Garage Painting (inside not out)

[bucs012]

I have been admiring some of the inside of garages in the garage gallery.

I like the garages that have one color from the floor up to about half the wall. Then start another color on up the wall from there or have stripes in-between to different colors.

My question is- How do you make the line so EXACT between your colors? Do you just use the blue painters tape? Also, what is the best way to MEASURE so that your lines are as perfect as you can get?

Here is a thread for an example. Scroll down to the 5th post which is by GunMoto and his pictures. This is what I am talking about. also Scottz5 has some pics too on that same page.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14670

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

Somebody started a thread a while back on exactly what you're asking about. I don't remember who it was, but I would think a search will locate it. It was a little more involved than just blue tape, but his stripes came out perfect.

 

[stok2]

Measure down from the ceiling every few feet, not up from floor most garage floors slope for drainage. Then use painters tape, the green tape is better then the blue tape (I can't remember the name and it's not from Home Depot. Go to a paint store). After applying the tape run a putty knife along the tape to seal it. Paint, pull tape while paint is still wet (not dripping).

If you want to do a stripe (Grey Top - Red Stripe - Dark Grey Bottom), after measuring from the top down, apply tape. Paint top of the wall (Grey), then pull tape, wait for paint to dry, apply tape over newly painted area. Run a brush with the top color over the tape (to form a seal). Paint stripe (Red). Then repeat for the bottom area (Dark Grey). You can do the stripe last it really doesn't matter what order you paint in.

The colors are only to help explain it.

This is the best way that I have found to do a nice straight line, I'm sure others will have better/faster ways but this works for me.

Hope this helps.

 

[mikeyr]

My garage is all semi-gloss white floor to ceiling, looks great and easy to keep clean. But I do plan on painting stripes someday, I planned on just using blue tape and doing the best I can. It will look better than most anyway as it already does and what looks bad, well its just a garage, I will make it worse after a few gearbox/motor rebuilds.

 

[porphyre]

Measure down from the ceiling every few feet, not up from floor most garage floors slope for drainage. Then use painters tape, the green tape is better then the blue tape (I can't remember the name and it's not from Home Depot. Go to a paint store). After applying the tape run a putty knife along the tape to seal it. Paint, pull tape while paint is still wet (not dripping).

If you want to do a stripe (Grey Top - Red Stripe - Dark Grey Bottom), after measuring from the top down, apply tape. Paint top of the wall (Grey), then pull tape, wait for paint to dry, apply tape over newly painted area. Run a brush with the top color over the tape (to form a seal). Paint stripe (Red). Then repeat for the bottom area (Dark Grey). You can do the stripe last it really doesn't matter what order you paint in.

The colors are only to help explain it.

This is the best way that I have found to do a nice straight line, I'm sure others will have better/faster ways but this works for me.

Hope this helps.

I mostly agree with all this.

My $0.02 is that if you're doing two different colors with a stripe separating, do the stripe last and don't bother to tape when putting the first colors on... unless you're doing a pin-stripe or something.

If I were doing dark gray bottom, 4" solid red stripe, light gray top, I would do this:
1) Measure from top of wall every few feet. Snap a chalk line.
2) Paint TOP half of wall (light gray)
3) Paint BOTTOM half of wall (dark gray)
4) After it's dry, it gets tricky. I like to use a primer under the stripe to ensure an even color.
5) If we're putting a 4" stripe, I'd use 2" tape. Measure from the top of the wall and put two strips of tape up with a 4" gap.
6) On the top piece of tape, paint the lower edge over with the light gray. This will "seal" the edge of the tape with the background color.
7) On the lower tape, paint the top edge with the bottom color, dark gray.
8)At this point, the hard work is done. Primer between your tape, then put a couple coats of color on there.

I'm not a huge fan of pulling tape when the paint is wet, though. I think idea is that you don't want the paint to adhere to the tape better than the wall and have the paint crack/tear when you pull the tape. If the wall's prepped correctly, paint will stick to the wall best and you shouldn't have that problem.

