Revelation on cutting in room trim

[Tom King]

I stumbled on the fastest, and easiest way to perfectly cut in casing, and baseboards this morning. I put up a new ceiling, and needed to paint the Dining Room in a lake rental house.

I had watched a youtube video titled something like "caulking your masking tape", and decided to give it a try. I'm probably fairly good at cutting in with a brush, especially on casing, but the top of a baseboard is no fun for me. I've tried several types of masking tape, including Frog tape, as was used in the video. I've never been That impressed with Frog tape.

The caulking method involves putting caulking over the working edge of the tape, painting over it while it's still wet, and pulling the tape off before it dries. I bought a tube of clear, latex caulking to use for this trial, but once I got into it, I decided to skip the caulking step.

I tried both Frog Tape, and 3M 2093 Sharp Lines tape. I like how the 3M tape works coming off the roll better, so I only did one side of door casing with the Frog tape. It worked like a charm. I think pulling it off while the paint is still wet lets the paint part cleanly at the edge of the tape, whereas otherwise, it comes off leaving some kind of a jagged edge.

I put the 2093 on, and contrary to 3M's directions, I didn't wait 20 minutes for it to set. I used a fairly stiff, cheap paintbrush to make sure it was sealed down good, as I rolled it out.

The wood trim in this room is natural finished Pine, and the walls painted this time with S-W Emerald Vanillin, sort of a very pale yellow.

After I had done several sections, I timed myself, without getting in a hurry, on a 16' baseboard. From the start of putting the tape on, including painting with a brush, and pulling the tape off, it was close to exactly 3 minutes.

It's faster, and easier for me to do this, as good as I am at cutting in vertical casing, on any of this trim.

Now, none of this old stuff had been caulked to the point of having a fillet at the joining line of the parts, so that made it some easier. I pulled off a little of the tape to start a section, and reverse rolled it off with the tape roll being held directly against the wall, so it came off in exactly the correct plane.

I never did open that tube of caulking.

If you read the instructions for the 2093 tape, you will see I didn't follow the instructions. I had that complete room painted today, and cleaned up, ready to move furniture back in tomorrow. I did have to do some sheetrock touchup, and priming those spots to start with this morning.

https://www.scotchblue.com/3M/en_US/...4340561&rt=rud

I used 3/4" tape. The whole floor was masked, because I sprayed the new ceiling, so there was little worry about the wet paint on the tape, as it came off, getting on anything that mattered. I wish I had known this long ago.

[Mark J]

Tom, can you explain how you did the "reverse roll"?  Did you "wind" the tape back up on the roll?  I would have thought you'd have torn off the strip after taping an edge.

[Tom King]

A little bit is unrolled, off the roll, to start the application.  The roll of tape is then held flat against the wall, and moved down the line against the way it comes off the roll, so the roll pushes it down in place.  Like a tire rolling down the road, but rotating the wrong way.  It goes in place right as it comes off the roll.   This would not work if there is fillet (little cove) of caulking.  In this case, the trim was natural finished wood, with painted walls.  The adjoining parts were not caulked, so it was a nice, sharp right angle.  It eliminates human error in laying down a length of masking tape, and goes along fairly fast.

If I do caulk such a joint, I make sure the caulking only goes where it's needed, and doesn't build up past the plane of the trim.

Pam says I need to take a video.  I'm sure that's an important part of why this way is so fast.

For the crown molding, I rolled the top of the wall, and painted the bottom cove part of the crown, before putting it up.  No tape, and no cutting in needed.

Here's the room.  I hate 8' ceilings.  We thought about tearing this house down, and building a good one, but it has enough redeeming features to be worth keeping.  Also, a picture of the stained popcorn ceiling.  I just put that ceiling up over top of the sheetrock.

The paper "catchers" on the sides of the window are to catch a little bit of sheetrock mud sanding dust, where I took the old curtain rod down.  I didn't want to drag out the random orbit sander, vacuum, and supplied air just for those two spots.

 

 

[wtnhighlander]

@Tom King, is that 4x8 bead board paneling? Or some other product? Really dresses up the room! I see your point about 8' ceilings, though. That would be easier to see and appreciate from 9 or 10 feet.

[Tom King]

Yes, beaded board plywood, but better stuff than the box stores keep in stock.  I ordered it through a regular building supply store.  It's much smoother than the stuff in the box stores, to start with.  Rolled with oil based primer, sanded with 320, and sprayed with Pro Classic.  The "boards" are cut from box store MDF. That's my pretty standard ceiling for 8' ceilings.

I put that one up by myself, which was a pretty slow go.  I bought some brackets for holding the crown molding up, and wish I'd had them 40 years ago.  They made putting the crown up easier than with helpers.  I'll post some more pictures, once I download them into the computer.

