Tape and Masking Product Tips and Contractor Insights

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Tape and Masking Product Tips and Contractor Insights

While tape and masking products are the most effective way to protect surfaces during a painting project, your customers may be tempted to skip this step to save time or money. Educating them on these important prep tools and which ones to use for their specific project helps your customers avoid issues and results in happier customers who will turn to you for all their painting needs.

A fifth-generation painter, Luke Reynolds opened ALL IN Painting in 2016. Since that time, it has grown from Reynolds as the only painter to a team of 24 painters and an eight-person administrative management sales team. Paint & Decorating Retailer spoke with Reynolds, who shared tape and masking product best practices and insights into this category from a contractor’s perspective. See what products contractor businesses purchase and why, and discover expert knowledge to share with your customers.

Sometimes Less Is More
ALL IN Painting primarily takes on residential projects, but also completes some commercial jobs and offers cabinet painting services. Despite the range of jobs, its painters only use four types of tapes.

“When we’re purchasing tape for all our painters and projects, my goal is to keep it simple, which keeps everything efficient and costs low,” Reynolds says. “If you get caught up in the different varieties of tapes and masking products, you end up wasting material because the wrong products end up getting purchased, or they are only used for one specific job and never again.”

The Knowledge You Need
Understanding the environment where the product will be used is important.

“Not only do some products work better on certain surfaces, many have different pull times, which is how long they can stay on a surface before leaving behind adhesive,” Reynolds says. “Factors such as sunlight also affect each type of tape differently. For example, when used on an exterior window, white tape melts the adhesive onto the glass.”

The best way to avoid residue from tape and masking products is to remove it as soon as possible, but being cognizant of the sun and its potentially harmful effects on the tape is also important. When tape is left on too long, Reynolds recommends Goo Gone, rubbing alcohol and plenty of elbow grease to remove adhesive.

Additional Advice
Protection is key to achieving optimal results.

“When using rollers for painting projects, it is especially important to use optimal protection,” Reynolds says. “Rollers will splatter; it doesn’t matter how good the painter is.”

While utilizing training to make sure employees understand the uses and importance of tape and masking products, it is also beneficial to teach employees the add-on potential of these products.

“If a customer walks in for paint, retailers should always have a conversation with them about what they are doing for protection and make sure they understand how to go about it and the products they need,” Reynolds says.