How to Cut In PERFECT Ceiling Lines | Pro Painting Tips for Sharp Edges Every Time

this is Christie Idaho painter here on paint live TV today I'm gonna be talking about a subject and it's why we use tape and a brush to do our cut ends and not just hand cut everything in by a brush it's an interesting topic I get a lot of questions about so stay tuned for this video so now I want to talk about why we use tape and why we use a brush to do our cut in specifically around our window trim door jambs and baseboards there's a few reasons why and one of them there is a labor shortage of painters out there that are available good qualified painters there is also the ability to make effective members of your team very quickly and efficiently and then there's also the element I just want guys to begin having fun painting right off the bat when they start working for me so they enjoy the job and they'll stay around for a long period of time so now what I talk about the labor shortage there isn't painting I've had the ability to travel all across the US and across the world I've been all across the United States I've been to the UK multiple times I've been to Australia I've been to Germany several times in everywhere I've got the ability to sit down with owners of paint companies and like made their struggles number one struggle is quality help and in the trades and I know I've had on the back of my vehicle for quite a few years I've had this now hiring sign I had one on there it was stickered logo down there for about five years and I was getting almost no calls I think in five years maybe two or three calls you know for to get a job and there is just a serious lack of Labor skilled labor it would be nice if I could get a guy you know right off the bat that he can take and cut in around here with no masking it would save me the masking or cut in ceilings and be just is efficient and effective but there's just a lack of labor out there in the trades across the world so what I did is about 15 years ago because of that and it's been a long time ago and I think it's just gotten worse and worse over the years I turned this method of paint and tape into a method I can teach young kids who have no skill in painting whatsoever I can teach them how to be effective members of your team right off the and now I'm gonna talk about that in this next part of the video we use several different types of tape I use this is CP 199 this is our production tape I use frog tape which actually has a product a dusted product on the outside of the frog tape that swells that keeps paint from bleeding underneath that's a very effective tape frog tape has now come out with a blue tape that's even less than their green tape significantly less because it's packaging contractor packed and the paper is cheaper on it but these are the three tapes I use but taking it a kid I can teach them how to mask around save like a window like this or I can teach them how to mask on baseboards really really quick and typically like somebody skilled maybe two weeks at most once he can mask a straight line that's the first step will typically take these kids college kids high school kids hire them and then teach them how to do the prep beam process so some of that is masking some of that is caulking and some of that is sanding but when it comes to the painting process I want to teach them how to mask quickly and you're only as good as your masking so once they can mask a perfectly straight line I can teach them how to take a paint brush and paint over that masking that they just applied on there and back roll over it with a brush right off the bat and then once they peel that off they're gonna have perfectly straight lines right off the bat it's an amazing effective system that you can teach somebody how to be an effective member of your team and ultimately a profitable memory or team because it really is about taking these kids taking somebody teaching them how to use this and them making you money because we're all typically us business owners we're in this to make money now once again it's nice if I can hire you know a guy your professional skilled painter that can hand cut all that in but there's just a lack of those guys out there now when it comes to ceilings all of our ceiling cut ends that's all hand cut in so still on our team I can have the apprentices do this type of work they typically will handle the baseboards they'll handle the window trim and they'll hand into the door trim but our supervisor or leads are the ones they're the skilled painters skilled with a brush this takes a lot of years to learn how to cut in so this system I'm teaching a kid how to do this literally in about a month they can create really nice perfectly crisp lines in a month but in order to teach them how to do that with a paintbrush that's probably gonna take somebody about five years to learn how to do that to be really really effective efficient and then get a straight line and I know this is gonna be an arguable point but I don't think there's anybody out there that can take a brush I know I've been your hand cutting in stuff for over eighteen years thousands and thousands of miles in a line that I've created with say frog tape and caulking or even frog tape on a smooth surface and a brush in paint it's absolutely laser sharp and I can never be consistent with my cut in and have it that straight for a long period of time it's just fast and effective so it's