How to mask a room quicker and cheaper for paint spraying is a common question for DIY and professional decorators. Most people have now heard of paint spraying when decorating their home. Most professional painters and decorators have either tried it or have seen people doing it. Anyone who has tried it will realise there is one big drawback. In a home, 95% of the job is masking, rather than painting. So if the job is now more centred around masking, rather than painting, what can be done to make the masking process quicker and also cheaper, now you're having to spend money on all these fancy masking products.
Masking Tape
If you're paint spraying the first thing that comes to mind is masking tape. You will be using this to mask the carpet, light switches, hinges, fixtures and holding down other types of masking film and paper. You'll also have Frogtape and other kinds of specialist tapes.
We won't go into too much detail be here are a few which we would recommend which office good price vs performance. Fossa True Mask which is great for anything which needs something better than masking tape but not required a razor sharp edge like Frogtape. Then of course Frogtape delicate, however we find ourselves using this less and less. Then there is the good old masking tape. We used to use Duck masking tape, however the price has more than doubles so we're now using Deltec Masking 50mm as an alternative.
Masking paper and film
The best paper mask, which we generally use on top of skirting boards to mask the edge of the room is Deltec papermask. This can be used directly onto skirting boards, without the need for applying Frogtape first. It leaves a good edge and releases from paint well. It's also competitively priced so we always carry a healthy stock of these wherever we go.
The best shorter length masking film is Indasa cover roll. We used to use this in a variety of lengths where nowadays we generally use the 1200mm version as a "do it all" and reduce the number of variations we carry. It's a great all round performing masking film.
Now if you've seen anyone paint spraying then you would have seen them using a 3m hand masker. These things are great for 2 reasons. They're fully customisable and they're fast! We use the Fossa True Mask tape as mentioned about along with the 99inch 3M masking film. We use this for masking doors, wardrobes, kitchens, and anything which needs a large area covering. The only downside is that this is the most expensive type of masking so we only use this where we have to.
Floor Masking
Masking the floor of an empty home is far easier than one which has furniture in. We won't get bogged down in details in this article but we will list 4 items which we use regularly.
As you can see we are forming a long list of items which are required for masking up a house. All this masking takes time and money. What can be done to simplify the process to make it quicker / easier and with less waste.
Light switches and plug socket protectors
There are now specific paint spraying protectors for light switches and plug sockets which can quickly be pushed in placed and re-used time and time again. PRNT3D have a range of socket protectors which makes the process much quicker and with better results.
Spotlight Covers
Ever walked into a room and there are 9 spotlights to either pull down or mask around. Here are spotlight covers which easily press in place and can be removed and re-used time and time again saving precious time on a job.
Hinge covers
Ever noticed how most new builds, built in the last 10 years all have the same hinges which are really difficult to mask. Especially when you have to open and close the door and the masking falls off the hinge. This is where the PRNT3D Hinge Protectors come in. They simply slot of the outer hinge, making for quick and easy spraying of doors. No more fiddly masking around the hinges, only to find paint has got in there anyway.
Masking Tips
Modern paints are excellent at being flexible and withstanding wear and tear in properties. This however creates challenges for masking. When removing tape and other masking products you can get what is termed as "bridging". It's where the taps pulls off section of paint from the wall, leaving an ugly edge with peeling paint.
If you're masking we recommend you paint or spray your two coats and then remove the masking immediately. This will help avoid this problem. Now sometimes removing the tape immediately isn't an option. If not, leave it 24 hours for the paint to fully cure and then remove the tape carefully and slowly, to avoid peeling the paint.
What is your masking process? There seems. tobe no hard and fast rules for paint spraying YET! It will be interesting to see how the process evolves with more and more new masking products and paints coming onto the market. Let us know your process and we're here to try out any potential new time saving products. Happy decorating!
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