Paint a Straight edge on Skirting Board?

Hi

How do you get a neat finish when painting on top of skirting Board's without painting the wall too? How do the pro's get round this without taking all day about it?

Reply to
Mr B
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Low tack masking tape.

Reply to
EricP

Or... Skill, a steady hand and a well worn-in gloss brush :-)

Reply to
Mark

I've done both. Pro's are usually expert enough + have the best paint for the job to get along without tape.

I've used tape - an hour or two applying tape does make a fiddly paint job go quicker if you're not so confident.

Also depends a lot on the paint. Non drip is evil. It's too thick and gunky and assumes it will be brushed out a couple of times - so it's hard to control the brush and going along the same line 2-3 times ruins your chances of getting a clean line. Howver, when I used a paint called "Period Colours" (can't remember if it was Dulux or Crown - Crown I think... It applied beautifully. Very light, needed no excessive brushing, so it was possible to cut a line in one sweep. Seemed to not run too. Best paint I ever used (being a thicky with paint and drinking far too much coffee to have a steady hand).

What I used to do was cut a slight angle on the end of a 1/2 in brush with a good pair of scissors - helped a lot.

HTH

Timbo

Reply to
Tim S

Tear arms lengths of low tack masking tape, and then apply them to the wall in bits, making sure you press the edges and joints down firmly.

Reply to
BigWallop

Paint the skirting first then emulsion the wall down to the skirting, if your edge goes wobbly you can just wipe off with a damp cloth and do it again.

Reply to
TonyK

I usually paint the skirting boards first then emulsion pain if I get emulsion on the paint work I use a scraper covered in a damp cloth and with my knuckles against the skirting wipe the straight edge of the scraper along the skirting. changing the position of the cloth on the straight edge to ensure a clean piece of cloth at each sweep. Having hand painted along the peripherals I them apply emulsion on the walls with a roller.

When applying emulsion on walls having painted the skirting board I have a damp rag that I wipe over the paint work to get rid of emulsion spots in the paint.

I note professionals emulsion first and paint skirting board last. but the cutting in is not as good and its difficult to remove surplus oil paint from emulsion paint. DIY method takes longer but is neater. MikeS

Reply to
MikeS

Practice, steady hand, good eye and patience, I'm afraid.

You can use low-tack masking tape if you want, but that just adds to the time of the job.

Cutting in is a bit of an art really, a good pro can do it with amazing speed and accuracy. A decent well worked-in brush properly loaded with paint makes the job possible.

Reply to
RichardS

One think that really helps is a bead of decorators caulk between wall and board. This gives a curved bead that is easier to cut in.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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