Tape. Frog yellow, frog green blue, masking…..The list goes on and on. The hard part of some projects is that you need to mask off something without pulling up the paint it is stuck to. It is really irritating when the tape pulls the paint or bleeds. Make sure the paint you are taping is cured and bonded to the surface. Sometimes the cause of the pulling is that the primer has not cured or that it has failed. ( I’ll blog about primers in the future). Using the right tape is really important. Patience is key. Let things dry properly before painting over them.

I have used Frog Yellow Tape for delicate surfaces for stripes and painted floors. As seen below. The other tape I use is the blue orange core tape which works really. It gets you the clean fresh line without pulling up the other paint. Burnishing will help to keep the paint from bleeding. Be careful to not to push too hard!

If taping off trim, blue tape or blue tape orange core is a great choice. While painting trim and you need to tape off the floor to mask it, I usually use blue tape or green frog tape. If the floor has been recently refinished I would recommend using the blue tape for new floors. There is nothing worse then pulling up polyurethane from a newly done floor. Well some things may be worse. 😉

Masking tape works really well for bricks or stone and sometimes to tape building paper to itself. Please do not put masking tape on wood floors! Masking works great on carpets. It is cheaper then blue and sticks well and creates a great seal.

One pro tip I have is if you are doing a stripe project make sure all joint compound or plaster is cured before taping. If the joint compound or plaster is still off-gassing moisture chances are your tape will pull the paint. Take it from someone who has made this mistake….me.

Some tapes are pretty expensive but well worth the cost. Good luck and good taping.