painting tape disaster vent

Its official.. i hate painters tape. It's always been a hit or miss kind of thing.. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time it caused a major screw up.
This past weekend we painted the walls, and then spent a lot of time taping off those same walls in the stairwell so we could paint all the molding and trimwork a nice dark brown color. We spent 2 days carefully putting 3 coats of semi-gloss paint on all the woodwork.
Fast forward to this morning when we removed all the tape and it was an absolute mess. The paint stuck to the tape in some areas so when you pulled the tape off.. it took 1/2 the paint with it instead of leaving a clean line! In some areas the paint got under the tape (despite us really carefully adhering it to the walls).
I also think the paint we used was absolute crap - we used Behrs semi gloss and it ended up drying almost like vinyl - so the paint that overlapped onto the tape stuck to it and ended up just peeling off the woodwork it stuck to.

I hate painters tape!! (and i'm never using Behrs paint again, i'm sure that paint had something to do with it).

So, now we have to spend tonight (the 4th night on this project) touching up every single piece of trim, and not only do we have to do it with 3 coats, but we have to also touch up the wall color where the brown paint got under the tape.

GRRR.. thanks for letting me vent. its extremely discouraging to try and do everything right, and to be foiled by shoddy products.!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

I am sorry you had such a time with it.

I find that if i am painting with semi-gloss or high gloss that if I take the painters tape off while the paint is still a little wet, I have better results.

Also, I think there is special painters tape for semi/high gloss paint.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

here is a site where others have had problems and their solutions

link

Re: painting tape disaster vent

That is so annoying. Sorry it happened to you. I usually love doing the big reveal moment, I'm sure it was a huge let down seeing it didn't go as planned.

When I paint my moulding I use two thin sturdy pieces of platic. I hold one up on the wall and have the other one on the floor. If I mess up it gets on the plastic and not the wall. I find it alot easier and faster than having to tape everything.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

We had this problem when we used Behr paint in our kitchen. I don't know if it had to do with the brand of paint or the fact that it was semi-gloss but we didn't have the problem when we used Benjamin Moore in the whole rest of the house. It came off perfect then....

Re: painting tape disaster vent

I had the same problem with the painters tape. It was annoying to have to go back and do the touch ups!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

The same thing happened to us when DH painted one of our bathrooms. My uncle's friend is a painter and he told us that you have to take it down the same day and put it up again if you are going to be painting a room over more than one day.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

my dad helped us paint and had a lot of tips since he worked with my grandfather who had a housepainting business. he told us you have to remove the tape same day. we used behr paint and didn't have any problems. i don't know if the semi gloss has something to do with it. sorry you had such a hard time. painting is exhausting!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Thanks everyone.. yes, it was really frustrating to do the reveal only to have it look so bad. We have our housewarming party this weekend, so we've got a lot to do before then, and this wasn't what i wanted to be doing tonight



Thanks for the suggestions as well - there's always something else to paint, so we'll try something else next time!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Ugh Rachel, that stinks! Every room that I look at in our house, I find places where painters tape either peeled off chips of the paint, or spots where the paint leaked through. I'm too lazy to redo it though!

I'm sure the house will look beautiful for hte party!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Posted by Jax430

Ugh Rachel, that stinks! Every room that I look at in our house, I find places where painters tape either peeled off chips of the paint, or spots where the paint leaked through. I'm too lazy to redo it though!

I'm sure the house will look beautiful for hte party!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

That really stinks and I know this advice doesn't really help now but... always take tape off while the paint is still wet! Then if there are any places where the tape wasn't stuck well you can wipe the paint off the moulding while it's still wet.

Also, when taping moulding or the ceiling make sure to wipe it down first with a paper towel to get all the dust off, the tape will stick better.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Posted by Otherme

Posted by Jax430

Ugh Rachel, that stinks! Every room that I look at in our house, I find places where painters tape either peeled off chips of the paint, or spots where the paint leaked through. I'm too lazy to redo it though!

I'm sure the house will look beautiful for hte party!

and when you come over, no looking at it closely to find the mistakes!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Yes, the trick is to remove the tape while the paint is still wet.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

ugh i'm sorry, that stinks!
I've used behr paint and not had any problems so i'm not sure it's that.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Sorry to be a downer, but tape must be removed while paint is still wet for this very reason. Always...no matter what kind of paint/ or tape.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Re: painting tape disaster vent

I've never had this problem before and I always wait until the paint is dry to remove the tape.

For the first time ever, we had a problem this weekend as we painted our bedroom. I understand your frustration.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

if the paint is dry when you remove it, using a blow dryer will help.

sorry!! that is so annoying!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Sorry that happened. One trick my dad taught me is to score the edge of the tape with a razor before you remove it. It helps to cut down on the paint taken off of the walls.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

You know, my husband refused to use painters tape on a freshly painted wall, so we could have nice edges for the ceiling and I thought he was nuts.

But this has happened to so many people since, that I think I owe my husband an apology!

We used Behr's too. I did all the edging by hand, it was quite tiring. But I guess worth it, seeing all the responses here.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

so.. we fixed all the edges last night - painted both the wall and the trim and now it looks just fine.

Good tips from everyone to try next time though - i like the idea of using the razor blade to score the tape so it doesn't pull paint off
Better yet, i like the idea of never painting again!

Re: painting tape disaster vent

The same thing happend to us. After we painted someone told us that Behr is a terrible paint brand. My DH was so pi$$ed about it (because he did all of the painting) that we just left it. It irritates me sometime but I figure the next time we paint we'll use a different brand and have a professional do it.

Re: painting tape disaster vent

Posted by Otherme

Better yet, i like the idea of never painting again!

Message edited 11/13/2008 1:12:19 PM.