Five Ways Construction Tape Can Improve The Result Of Your Painting And Decorating

Construction tape is essential to ensure the sharpest of freshly painted edges in that newly decorated room. Ever since the pandemic, people have invested time and money in updating their homes. Spending more time at home has encouraged people to take pride in their properties and renovate their rooms even if it is simply a lick of paint. So how can construction tape help create that dream dining room or beautiful bedroom?

Crisp and Clean

Even if you are simply decorating one feature wall, construction tape is vital to create a clean bleed-free edge. The steadiest of hands cannot compete with the straight line that construction tape can achieve. Even as a painting amateur, everyone strives for a crisp painting edge rather than a splattered uneven line. Painters Tape can help an amateur paint professional looking edges and it can ensure the pro painter holds an excellent reputation for a quality finish. For further tips on painting that crisp clean line, take a look at our blog >

Difficult Designs

With constant design inspiration surrounding us on social media and TV shows, we can be easily influenced to give that intricate or complex decorating design a go. Perhaps it’s a two-tone wall or maybe you’re going to be brave with a contrasting colour ceiling or perhaps a complex geometric design has taken your fancy. Even something seemingly as simple as painting one feature wall can have its challenges particularly when it comes to painting into the corners of a room. Often corners can be rounded due to a build up of previous paint and this makes it increasingly tricky to paint a straight line even with the aid of masking tapes. We suggest you take the tape approximately ⅛” around the corner to create a perfect straight line. The fact you have continued the paint around the corner slightly won’t be noticeable and will give you a much straighter edge. Construction tape such as CES’s Deltec Tape will help you achieve these more complicated design dreams involving a selection of different colour paints. Tapes such as the Deltec sensitive (purple) tape are ideal to use if you have a freshly painted wall with another colour being painted adjacent to it.  Sensitive construction tapes will make sure the newly painted colour doesn’t peel off the wall when the tape is removed. 

Speedy Spraying

Construction tape is incredibly beneficial if you opt to paint with a paint sprayer such as CES’s range of QTech and TriTech machines. Whilst the spray tip is pretty accurate and aims the paint where you want it, there can be some overspray so masking up is essential.. Paint Spray Machines are increasing in popularity due to the time they can save and the quality consistent finish they can achieve. If you don’t mask up correctly, you’ll find you’ll lose the time you’ve saved with all the pesky touch ups/repainting you end up doing. If you are interested in starting out in paint spray machines take a look at our blog with our top tips for getting started with these machines >

Perfect Protection 

Construction tape is not only key to attain those clean lines but also important to protect areas in the room that you want to keep paint-free. No one wants a paint-splattered carpet  and much as Michelangelo nailed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, I'm not sure your paint-splashed ceiling would look quite so good. There are specific tapes and films you can pick up for floors and ceilings. Products such as CES’s Yellow Carpet Protection Film, Deltec’s UniTack tape or CEs’s pre-taped drop film are great solutions for covering larger areas and protecting them from annoying drips, splashes and splodges. Windows can also be protected with a window film which is self-adhesive and quick and easy to apply. These specialist products really save you time from old-fashioned laying out newspapers and taping a web of masking tape.

Construction tapes are also great to mask up those smaller areas or uneven shapes, such as light switches, plug sockets or ornate mouldings. Tapes are designed to be easy to use and tear to size. When it comes to awkward shaped items, always use smaller pieces of tape to trace the shape accurately and overlap each piece so it is easy to remove. Whilst masking these intricate details can take more time, it is far better than the time spent touching-up those irritating gaps.

Tidy Trims 

As well as protecting larger areas such as flooring and ceilings, construction tapes are useful for trims such as baseboards/skirting boards and coving/cornice/crown moulding. If you are painting a white wall and are tempted to skip the masking because the trims are also white, don’t be fooled. A wobbly hand causing a blob of white emulsion on your baseboard will probably still be visible since the trims use different paint (often a semi-gloss or satin type of paint) to the matt emulsion on the walls. 

Shop with CES

At CES we stock a range of construction tape for the professional and amateur painter including a range of Deltec tapes (find out more about Deltec here >) as well as our popular Dolphin tapes. Our Dolphin range is not only designed for painting (check out our Hybrid tape) but also for plastering and rendering. Shop the entire range here >