Masking in Painting

In today’s post, we bring to you the concept of MASKING in painting work. Not a prevalent practice in the Bhutanese painting market, the understanding of proper painting methods and their future implication are least considered but the cost is put first and fast. Keeping these entire aside, we hope this information help in one way or other at some point in time.    

Masking   Pic-Internet

Well, masking in painting refers to a process where masking tape is covered on certain areas which are not intended for painting. Painting is a messy job; paint gets onto anything that’s not covered. So masking as a preparation before painting is a primary task that attributes to proper finishing, maintaining an accurate line of colours, and ease post painting like cleaning and minimising resource spending.

Though the masking benefits are abundantly but somehow inapplicable in our market, we have narrowed the understanding that is doable as follows;

1.     It takes far more time to clean up paint that ends up where it doesn’t belong than it takes to prevent the paint from getting there in the first place. Masking reduces clean up time. For ex. as in the picture, masking off windows with tape and plastic (used newspaper in our case) protects them from paint spatter. This saves time from scraping up paint dots on the glass.

2. Proper masking speeds work. So long masking tape is done firmly, paint bleeding is a minor issue compared to trying to paint along with trim without getting spots of paint in the wrong place.
3. Masking allows you to paint on correct alignment without worrying much about the opposite side. Only those who tried the art of perfection know how difficult that is to maintain proper paint lines without masking.
4. Masking enables a painter to look like a pro. They need not have to master fantastic cutting-in skills. Using tape keep lines straight and the paint where it belongs.
5. Masking help maintain visual appeal as it was. Covering door hinges & knobs and other hard-to-remove hardware with masking tape or small plastic retains its originality. It not only irks the property owner but is amateur of the painting firm painting door knobs and hinges.  
6. Using drop cloths across the floor or wherever relevant as masking ensures that floor surfaces are protected from paint drips.

When masking is not taken care of, the post painting becomes laborious and cost implications are obvious. Masking is a critical part of the painting preparations and worth effort for many reasons. The techniques for masking are the same for indoors or out, cover properly parts that are not intended to paint. Bam then do the brush stroking, roll the rollers or spraying that we use.

Note: You can remove hardware that is easy to replace, keep them in a separate plastic bag and put it back. Paint shields can be an option in larger area masking scenarios. Remove the MASKING when the paint is sticky but not entirely dry.