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Posted about 10 years ago

How to Paint your Rental Property without Blue Tape

Anyone that owns a rental property knows one of the easiest and least expensive ways to give it an edge over the competition is to paint the interior. Many landlords will do this after every move-out, especially to remove odors and wall imperfections from the previous tenants.

Painting with Masking Tape

If you've ever painted a room in your rental or your own house, you've probably used blue masking tape to prevent paint from going where you don't want it to go, particularly on the floor or the trim. While using tape can help you achieve a nice two-tone paint job, it's expensive and time-consuming to install prior to opening the paint can.

A Better, Faster Way to Paint Your Rental

After years of using masking tape, I discovered the paint shield. Available at Home Depot and Lowes, paint shields have a metal edge that prevents paint from going where you don't want it to, and unlike tape, don't need to be installed prior to painting or removed after painting. Because you take it with you as you paint, the dried paint will not peel and you will have a cleaner edge.

Paint Shield Tips

While the paint shield is much better than using tape due to the reduction in expense and prep time, it does come with a slight learning curve. The most important bit of advice I can give when using a paint shield is to use a clean, dry rag to wipe it off each time you use it. This will keep paint from dripping to the clean side and contaminating the surface you are shielding. Secondly, you will want to take a second and make sure you have the shield where you want it prior to passing with the wet paint brush. While this may take longer at first, you will become proficient at this very quickly. Lastly, you'll want to clean the shield with hot water after you're done each day. This will keep the metal surface clean and ready to use next time.

To summarize, the paint shield is considerably less expensive than several rolls of masking tape, and saves time by moving with the paint brush instead of needing to be installed ahead of time. Keeping the shield clean as your work will help you avoid any drips of unwanted paint into other areas. While it comes with a small learning curve, using a paint shield gets easier and less expensive than masking tape the more you do it!


Comments (3)

  1. Ben I agree. I personally have not done enough painting myself to be able to do an acceptable job without either tape or an edger but the guys that do most of our painting just cut it in free hand, comes out great.


  2. Once you've painted for a while, you'll find that you can run a bead of paint well enough not to have to tape. Also, when doing multi-light windows, sometimes it's easier and faster to slop a little, then come back and trim with a razor blade.


  3. I've used something called "the smart edger" before. Worked great same concept.