# Ceiling masking



## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

When I was painting in 80's, the drywall finishers would take their blade and strike a slight 'v' up in the ceiling/wall corner joint. This gave a distinct, recessed groove for the paint finish and it always came out cleanest looking.

With thr practice done away with, it is difficult now to even mask the ceiling off on builder paint jobs with blue tape - often the ceiling coat peels right off with the backside of the tape - leaving that jagged sore thumb of removal so conspicuously on the ceiling. 

For one, the paint is so cheap. As are many of the claimed 'all in one' stain varnishes, which might peel off completely to the raw wood. 

Nowadays, I find myself always free-handing the wall cut where it meets the ceiling. Even with the darkest shades.

Does anyone still manage to mask ceiling territories on builder paint jobs?


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

The only masking tape I use, is for/on a masking machine...which means I'm gonna spray something.


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## Jonesey (Jul 7, 2006)

The only thing we mask is trim. Every once in a great while we'll mask on the walls for faux, but that's it. It's too expensive to tape even cieling grid anymore. Cheaper and faster to just cut it in.


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

Sometimes I might fashion a shield for chair rail or base with tape. I just line it up on top and let it stick out past the edge to catch splatter.


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

Yeah..I mask off base to protect from splatter sometimes too. I forgot about that.
Also if I'm gonna tape-n-caulk.


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## TooledUp (May 1, 2008)

I've never heard of anyone masking a ceiling to paint the walls - cutting in is all part of the skill of the trade. I don't think you can blame the quality of the paint for masking tape pulling it off. The best of the best would come off after being masked over if it's recently applied. Paint needs to harden for a good while before it would stand being pulled by masking tape.


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## capital city (Mar 29, 2008)

TooledUp said:


> I've never heard of anyone masking a ceiling to paint the walls - cutting in is all part of the skill of the trade. I don't think you can blame the quality of the paint for masking tape pulling it off. The best of the best would come off after being masked over if it's recently applied. Paint needs to harden for a good while before it would stand being pulled by masking tape.


I think he was talking about being the next guy in years down the road after a cheapo builder had it painted before not taping the day after painting the ceilings. I do know what your talking about as far as the v goes. If your going behind mexican drywallers you can forget the nice v to go by, its almost curved in spots and can be difficult. The other guys are right though taping is for the most part for DIY HO's and you should be able to cut it in free hand. Taping stuff off takes longer then painting itself. If its that bad use the sniper technique hold your breathe as you cut the line:thumbup:thats only kind of meant to be funny, I actually use to do that when I first started and it does work.


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Years a way, yes. And there is no need for 'blame' here.

If the ceiling finish pulls off with tape, you're basically stuck with it at that point.

Masking the ceiling isn't only a DIYER project. Many painters have done this.
Though I try to stay away from it, in some situations it may be better.


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

artinall said:


> Masking the ceiling isn't only a DIYER project. Many painters have done this.


Maybe before they learned how to paint.
Then one day, they became painters...and they put the masking tape away.


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## TooledUp (May 1, 2008)

Hmmm... I suppose you could always add one of these to your toolkit

[_The Accubrush Paint Edger saves you time and provides professional-quality results. The only edger with a small brush that paints exactly to the edge of the wall. This comes with instructions_]


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## TooledUp (May 1, 2008)

capital city said:


> I do know what your talking about as far as the v goes. If your going behind mexican drywallers you can forget the nice v to go by, its almost curved in spots and can be difficult.


The "V" (I guess) would be a groove in the finishing compound left by the filing knife during cleaning the drywall finish off.

It's not just the Mexican drywallers you've gotta look out for with curved tapes in corners. I've found a few curved corners in houses I've taped out myself and returned to paint after the carpenters have been in. I used to think to myself "surely I didn't do that!". Then the penny dropped - It was carpenters fitting skirting board too tight wall-to-wall, pushing the wall partitions apart and stretching the tape


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

I see some of us don't really read initial/prior posts before commenting.

Nonetheless, some are quite interesting, no matter how far-flung or on.

So let me ask, for straight line graphics; do some of you free-hand these as well? Or do you spin out ol' blue?

Come on now - put the pride in the hip pocket!