just making fast and effective members your team it's simple it's something you got to try give it a try don't knock it until you've tried it so the next thing I want to talk about is take in somebody that's new in the trades and getting them doing this method it gets them painting right off the bat and one thing I'm taking these young kids high school kids college kids and I know I keep saying young all the time we do higher you know people that are coming into the trades even in the mid-30s and stuff and they're not young high school kids and college kids just guys getting into the trades that for whatever reason they want to get into the trades and there are apprentices also but what I'm trying to do you know one of my goals is to get people to come into the trades and really enjoy what they're doing and I do have a friend that has a painting business here and what he does is his new apprentices come in and they have to sand for six months before they can move on to anything else and I can't imagine you happen to a block sand with a sanding block they use sanding blocks a new construction here and happen to do that for six months I think I would probably be burnout after about two weeks and would never want to be involved in painting again and know everybody that comes these young kids that come work for us they want to start painting everybody wants to paint everybody wants a brush in a role underhand and everybody wants to spray and the faster I can get a spray gun in their hand the quick the more they're gonna enjoy what they do and the more fun they're gonna come to work with a smile on their face and just love it and that's one of my major goals so I can take a kid he can start prepping from me and in within two weeks he can mass a straight line within you know a month he can be painting around his straight lines and now he has a brush enroller in his hand and he's actually painting and that's the fun part about it if if you have somebody that you know it's just taken a more time and they're not getting the prepping process done fasters we run into some of those guys every now and then I think the longest it takes anybody working for us before they start brushing and rolling anything it's three months but typically about a month is when somebody can start doing this now the skilled painter is gonna fill in the wall the skilled painter is gonna do all the hand cut ends I do use the brush I know a lot of people think all I do is just tape and caulk everything and I don't know how to cut in a straight line I do have about 10 videos I think that on how to do cut ends teaching how to do cut in so we do you use brushes I do typically doing a lot of sealing cut ends I've done years and years thousands and thousands of miles at stealing cut ends is like I say there is a time in a place every single job needs that skilled that skilled labor that professional or that journeyman to do that type of stuff but once again I want to make people you know happy I want my employees to come to work happy and enjoy what they're doing and have a long career in this I know some people are gonna say well you're gonna teach them too much you're gonna teach them how to spray then they're gonna leave and just be your competitors that's another thing I never worried about there's not a lack of work out there I know we're turning down a lot of jobs you know weekly and daily so there's a ton of work you just need to know how to go get the work through effective marketing techniques so you know once again I'm not concerned about teaching them too much and leaving I have taught quite a few painters out there that have painting companies now in the valley they're not my competition I'm happy for them and think that their ability to do they got the ability to do what they want to do and do what they love to do so hopefully that will give you some insight about why we do what we do why we use yo tape and why we use brushes there's a time and a place for these things there's a time in a place for a brush to I would say you know we probably you we do go 5050 we're probably cotton in stuff about 50% of the time the other 50% of the time we're using the tape and brush method and typically the apprentices are the ones that are using the tape and brush methods the journeyman painters the ones that got a lot more skill on our jobs they're the ones hand cutting in things you don't see it simultaneously cos we're typically shooting a video specifically on one subject using one method at that time I do got some some really good videos out there how we use tape caulking and a brush to get perfectly straight lines you go check those videos out after this video one of them is just recently done it's got quite a few videos on it and/or quite a few views on it hope you've enjoyed this video if you have please give us a thumbs up if you've got any tips or tricks if you got any statements or comments about what I've said in this video just leave it right down below I would love to hear what you have to say if you've got any other methods that are different in effective effective ways to make effective members of your painting team team tame whatever you want to call it leave it right down below and hopefully once again you've enjoyed this video you've enjoyed this talk on the painting subject and painting trades hopefully we'll see you next time on our next video on paint life TV like we always say we'll see you in our next video