A paint problem

[Penners]

Presuming, Milady, that you're referring to the tabloid newspaper type of page 3, at what point did a photo of a jeune femme déshabillée become "traditional"?

 

[Feltwell]

I take it you didn't opt for the traditional style of Page 3 then?

Sadly no, whilst some titillation would have livened up an immensely dull subject (corrosion inhibition in reinforced concrete) a link to "Kirsty, 23 from Essex" would have been hard to justify.

 

[LadyArowana]

Presuming, Milady, that you're referring to the tabloid newspaper type of page 3, at what point did a photo of a jeune femme déshabillée become "traditional"?

Seems they started in 1970, I don't really remember a Sun newspaper without boobies.

 

[Feltwell]

Back to the exciting (??) stuff, paint......

I'm currently doing lots of my least favourite activity - decorating - and one job I've always hated is "cutting in" paintwork, where you are painting one colour & area up against another such as the junction between skirting and wall. I can cut in quite well freehand, but it's a job I dislike intensely, and have always thought masking tape would make it easier - but my results with masking tape have always been very poor due to paint "bleeding" under the edge of the tape.

This stuff was being advertised as not being prone to that, so I bought some from B&Q to try it out, not in all honesty expecting it to work that well. But it does - it works really, really well in fact, giving razor sharp lines.

http://www.frogtape.co.uk/

I've only tried it with modern emulsion so far, how well it would work with paint that is not water based I don't know. I'm very impressed with it with emulsion though.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Tee hee, everybody seems to be having similar problems/solutions/results! You could always try my trick---- I recently had an inner ear infection which left me feeling too dizzy to decorate the stair way and landings. So, eager to get on, I made a snap decision--- R of J matt emulsion in my favourite colour, buttermilk, for the walls , white eggshell for the woodwork, booked my favourite painter, known to us as 'Uncle D,' result --- a perfect finish and the perfect colour and a reasonable bill at the end of it all!
The moral is don't think too hard just get on with it!!!

 

[JoceAndChris]

The stairway and landings sound lovely Joss, and I'm finding the buttermilk easy to live with on the dining room ceiling so thank you again for your recommendation.

Feltwell, I'm interested to read you bought Frogtape as I bought some too a couple of days ago, after bad husband said my line (the line in that matching mouldings thread) was wonky - I thought it was pretty perfect myself. I do worry the Frogtape would lift the paint though, we've got paint here that isn't brilliantly stuck, and what would it do to wallpaper or waxed floors? So I'll be using it in a cautious way. I started out really wobbly with painting and have got good after all the delicate picking out, if I do say so myself. The next challenge is marbling and gilding which I'm itching to try.

 

[Feltwell]

The Frogtape isn't that tacky compared to some other tapes I've come across, but "proceed with caution" sounds wise to me, especially on wallpaper. Waxed floors? I wonder if it would even stick to that, but it's worth a try - at least they should be easy to patch if it does take any wax off. If your paintwork is a bit iffy then I've found what can make a big difference is how long you leave the tape on for.

I'm coming to the end of this particular job, redecorating my eldest son's bedroom. All the woodwork in that room - of which there is plenty, 2 large sash windows, 2 large doorframes with deep architrave, deep skirtings etc - was painted in a very, very bright and rather sickly yellow gloss, which is the devil's own job to paint over. It's taken 3 coats of undercoat and 2 of topcoat to mask it (it's now a slightly off-white colour). Not only that, but this yellow paint had been applied far too thickly and had paint runs everywhere.

 

[tobydog]

I've not used Frogtape before and just persisted with normal masking tape. I agree that it bleeds which is infuriating, however, what I do now is (apart from firming done the edge properly) is to use a semi-dry brush along the whole tape but painting away from the tape. It looks very thin and wishy washy at first but with emulsion it dries very quickly so as soon as you get to the end of the tape, the end you started at is dry enough to go over again. After three or four goes you end up with a proper coat. The rest of the wall you do as normal.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Ooh good tip Tobydog.

 

[Feltwell]

Feltwell, I'm interested to read you bought Frogtape as I bought some too a couple of days ago, after bad husband said my line (the line in that matching mouldings thread) was wonky - I thought it was pretty perfect myself. I do worry the Frogtape would lift the paint though, we've got paint here that isn't brilliantly stuck, and what would it do to wallpaper or waxed floors? So I'll be using it in a cautious way. I started out really wobbly with painting and have got good after all the delicate picking out, if I do say so myself. The next challenge is marbling and gilding which I'm itching to try.

I've just used the ordinary green Frogtape to mask onto day-old emulsion, something which their instructions say you shouldn't do! It came off just fine after being on for 8 hours - just a couple of very small areas that it took the paint off, which are easily touched back in.

But - a DIY retail industry magazine landed on my doormat today (from an old job) and there on the back cover was an advert for Frogtape, saying they'd just released a new low-tack yellow version for delicate surfaces. Thought this might be good for you to try.

http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/f/FROGTAPE_YELLOW_DELICATE-SURFACE/

 

[Penners]

At £7.98 for a 36mm wide roll?! :shock:

At that price it should paint the bl**dy window itself!

 

[Feltwell]

Never mind the width, see the length!

(Matron...... )

It is about twice the price of ordinary masking tape, but having used it I'd say it's an extra £4 well spent - on water based paints anyway. Don't bother for solvent based.

 

[michael]

Never used it before but I heard that ‘Contract Trade Emulsion’ is fairly breathable. I believe they paint it onto fresh plaster in new builds and it allows the plaster to dry out through the paint. I think the only down side is it’s a bit ‘wishy washy’ and needs quite a few coats. Perhaps if you used a Contract Trade Emulsion from a large paint producer such as Dulux then maybe you could get one of their large range of colours mixed into it ? Worth enquiring perhaps.

 

[michael]

Sorry, I’m obviously very late with my comment above. I didn’t realize that there were eight pages of comments before mine. Still ,hope it helps

 

[AMc]

FWIW Contract emulsion is breathable. 2 coats of brilliant white on bare new gypsm plaster gives a reasonable finish and it's very, very cheap - I used a lot of Travis Perkins own brand. Note that the massive tub is only fractionally more expensive than the huge tub
The only downside is that as a base coat for washable plastic paints or sealants it can grip the plaster less well than the top coat grips it - and so if the sealant shrinks it pulls the paint off the wall.
Not suitable for bathrooms in my experience but fine for most other places.

 

[MdB]

Some Trade Emulsions at least are basically lime wash + titanium oxide so have similar performance.

 

[Moo]

as a base coat for washable plastic paints or sealants it can grip the plaster less well than the top coat grips it - and so if the sealant shrinks it pulls the paint off the wall.

Ahah! That explains why my walls had those flaky patches.




(note the use of the past tense!!)

 

[Penners]

Aha! Do we infer that Hercules has been in to do the hall/stairs/landings?

 

[michael]

The reason I suggested contract trade emulsion is that like you I also had a patchwork of surfaces in an area of my home and this is the paint that was recommended to me by SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). Unlike limewash, it sticks to most surfaces, it’s cheap and it’s breathable. As I said I haven’t used it yet but I guess if you use this on its own possibly with colour additives? (I haven’t researched the colour bit yet) and no modern plastic top coats you should be fine.

 

[Moo]

Aha! Do we infer that Hercules has been in to do the hall/stairs/landings?

Yes!!!!! Our builders provided the most brilliant, perfectionist (and reasonably priced) pair of decorators who nipped up and down vertiginous ladders with gay abandon.