Take a deep breath. Exhale. Then begin to search your inner soul for a shred of truth.

_TooledUp_ - set aside your device-crammed toolsack!


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

artinall said:


> I see some of us don't really read initial/prior posts before commenting.


I see some of us like to edit our posts after someone has commented too.

My (only) point in this thread was/is that painters don't mask off ceilings to cut in walls.

Anyone that does may be many things, including a wonderful guy, but he's not a painter.

People often ask me to fix/build something while I'm on the job. My reply is "sure, but I'm not a carpenter."...that's to clarify from the start that if they expect a professional job, they should hire a professional.

Seems to me like a lot of the other tradesmen are more apt to say "sure, I can paint it too"...and leave it at that.



artinall said:


> Come on now - put the pride in the hip pocket!


It has nothing to do with pride. A painter being proud of the fact he can cut a strait line, is equivalent to a carpenter being proud that he can operate a circular saw without cutting off his fingers.


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

Steve, 

See you didn't answer the last post.

Obviously painters don't mask ceilings, but you wouldn't free-hand straight edge graphics now would you? There's a reason for that.

Posts above weren't edited in response to other posts, if that's what you want to suggest.

And 'I can cut as straight a line as tape' is a pride issue. 

Just look at the pride issues above. It's what prevents many of us from becoming better crafts people, all masking aside. (that is, if you want to take anything constructive from this post, which is why I am responding now)

Tradition and pride -- that any one can only perform a single trade well. Before, I thought that. Of course, perhaps, its a partial common truth.

As it turned out, this post had little to do with masking or not masking.
Perhaps 'masking' in another sense. Whether you mask your pride.


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## TooledUp (May 1, 2008)

artinall said:


> So let me ask, for straight line graphics; do some of you free-hand these as well? Or do you spin out ol' blue?


lol funny you should mention that...

I had a request a couple of weeks ago to paint a St Andrews flag on a bedroom ceiling 18ft x 12ft for a youngster's bedroom - The little boy chose the color scheme himself so don't blame me for the red lol. The result is below (the photo doesn't really do the finished poduct justice as I only had my cellphone camera and limited space to try and get a good shot).

It was to be painted on a previously painted white ceiling.

I measured and penciled it out with a straight edge then masked the triangular lines. Painted the blue up to the masking tape then removed the taape. I did all of the white freehand, cutting up to the blue.

So there are occassons where masking tape is useful, if not essential. Freehand graphics are a different story to regular painting though. If you haven't got anything to cut to then you need to create something - ie. a penciled line or tape. I used tape because it made life easier on the neck at the time and gave me a nice clean line to cut the white to - It would have been impossible to remask it on the blue anyway because it would have pulled off the paint.


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## Steve Richards (Mar 7, 2006)

ok artinall...you caught me...
yes, I'm proud of being able to cut a strait line with a paint brush.

Now maybe you can go over to the carpentry forum, and get some of those guys to confess they're proud of being able to swing a hammer.

Nice job,Tooled


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## Joewho (Sep 20, 2006)

Not sure why the tapers made a "V", but you can also mark a line to cut by. 

Don't press hard enough to leave a v or any groove, just enough to make a line you can see.


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## TooledUp (May 1, 2008)

Joewho said:


> Not sure why the tapers made a "V", but you can also mark a line to cut by.
> 
> Don't press hard enough to leave a v or any groove, just enough to make a line you can see.


lol great idea. Just use some masking tape to mark a straight line


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## trav007 (Jan 25, 2008)

Something I have done on occasion is put the "v" in the ceiling after the fact. Just use a drywall knife and cut a thin line into the ceiling with the corner of the tool, then when you cut in the bristles of the brush will gointo the aforementioned groove. Be forewarned though that this doesn't guarantee a straight line if the ceiling itself is all out of whack.


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## artinall (Aug 14, 2007)

> ok artinall...you caught me...
> yes, I'm proud of being able to cut a strait line with a paint brush.
> 
> Now maybe you can go over to the carpentry forum, and get some of those guys to confess they're proud of being able to swing a hammer.


 this is in your terms, I guess. 

but you may want to review the post for broader meaning.


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