Painting Straight Lines With Caulking And Tape. Painting stripes. Painting Hacks.

This is Chris, the Idaho painter. In this video, I'm going to show you how to paint laser straight lines on a rough wall or a rough surface. So, stay tuned for this video where I teach you this simple little painting hack. So, making a laser straight line on your wall or on your trim where it meets the wall is a very simple process. And we're going to be using, you can use just frog tape. in Frog Tape. When paint actually begins to bleed through the tape under the surface, it has a product that actually swells and stops the bleeding and will give you straight lines. We've had really good luck with Frog Tape on smooth surfaces like glass and metal, but when you're dealing with a wall and anything rough, it's a good idea to use this method that we're actually using to asssure that you get a laser straight line. And we're going to be using, you can either use frog tape or masking tape, but we typically like to ensure an ultra laser straight line. We like to use just frog tape and the cocking. So, I'm going to begin the process by showing you on this wall, our laser straight line. And we're going to just put some frog tape on this wall right here. So, I'm just going to So, just for instance, if this was going to be we're going to be doing a stripe on this wall, I've got my tape on there. And now with Frog Tape, I can go go over this and I can paint it now. And you're going to get a fairly straight line, a lot better than you're going to get just using straight masking tape because of that technology that Frog Tape has in it where it actually swells. But to ensure that it's completely sealed, this is where the cocking comes in play. And now we're going to use our clear cocking to go over this. So I'm going to show you this step. Now this is where the secret of getting a laser straight line comes into play. So we got our uh frog tape on the wall here. And for instance, this could be a stripe in a bedroom or this could be your trim where it meets the wall. But say if we're trying to make a laser straight line in a kid's bedroom. Now, um I'm going to be painting this side. This is where my wall color is going to stay, but I'm going to be painting this side. So, I'm going to take and just put a nice small bead of cocking right over where this edge of my tape is, my frog tape. Now, I'm going to take that and I'm going to wipe off. I'm going to just push it down and wipe off all this excess. And what you're actually doing is pushing that clear cocking and smearing it right along the edge of your frog tape right here to actually add an additional seal to that frog tape. And part of this, the key of this process is is to not let that clear cocking dry before you paint it. You're gonna want to paint over that before it dries. And then the next very key step is to actually pull your tape before the paint dries or the cocking dries. Cuz if you leave it set on there and the paint dries, what happens if you're using a satin paint? The paint is going to bridge from the tape to the wall. And when you go to peel off your tape, you could uh pull off some of the actual paint and it's going to leave a jagged line. So, the key steps to this is to smear on the clear cocking and and try to get all of it off. All you want is just that edge sealed right there and get all the excess of that cocking off. Just wipe it on a wet rag. I like to actually use a wet rag, wipe the excess cocking that I have on a wet rag and then begin the painting process. And don't do too much cocking. If you're doing a whole lot of area or a lot of lines or a lot of trim, if you do too much and the cocking dries before you get to painting it, then the process isn't going to work. So now, while my cocking is still wet, I'm going to begin the painting process. And when I'm actually doing painting over the tape, I don't actually like to roll over it. I like to actually use a brush cuz a brush isn't going to push it um underneath the tape either or force it underneath the tape. I just brush over the top of it and just going to cruise right along. Rushing over the top of this. Make sure it's completely covered 100%. And then you're going to pull your tape off. I'm going to show you what it looks like. I'll pull my tape off right here. And there's my laser straight line right there. And this is uh you can't see it in the video, but this is a orange peel textured wall. So, it's a pretty rough wall. And there you have a straight line. And one of the key things is that clear cocking. And some of the clear cocking may bleed underneath the tape. But since it's clear, you'll see it. It's going to be white, but it actually dries clear. So it goes underneath the parts of the tape that's raised that can't uh seal itself over this rough surface. So that's another key element to this whole cocking process is using clear cocking. Here's a closer look of the actual line I just painted. It's still wet, but you can see the roughness to the wall. And yet that line is still laser sharp. So, when it comes to actually doing your trim and getting laser straight lines on your trim, the process is exactly the same. I'm just going to take my frog tape. I'm going to run a line on my baseboard right here. And one of the keys to this step right here is any existing paint that's is actually on to your trim or your baseboard, you want to make sure you leave that exposed so it'll get painted over so you have a nice straight line. So, I'm just going to run my frog tape along my trim right here. So, I got my frog tape down. Want to make sure you press it down really good. Now, I'm going to take my clear cocking. Just put a really small bead. You don't need a whole lot. You just want just enough that's actually going to seal that tape. And then I'm going to run my finger along that, wiping up all the cocking off there. And once you're wiping it off and it's actually pressing it down into the tape right there. And once again, it's good to just have a wet sponge or wet rag to wipe your hands onto. Now, before the cocking dries, one of the key things before the cocking dries is to do your painting. I'm going to just sit here and paint on my trim. So, you can't do too much. Um, get ahead of yourself too much cuz once again, do not let that cocking dry and do not let the paint dry before you peel off your masking. So, I typically like to do may if I'm doing a whole bedroom, I'll do two walls at a time. I'll run if I'm doing my trim, run the the masking around two walls of the trim, it, paint it, and then move on to the next two walls. But now, before it dries, just going to pull off my masking. And there I have it, a laser straight line. And I'll give you a close-up look at that. So, there's a close-up look of my line on my baseboards right there. And that's exactly how you get a perfectly straight line on your baseboards. So, once again, just to go over just getting these laser straight lines, you have a couple options. You can use the Frog Tape. That's the foolproof method. Frog tape and clear cocking. The frog tape is extremely expensive. It's typically over $5 a roll. This uh painters masking tape that we use right here is approximately a dollar a roll. The $120 20 a roll. So, it's going to save you a lot of money. We've had a lot of success actually just using this tape and clear cocking and um pulling it off and having laser straight lines. But, if you want to guarantee yourself those straight lines on really rough surfaces, the frog tape is even just a little bit more assurance. But either way, there's it's going to give you a good straight