How do you paint skirting boards, without getting paint on the carpet?

Due to a few days off and to the weather, I’m about to embark on painting all the skirting boards. I’ve no patience for detail and being careful, don’t want to lift the carpets, so what’s your best solution. Some of the skirting looks a bit discoloured, so I need to go pretty close to the carpet. I’m just putting it off, I know.

Masking tape

Woody has it. Btw you should’ve googled that!

you can get strips of plastic that are slightly curved that you push down into the gap between the carpet and the skirting. They are a few inches wide. Just enough to allow you to cut in without smearing the carpet.

http://www.toolbox.co.uk/stanley-carpet-shield-6-pack-5467-101572?utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=GB&utm_campaign=GoogleBase

Pull the carpet back just a foot or so, use some books to weight it down, then paint. Use a filling knife to push it down behind the gripperrods when popping it back in. Masking tape and all the other things supposed to stop you getting paint on the carpet won’t work. Just do it properly. 🙂

EDIT: or you can follow ShortCut Stoner’s advice. Thing with the strips is that they take away the use of one hand.

I used a paint shield with masking tape as well;

if you push the masked carpet down you can get further down and you still don’t get paint on the carpet.

[personal experience that a quick google woul dnot have provided :)]

I use some lengths of thin plastic stuff and do my best to shove it under the skirting or at least firmly between skirting and carpet.

Edit: I was too slow, things like stoner linked to. Quite good but some care still required.

I bet they look better now, than what they will after you’ve done a half-arsed job of it. 🙄

On a similar vein, how do you paint a nice crisp line of two different colours of paint between ceiling and wall?

I’ve tried masking tape numerous times and all it ever does is peel the paint off underneath when you remove it. Tried cheap tape, expensive tape, the lot. All the same.

you could try one of these

I just use a well loaded brush and run it up to the edge. Always looks fine from the floor.

Like wwaaswas says , painting up to ceilings is about a well loaded brush and a steady hand

Personally I find it easier to do my ceiling first (both coats), then the walls, then the skirting. Seem to spend less time fixing my mistakes this way – although you do spend more time waiting for paint to dry

PP – my tips are:
1) clean the area that you are going to be masking VERY VERY well before applying your first coat. Sugar soap quite strong mix. It’s the poor bond between your first coat and the old wall that allows the paint to peel
2) this then lets you mask and run your finger hard along the edge where the paint colours will meet so that you get no feathering. You dont have to stick down the other side very hard at all.
3) Mask so that if the line isnt dead level the ceiling white runs down into the wall colour – the bright whit paint will hide the fact that the 90deg angle might not be the same line as the colour boundary. Having colour creep up onto the ceiling is horrible.

Oh and when removing masking tape, pull it flat to the wall (i.e. folded over so that it’s outer face is against the wall face)

Of course if youre steady as a rock you can cut in well with really good quality brushes – better than you think you can and as good as masking too.

PeterPoddy – Member

On a similar vein, how do you paint a nice crisp line of two different colours of paint between ceiling and wall?

I’ve tried masking tape numerous times and all it ever does is peel the paint off underneath when you remove it. Tried cheap tape, expensive tape, the lot. All the same.

Pete have you tried this stuff?

http://www.scotchblue.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotch-BlueBrand/Scotch-Blue/Resources/Edge-Lock-Protector/%5B/url%5D

Paint shield and masking tape combo sounds the biz, cheers.

Pop the carpet back so it sits behind the gripper rods, paint, when dry, put carpet back, simples.

Could you not just paint the skirting board the same colour as the carpet?

….. Then carpet the wall

My solution was to pay the decorator to do it for me. She did a far better job than I would ever managed. It took her 12 days to do all the gloss in my house so I figure thats at least 6 weekends, probably 7 or 8 back in my life for riding. And she did a far better job of it than I ever would!!!

Steady hand?

If you mask the carpet and/or use a paint shield, as soon as you let go of the shield, the carpet is going to spring back up and make contact with the wet paint on the skirting. Just pull the carpet back at the edges.

the masking tape protects the carpet when it springs back.

not as good as lifting carpet back but good enough.

Do you then have the non-tacky side of the masking tabe in contact with wet paint?

Just finished painting my skirting boards, flat on a table.

Now all I’ve got to do is fix ’em to the wall – thinking of making a ‘feature’ of the fixing screws so I can remove them in future for stress-free re-painting. Unfortunately the wife thinks this will look shite, so will probably deploy her veto…

I find that those plastic curved trips work great except you lose a hand and when you take each one away its covered in paint – so can’t be re-used without cleaning, and needs to be put somewhere.

Best – take up the carpet
Next – masking tape the carpet.

Best prectice would be to take up carpets but this isn’t always practical. Masking tape pressed down between the carpet and skirt with a wallpaper stripping knife will give a great finish. Don’t skimp on masking tape either. Scotch 3M do an extra strong tape (it’s the bright green one) which is superb. Then when painting don’t over load the brush. Also on cold days stick the masking tape in the microwave for 10 seconds, it warms the adhesive up and stops the tape ripping.

You can stop the advice now, the OP has painted his skirting and started a new thread about removing gloss paint from a carpet 😀

Use wide masking tape so that there is about 1cm more than is needed to reach the wall. Puch down between wall and carpet with a scraper or knife. Then be careful.

http://www.dulux.co.uk/studio/masterclasses/da_before_start.jsp

Watch all of it or from about 1m15 if you are really that busy.

Get the vac out and go along with the crevice tool before painting or you will be driven mad with dust and fluff getting stuck in the paint.

Just tile the floor!