Thursday, February 10, 2011

I'm mad

I'm mad. In fact, I'm a lot less mad than I was yesterday but I'm still pretty ticked. I know that this will sound silly to some but if you have been in my shoes you will understand. I am breaking up with blue painters tape.

As most of you know, we have been painting since we moved in. While buying paint we bought a few multi packs of blue painters tape and have been using it to tape the trim as we have moved from room to room. Now, the only compliant I had until yesterday was that it didn't peel off all in one piece but rather it split down the middle. It didn't happen a ton so I didn't worry too much about it and continued using it since we had so much.

Fast forward to Sunday when my mother in law taped the trim and cabinetry in the powder room so I could start the first coat paint in my striped room. We finished our 2 coats and I taped off my stripes before heading to bed. When I woke up the next morning several pieces of the blue tape were falling off the wall. Now if you have ever painted and taped stripes you know it's a pain. It takes forever so the thought that I now had to redo it made me mad. I jumped in the car and headed out to get the green frog tape because I now no longer trusted the blue stuff to not seep if it wasn't even going to stick on the wall.


Fast forward again to yesterday afternoon when I have sealed and painted my stripes and am peeling off the blue and now green tape while the paint is still wet. The green tape came off with no problems. I didn't have one single piece of green split or tear. The blue tape not only ripped and left tiny pieces everywhere but it ripped off 5 layers of paint leaving big gashes in my wall.

I had a ton of small pieces like this that I had to go back and clean up with a razor blade



More small pieces


The gashes from where the blue tape ripped off 5 layers of paint



More damage




Did I mention it seeped too? Yeah, that is through a glaze I coated it with




I spent an additional hour and a half with a razor blade and a paint brush cleaning up the mess that the blue tape left and I still have gashes that I'm not sure how to fill without repainting large areas. Needless to say I won't be using it again and even though the frog tape is more expensive in my mind it is worth it.

Anyone else had a similar experience?


Emily



10 comments

  1. I had the same thing happen to me when I painted all the trim in our house. So, I definitely understand why you are upset, in fact, I think I may have shed a few tears because I was so frustrated. Good luck with getting all the tiny pieces up.

    PS - Love the stripes!

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  2. Bobi,
    I'm sorry you had the same experience. I really encourage you to try frog tape next time. I had such a better experience. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone :)

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  3. I had the exact same thing happen in my MIL's bathroom, I was so frustrated because I felt like I had ruined her bathroom. Never again will I use it, it's s*it!

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  4. JustJess- I'm so sorry you know what I'm talking about. I guess we all know not to use it now.

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  5. We had a horrible experience with it too. So we decided to try one of those trim painters things for around the crown moulding and doors, etc. It wouldn't work for stripes but around windows, doors, mouldings, etc. it was a life saver. It was so much easier and cleaner and faster. the rooms we did tape look worse than the rooms we used the trim painter.

    Hope the painting goes easier for you from now on...

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  6. Carrie-that is a good idea for around the trim. I honestly can't complain about the frog tape though so at least there is another option out there.

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  7. Ugh! That's the worst! We had a lot of the same problems when we finished our basement. So annoying!

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  8. Sorry to hear you how had problems, Ourhumbleabowed! :(

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  9. Yes! It's awful! We had the same issue when we painted several rooms in our new house. We've since switched to the Frog tape.

    You can find our new home adventures here: www.melissajean.me

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  10. Melissa-I'm glad you have made the switch as well!

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