[Tom King]

Let the end of crown hang until you're ready to put the coped mate to it in place. 

I still cope crown the old way.  I use two coping saws, and two jewelers saws.  Two of each so I don't have to switch blades from staight to 90 degrees.  I like Jewelers saws better for the cove at the bottom of crown.  MDF crown is especially fragile for the thin parts of the cope.

The MDF boards are just glued up with Powergrab.  12 ton jack is overkill, but probably the smallest hydraulic jack I have.

This house is just a couple of hundred yards from our house.  I got Pam to come down to help me measure the pieces of crown.

Instructions for those crown brackets say to put a roofing tack one inch down from the ceiling.  This is 3-5/8 crown.  1-1/4" works better.

I don't do sheetrock ceilings in anything.

In order to have middle board over plywood joint, it didn't fall on a ceiling joist, so I used Togglers, and machine screws.

Plywood fasteners are 2-1/2" medium crown staples, shot on the bead-makes it easier to hide them.

Top of wall was rolled with wall paint, and cove on crown painted before putting it up.  That left no cutting in up there.  When the walls were draped, for spray painting the ceiling, the tape is put right on the upper point of the cove.

[Tom King]

Here is a link to those crown brackets.  I first ordered one pair, but needed more than that to hold up the 16' MDF crown, so ordered another pair.  I'll never put crown up again without them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015M1IKOY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

[Tom King]

If you don't see what that room adjoins, the natural finished, old Yellow Pine trim looks pretty dumb.  The five foot opening in this picture is into that room, and is the opening you see the zipper door in one of the previous pictures. This picture was taken before I put the Vinyl Plank floor down, but the carpet had been taken up.

We thought about painting the trim in that room, but it would have just been one more thing to do, so we're letting it go like it is.

 

[Tom King]

I used this method this morning, to good advantage.

Some will say they are good at cutting in with a brush.  Maybe you can do this with a brush, but us part time painters might better stick to getting help from tape.

I needed to paint a couple of doors.  One was stained on one side, and painted on the other.  I stained the one side, taped the door edge, cut the  tape with a marking gauge, pulled the waste piece of tape off, sprayed the door with paint on that side, and pulled the tape off while it was still wet.

When I went to the house for lunch, right after I took this picture, there was a little raised ridge on the edge of the paint.  I think it just got lifted because it was wet.  When Pam, and I went over to put them back in the house, out of the Sun, that ridge had laid down nicely.

If you're this good with a brush, I'll tip my hat to you.

 

[Chestnut]

That's an excellent idea for painting an edge like that. Putting the tape on and using a marking gauge. I'll have to remember that If I ever have to paint  a door. This might be sooner rather than later. I'm goign to build an exterior door for the Grandparents. It might be nice to leave the inside wood.

[Coop]

I probably would have painted the door edge all the way to the edge. Good use of the marking gauge. Great idea overall! 

[Coop]

Tom, if you get a chance, will you snap a pic of your door painting setup and how you support the door to allow it to rotate? 

[Tom King]

Back when I was building one new house a year, I made a bunch of these rotisserie ends.  I don't keep strecthers for them, but just use whatever is laying around.  I do have a pile of 2x4's used for various support pieces for painting, and such odd jobs.

When I was doing that, we would set up one room as a spray room.  I never thought about putting casters under them, but now that I paint them outside, casters would be good.  Just sitting on moving dollies works okay on a smooth floor, but once I get it out in the yard, it's really a two person job.

One thing I thought of, working on this door with different finishes on each side, is that it would be good to have an indexing system that would lock it in position.  I used to use one handed, 5" random orbit sanders, but now that I have the 6" beast, it would be better if I could use it with two hands, and not have to hold the door with the other.

These ends are probably 35 years old, or more.  I built them back with good Yellow Pine was just bought off the racks.

Nothing but a screw for the pivot.

They're a little bit taller than my sawhorses, so I can put a door on sawhorses, and when both screws are run in an end, it lifts it off the sawhorses, making handling pretty easy.

[Coop]

Thanks Tom. It must be common not to paint the top and bottom edges of doors. None of the interior doors of my sons newer house were painted and I questioned that. Then when the contractor installed an entrance door to our bedroom and a linen closet door, the top and bottom edges were not painted but I had them correct that.

[Tom King]

I'll paint them when I lay the door back on sawhorses.  Take one screw out, and lower the door onto the sawhorses slid back under the door.  That lets the rotisserie bar pivot, letting you lower the door to the sawhorse, and then you can take the other screw out.  Even if I sprayed what part of the ends that you see, beyond the rotisserie bars, there would still be some left to paint.  I just don't worry about looking at the ends when I'm spraying.

It needs to be lowered back on sawhorses anyway, to be safe to transfer it where it's going.