Masking Before Painting Walls: Do You Have to Do It?

What do our painters mask?

Everything that stays in the room and must not get paint. We bring the tape, the sheeting, the Sigma paint, the primer and the tools, so you do not have to buy any masking materials yourself.

How much gets masked depends mainly on the application method. With rolling, it is about the edges and the floor. With spraying, everything that must not get paint has to be sealed off, including windows, furniture and a stair banister, because spray mist travels further than a roller.

What do you prepare yourself?

Three things: the room as empty as possible, the walls bare and access arranged.

• Large furniture out or into the middle. Wardrobes, beds and sofas go out of the work area, or away from the wall into the middle of the room.
• Everything off the wall. Pictures, shelves, mirrors and loose hooks.
• Clear away small items. Whatever is on window sills and cabinets, pack it up or put it elsewhere.
• Tell us about fixed brackets. If there is a TV bracket or a curtain rail fixed to the wall, mention it at the site visit and we will agree what comes off.

There is a reason behind that first point. A painter finishes a wall in one go, from corner to corner, so that the wet edge does not dry before the next strip meets it.

If he has to work around a wardrobe halfway, he stops in the middle of the wall and you see that join later as soon as light falls across it at an angle. That is how you get streaks on the wall after painting.

Also think about your colour choice and access to the home: you arrange that yourself before the painter arrives.

What makes the line between wall and ceiling crisp?

Not the tape, but the order of work and the finishing. In a room we always start with the ceiling and then move on to the walls. That way splashes land on a surface that is still to come, not on work that is already finished.

The edge itself is cut in with a brush and then rolled over with the roller. That rolling over is the point. If it stops at the brush, you later see a strip along the skirting board, window frame and ceiling with a different texture to the rest of the wall. A crisp line therefore comes from the painter’s hand, not from a roll of tape.

At the skirting board, masking works both ways. When the wall is painted, the top of the skirting board is masked. If the wall is dry and the skirting board is going to be gloss-painted, it is the wall above that gets masked instead. If you also want your skirting boards painted, we include them in the same job.

Tape never goes on fresh gloss. When removed, it sometimes pulls off sheen or even a sliver of paint. That is why window frames and doors only get their gloss after the walls, also when we are painting window frames in a new build.

If the ceiling is the same colour as the walls, that transition does not need to become a dividing line at all. If you want to have the ceiling painted, it has its own price per m².

Isn’t it cheaper to paint without masking?

No, and that is the biggest misconception about this question. Masking and covering floors are part of the price of €12.99 per m² for one coat in RAL 9010 or 9016, together with the paint itself. So you save nothing, because no item is deducted.

What you skip comes back as repair work. Wall paint on a glossed skirting board or on a window frame has to come off, and that skirting board then has to be repainted. We charge skirting boards per linear metre: from €9.99 for sanding and one coat.

That repair is also a new, separate order. If it is under 50 m², the small-order surcharge of €249.99 is added, plus a one-off €99.99 call-out fee. If we agree to work by the hour, that is €47.50 per hour. With a small job, those items add up quickly.

Prices exclude VAT; for renovation of homes over 10 years old, 6% VAT usually applies. The VAT rate is stated in the quote.

With spraying it is exactly the other way round: there the masking is the biggest part of the preparation. In an empty house with lots of m² in a row it weighs little, in a furnished room it weighs a lot. That is why we usually roll in an occupied room, and discuss spraying for an empty house. With spraying or rolling latex paint, it therefore mostly comes down to how much has to be masked.

Who paints your walls, and what is included in the price?

The painting is done by one of our 25 in-house painters, from a team of 97 tradespeople on permanent contracts, such as Argi and Chris, who have both worked here for 6 years. They cover the room, mask skirting boards and window frames and doors, prime where the wall needs it and paint with Sigma paint.

Prices exclude VAT; for homes over 10 years old, 6% VAT usually applies.

In your request, tell us which rooms are included, whether the home is empty or occupied, whether the floor is already laid and whether skirting boards, window frames and doors and the ceiling are included. Then those items are already in the free quote you receive within 24 hours. If you agree, the site visit follows; it takes half an hour.

There is a 1-year guarantee on interior painting by our painters, and at handover we go through the work with you. That is how it always goes when you have us paint your walls, at the rates in our price list.