Eliminating Multicolored Edges After Painting Walls

[Abby]

Hi,

Newly painted walls left a bit of the previous paint along the edges. How do you get rid of it? I tried Goof-Off but that would have required more material and time than I was willing to expend and Goof-Off can remove paint that you want to stay.

Thanks, Gary

[hrhofmann]

Paint the new color over it like should have been done in the beginning. Old paint will not remove worth a darn, the new paint will come off and you will have an even bigger showing of the old paint.

[DerbyDad03]

Why is there any old paint still showing? Didn't you paint over it?

[nestork]

Gary:

Most of the problems people have with painting involve getting a nice straight line when cutting in, and most of the time the reason they're having problems is because they're not using a sash brush properly.

Here's a typical sash brush:

[image:

People look at a brush like that and think that the bristles are cut longer on one side so that the brush will fit better into corners, like this:

[image: and that's where they go wrong and end up making a mess with their brush.

The reason why the bristles are cut shorter on one side of a sash brush is so that all the bristles flare out the same amount when the sash brush is used properly, like this:

[image:

That is, when you use a sash brush properly, it's the shorter bristles that are at the "leading edge" of the brush and the longer bristles that are at the trailing end of the brush. By cutting the bristles shorter on the leading edge of the brush, all the bristles "flare out" the same amount when you use the brush properly, and that allows you to get a nice sharp edge when cutting in.

Try using your sash brush as described above, and see if that helps.

PS: Compare the results. The guy who's using his sash brush wrong is getting all kinds of yellow paint on his blue masking tape. The guy who's using his sash brush correctly doesn't even need to use masking tape. People often get poor results simply because they're not using their tools correctly.

[hrhofmann]

Well said!