David James, a professional decorator for over forty years, gives us the inside gen on masking tape - and what works.

You’ll notice that when you go to buy masking tape, it comes in variety of colours. This is not for ascetic effect - the different colours indicate different types and uses. The inside of the roll may well have a description of what the tape is intended for.

He has in his hand a green roll of tape, meant for concrete and hard to stick to surfaces, which is highly adhesive. If used on a painted surface, the likelihood is that it will pull any paint it’s stuck to off.

For the job he’s on today, which involves painting around plastic window frames, Dave needs a less fiercely adhesive tape. He shows us the blue tape which is a regular, all-purpose tape, which most decorators and painters will use prolifically. Even this tape is not suitable for lacquered or varnished surfaces - it can still pull off paint or varnish.

Dave uses a white tape, a ‘low-tack’ tape when he needs to tape up previously painted surfaces. This, like the other rolls, has labelling to show its potential uses.

Another crucial factor to consider is the time that different tapes are designed to stay in place - usually the roll should tell you this. The white tape mentioned above is a seven day tape - that means it needs to be pulled off in this time-frame. Many regular tapes bought in DY stores are supposed to be taken off within 24 hours. Some tapes may be thirty day tapes.

Some tapes are also ‘straight-edged’ tapes, designed to produce a better finish when cutting in, with no creep - paint creeping in under the tape and ruining the straight-line you are trying to achieve. Cheap tape can defeat your best efforts. It’s worth getting the right tape for the job in hand.

Dave points out that professional painters and decorators will ensure they properly prepare any surface they paint, mask it up if necessary, and use several coats of the appropriate paints to get the desired finish. Under these conditions, its likely that the tape will need to stay in place for a number of days.

He then demonstrates how to get that desirable straight-line on windows he’s previously painted around. The windows required extensive prep work to remove sealant used when the windows were fitted, which he outlines. The paint is a strong colour against the white of the windows, so its a tense moment when he peels the tape back to reveal a lovely straight line.

He wishes you luck in your efforts to duplicate this - but just in case, gives you the Straightline Decorating website [ Ссылка ]

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