to happen. All you need is enough to cover the thickness of the edge of the tape. You can run a rag (damp) over the bead.
I do this on all my jobs. I had the same problem you did and when I worked for a pro painter for a few days she told me this trick. Psstt... its a secret ;)
BTW let the caulk dry for a little first and when your'e done painting let the paint dry for a day or two before pulling the tape off, it will 'stretch' if not very dry.
I generally do the trim first and then the walls. That way I can lay the tape on trim butted against the wall.
Works perfect. Don't miss a spot caulking. Use rag wrapped around putty knife to get excess caulk out of corners. Sometimes a bit of trim paint will come off with tape. I consider this ok because I will touch these up and the straight, crisp lines outweigh any disadvantages
Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
"If yer gonna drive fast on the highway why not go as fast as you can? Like... a hundred miles per hour or more lol."
The area you are taping off has to be prepped perfectly for tape to give you a straight line, and the deal is to go up to the tape after "unloading" your brush, so as to just drybrush the color to the tape. The tape is only there as a safety net, not so any idiot can paint.
You could also pull the tape right away, and cleanup any lil goofs with a rag over the end of a putty knife.
It sound like you're putting too much paint on at one time., but then taping the wall is the last thing that you want to do, if you can avoid it. Unless you're spraying. It would of been much easier to do the trim first. If you have any texture on the wall, taping the wall be a nightmare. And this only applies to base. Never tape around doors or windows if doing it by hand.