Straight lines when painting

[Nineball]

Hi,
Just painted all the walls in the hall and on the landings. When removing the masking tape it's pulled paint off in places, paint and got under the tape in other areas and it needs tidying up between the wall and skirting. It looks a mess!

Does anyone have any tips to get a nice straight line between my skirting and walls?

Looks like I'm going to have to go round with some white gloss for the skirting and the grey matt I used for the walls and use whichever is needed to try get a straight line between them at the moment.
This must be a common issue and hoping there's someone with a good tip or some good advice to help get a nice straight line between walls and skirting.
Thanks.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

These days, the problem with masking tape is that it's often made down to a price. It doesn't always adhere very well and paint can seep under it.
To be fair the surface you stick it on to has to be smooth, clean and free from any grease, that isn't always the case.
When I use masking tape I go over it with a wallpaper edge roller before I start painting. That seems to work OK.

 

[Nineball]

Yeah you are spot on with the masking tape. Now left with messy edges and trying to manually get a straight edge using both paint when required.

 

[Ian]

I've had great success with Frogtape, it's expensive for masking tape - but worth the few extra quid. It's quite strong and doesn't let paint seep underneath as long as you firmly push it down just before painting (I just run my finger along to check).

There are 3 types:

Green - standard, works fine on non delicate surfaces. I use this on woodwork.
Yellow - delicate, works well when you need to mask off things like existing emulsion walls and don't want to pull paint off
Orange - specialised for gloss. I've not used this, as green/yellow still works fine.

 

[Nineball]

Thanks, will have a look for some of that

 

[KevinA]

1. As recommended, and cannot be repeated too often, pay your good money and get a good product. 2. Don't allow paint to dry with masking tape in place, because you'll end up with a sharp edge. Remove the tape when the paint is partly dry and still workable. This will allow you to rectify imperfections- very carefully -caused by tape adherence and give a bevelled edge when dry

 

[AlexCaro]

We had the same problem with our walls when we left the paint to dry with masking tape. It was our first time painting and first lesson to take the tape off earlier