 

[Blue440Duster]

I used(hung on the wall) a laser leveler because my floors are sloped and ceilings are vaulted and turned the light down during the day it made it easy to see, used blue painters tape and pulled it off as soon as I was done painting dried paint will pull off with the tape[instructions from Sherman Williams dealer] one wall I waited to long and I had to go back and touch up quite a bit...it may be because it's a latex paint(it peeled off like Reynolds plastic wrap)

Can't say enough about Sherman Williams super paint I can splash water on it and it just runs down the wall.

 

[brimorga]

I just did this last weekend. If the paint is fresh on the top half of the wall, make sure you get the blue tape for delicate surfaces. I had to do a lot of touch up because the blue tape pulled off a lot of my latex paint and primer as it all is 2 weeks freshly painted.

I have textured walls and I wanted to make sure the tape was sealed, so I used dap paintable white caulk to seal the blue tape, then I painted over it as well like porphyre said to seal it. I wanted to make double sure it did not bleed through the gaps between the paint and the texture. I still got a few spots of bleed and areas where the blue tape pulled off the latex, so I used model paint brushes to do a really fine spot touch up.

End result was that it was a ton of extra work to do 2 colors, white on top, red on the bottom, but it does look good.

 

[sctattooer]

Just started redoing mine today. I did the top half of the wall with slatwall, painted white, then painted the bottom half grey. Then I installed 1x4 painted a deep red right below the slatwall. It looks awesome, and no taping at all. Sorry, no new pics yet.

 

[Leeboy20]

Im a professional house painter( i know it *****) As long as your base color has a few days to dry and the walls were primed proper, it shouldnt pull the paint off. Ive always used a 4 foot level and a pencil. You can get a closer tape edge to your line then chalk. I use a clear/white tape called "easy mask" Clean Edge. One of the tricks is to, after your tape is on, take the back of the putty knife or something else that you can rub somewhat hard on the tape without scuffing it. Instead of the roller to paint up to the edge of the tape, i use a brush and go quickly cut the tape edge in with a light first coat. Sort of paint down away from the edge that is getting painted, so you dont force and paint under the tape(if it wasnt properly rubbed down). Go around the garage once, and then hopefully your losing latex you can usually immediately hit it again with the brush with a second coat which should cover. Another trick is when your pulling the tape off, make sure you pull the tape "UP" if the new color is "Below" the tape edge. This way it kind of breaks the edge and the paint cant pull off with the tape any higher than the edge, if it started to dry. The best way is to pull the tape off still wet if possible, and it should pull away clean with minimal touch up. If you want the paint to dry first around the tape, then use a sharp exacto blade and lightly cut the edge of the tape/paint line and it should come off. Then simply roll away......This picture of mine was painted on OSB !

 

[XelderX]

My basement garage has block walls which were painted white when I moved in. I repainted the bottom half of the walls to my liking. It was impossible to get tape to stick to the gloss white paint on the walls so we ended up outlining the stripes in Sharpie marker and then very precisely hand painting them. It turned out much better than expected considering the uneven surface of the painted block. It was very time consuming, but it definetely makes the garage look more professional.

 

[Burl]

Speaking of OSB, a post one time said to prime OSB with oil based primer only, that the water based doesn't work. Anybody know of this first hand? Thanks.

 

[bucs012]

Lots of great tips, tricks and pics. Thanks for the help!

 

[Leeboy20]

Speaking of OSB, a post one time said to prime OSB with oil based primer only, that the water based doesn't work. Anybody know of this first hand? Thanks.

This is true for the most part.....Since OSB has lots of different color chips and grains, ink etc.... Most latex primer will not seal this in causing all of it to show through when you put your top coat on. The other reason is, most latex primer will penetrate and soak in, which could raise the grains, and even after your top coat , the top coat may still soak in some which might not get you a smooth look. When using oil based primer, Such as KILZ or BIN , it will seal in all tanin stains, inks and seal up the grain(surface) so, your next coats of paint dont penetrate, they instead stick to the top of the oil primer and bite (adhear) to it. This will even give the OSB a smoother look since the paint will somewhat fill in small flaws and divits in the wood rather than soak back in.