Few mistakes can ruin an interior paint job as quickly as this one: painting baseboards in carpeted rooms, without taking proper precautions. Doing this, a homeowner is very likely to end up with a combination of three unsightly problems. Carpet lint can get picked up into the brush and painted onto the wall, leaving an ugly marred spot when it is pulled off. In addition, even a steady brush hand is likely to leave paint on the tips of the carpet fibers. Finally, in attempting to prevent the previous two problems, a painter may avoid painting too close to the carpet, leaving an uneven line of unpainted baseboard.
A quality painting contractor will prevent all three problems with a single step, and it is something that a homeowner can do as well. Before painting, apply a strip of 2 or 3 inch blue painters tape on top of the carpet. Run the tape adjacent to the baseboard, leaving no gaps where you can see the carpet in between. Do not use short pieces of tape, even if they are overlapping each other, as this will create seams where paint can seep through; instead, apply a single piece of tape to the whole length of a wall. Next, push the edge of the tape down and tuck it under the bottom of the baseboard. A hard, flat tool such as a putty knife might be helpful with this stage. Once the taped carpet has been slid under the baseboard, the stickiness of the tape will help to hold it there.
Paint your walls and baseboard as normal. If small amounts of paint are brushed onto the tape, this is not a problem, but do not allow heavy drips, pools, or runs to sit on the tape as they can bleed around the edges of the tape and into the carpet. Be sure to peel up the tape before the paint is dry, otherwise paint on the tape will bond to paint on the wall, creating problems when the tape is removed. It is helpful to roll the tape inside out as you peel it so that the wet paint is on the inside of the resulting ball
When investing in a new look for your home interior, consider the benefits of hiring a professional house painter to do the job. The disruption to your home and schedule are minimized, and the results are likely to be much more crisp and lasting. Manor Works has been beautifying home interiors with precise, quality paint jobs for more than a decade. We proudly serve the greater DC metropolitan area, including Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Prince William counties. For more than a decade Manor Works has proved itself to be a trustworthy and reliable painting contractor, and we provide the longest, most thorough satisfaction guarantee in the region.