Need help striping my garage.....

[mile2424]

Hi All,

I need some help or suggestions on the best way to go about striping my garage walls with some vinyl striping. My main question is how can I make sure I get the tape level and straight. I know they have these laser levelers out there, but A.) I don't have one, and B.) Wouldn't I need to put it on a tripod or something to get the correct height down? All suggestions or idea's are much appreciated!

 

[z28snksknr]

Pick a corner or the best place to start (near the garage door or entry door maybe), make a mark where you want the tape to be, and use a level to scribe (in pencil) a level line around the garage.

Just place the vinyl tape edge on the line and you're good...

I did the same with painter's tape and achieved excellent results- straight as an arrow.

 

[mhm993]

Gravity has always been your friend. Either use a string line with one of those hanging little spirit levels to set two points, or use a water filled tube to get two level points. I'd opt for the little $5 hanging level. Snap your chalk line, making sure it intersects both points,and voila, you have a perfect guide line, with no tripod, no lasers, and...well, you get the point.

 

[buening]

Snap a chalk line after you get rope level with a line level? You'll have 3 walls done and will see how far you are off at the 4th wall. Chalk is easily washed off.

 

[buening]

heh, mhm993 beat me to the punch

 

[NUTTSGT]

Water levels work nice.

 

[Kevin54]

You can rig up a water level with a bucket and some clear vinyl tubing. Or get a 6' level and take your chances going around the perimeter, but probably the easiest is measure down from the ceiling at different points then connect the dots with a straightedge. Don't measure from the floor up, if your floor has a slope to it.

 

[rwhite692]

I have never seen vinyl striping applied over drywall that did not eventually peel/curl...Don't know why that is...We tried it at one time, over drywall that had been painted with a nice semigloss finish which we thought would be a good base for vinyl striping...within 6 months it had let go all over the place...and it was the good 3M stuff.

It may have to do with the amount of thermal expansion/contraction, or something...My opinion would be to go with a painted stripe.

 

[inurface]

Paint it, it's easy and probably cheaper. One of my coworkers had a black decker 360 laser level that makes the job super easy!

 

[Notch1988]

I have never seen vinyl striping applied over drywall that did not eventually peel/curl...Don't know why that is...We tried it at one time, over drywall that had been painted with a nice semigloss finish which we thought would be a good base for vinyl striping...within 6 months it had let go all over the place...and it was the good 3M stuff.

It may have to do with the amount of thermal expansion/contraction, or something...My opinion would be to go with a painted stripe.

Hmmm... I'm planning to put up plywood for the bottom 4' and drywall up after that. Was hoping to use a vinyl stripe to cover the transition. I wonder if some PL premium will do the trick to hold the vinyl on.