Taping, Tarping and Painting
Budda Oliver asked:
Taping and tarping are the two essential steps to creating a clean and precise indoor painting project. To be done well in advance of opening any paint cans, taping and tarping require some careful planning and a little bit of know how, but with just an hour or so of preparation, you will ensure a well-painted room with minimal accidents.
Taping: When painting the inside of a room you need to be aware of a few precautions that are special to interior painting. Typically, exterior paint jobs require that the painter have knowledge of the location, type, and direction of their strokes but does not demand a terrible amount of knowledge of the terrain that the individual will be coating. For the most part, painting outside entails that you will be covering broad swaths or thin strips without regard to individual fixtures on the surface of which you paint. Interior painting differs on this element with regards to special location and knowledge of the particular area. You will need to survey your walls and discover which objects you will need to avoid covering. Such objects may potentially include: light fixtures; circuit-breakers; doors, door knobs, and door handles; and borders of ceilings, walls, and floors. A general rule of thumb is that any object that breaks the smooth plane on which the bulk of your painting is to be done should be avoided and taped off. Once identified, the taping procedure entails that you take a role of masking tape and mark off the exact border that you wish to make off limits to your new coat of paint. Border the edges of the objects you wish to avoid by placing the far edge of the tape where the object meets the flat surface. While they do constitute a change in vector, angles of a wall that is otherwise continuous should be treated as parts of a plane surface and do not need to taped off- you will want to paint all of these surfaces.
Tarping: The second half of the physical preparation for your project is tarping. Just as in taping, tarping requires that you know your limits and be ready to create a border on which you will not paint over. So, before you begin unrolling your tarp, either eyeball or mark with an erasable pencil the exact perimeter inside which you will be painting. Once you have clearly distinguished the area to be painted, purchase a length of clear plastic tarp from a hardware store and cut out swathes for each plane that you will be coating. Each swath should be two feet thick and the distance of the plane you plan to paint. In painting, when one talks about planes, one means to say the continuous surface to-be-painted. For example, if you are covering two perpendicular walls, each wall would constitute a plane. If you are coating a ceiling, the entire floor needs to be tarped; if you are painting just the floor, you do not need to tarp but should tape the entire perimeter of the floor. Tape each swath of tarp to the edges of the plane that you will paint, make sure that the tarp is flush up against the border.
These preparatory steps will ensure that your project is neat and effective. Doubtless, you will end up speckling some paint in unwanted areas and will need to clean your room after the project has been finished, but with precise taping and tarping you can minimize the time you spend on your hands and knees cleaning off spots, and maximize the efficacy of your project.
Taping and tarping are the two essential steps to creating a clean and precise indoor painting project. To be done well in advance of opening any paint cans, taping and tarping require some careful planning and a little bit of know how, but with just an hour or so of preparation, you will ensure a well-painted room with minimal accidents.
Taping: When painting the inside of a room you need to be aware of a few precautions that are special to interior painting. Typically, exterior paint jobs require that the painter have knowledge of the location, type, and direction of their strokes but does not demand a terrible amount of knowledge of the terrain that the individual will be coating. For the most part, painting outside entails that you will be covering broad swaths or thin strips without regard to individual fixtures on the surface of which you paint. Interior painting differs on this element with regards to special location and knowledge of the particular area. You will need to survey your walls and discover which objects you will need to avoid covering. Such objects may potentially include: light fixtures; circuit-breakers; doors, door knobs, and door handles; and borders of ceilings, walls, and floors. A general rule of thumb is that any object that breaks the smooth plane on which the bulk of your painting is to be done should be avoided and taped off. Once identified, the taping procedure entails that you take a role of masking tape and mark off the exact border that you wish to make off limits to your new coat of paint. Border the edges of the objects you wish to avoid by placing the far edge of the tape where the object meets the flat surface. While they do constitute a change in vector, angles of a wall that is otherwise continuous should be treated as parts of a plane surface and do not need to taped off- you will want to paint all of these surfaces.
Tarping: The second half of the physical preparation for your project is tarping. Just as in taping, tarping requires that you know your limits and be ready to create a border on which you will not paint over. So, before you begin unrolling your tarp, either eyeball or mark with an erasable pencil the exact perimeter inside which you will be painting. Once you have clearly distinguished the area to be painted, purchase a length of clear plastic tarp from a hardware store and cut out swathes for each plane that you will be coating. Each swath should be two feet thick and the distance of the plane you plan to paint. In painting, when one talks about planes, one means to say the continuous surface to-be-painted. For example, if you are covering two perpendicular walls, each wall would constitute a plane. If you are coating a ceiling, the entire floor needs to be tarped; if you are painting just the floor, you do not need to tarp but should tape the entire perimeter of the floor. Tape each swath of tarp to the edges of the plane that you will paint, make sure that the tarp is flush up against the border.
These preparatory steps will ensure that your project is neat and effective. Doubtless, you will end up speckling some paint in unwanted areas and will need to clean your room after the project has been finished, but with precise taping and tarping you can minimize the time you spend on your hands and knees cleaning off spots, and maximize the efficacy of your project.