Painting wooden windows help needed urgently

[cheesesarnie]

Help.

I have tried to paint every window in my house (all of which are wooden). Every single time I have made a complete bodge of the area where the wood meets the glass.

Every time I use masking tape on the glass the paint 'creeps' under it causing a nasty, uneven mess on the glass. I am positive the tape cannot cannot be stuck any more firmer to the glass. What am I doing wrong? Am I using the wrong masking tape (B&Q own)?

Advice greatly appreciated....

cheese

 

[masona]

The biggest problem I find with this is people tend to rush it (me included as I get bored with it!).You really got to take your time and as little as paint possible on your paintbrush.If the paint is running to the glass then it can only be too much paint.

 

[Graeme]

And always use no larger than a 1" brush for the critical cutting in parts. I always take the masking off within 5 minutes of cutting in and then you are left with the option of wipeing any errors away with a rag. You are obviously assuming that seen as the masking is there you can fly through it and paint over the tape also. You are much better off taking your time and assume the masking is not there by trying to get no paint on it at all.

 

[breezer]

you could alway use a "utility" knife blade in a scraper to remove the dried on paint, but that is in effect doing the job twice (time wise) dead you clean the glass before applying masking tape?

Also you could try using a 15 cm rule (plastic one) hold it at an angle against the glass as you paint, but it deos sound like you are rushing it a bit. you get out what you put in

 

[ChrisR]

The paint type is omportant. The poor-value short-lasting "one coat" types are most difficult to use.
Also key is to use a decent brush. A worn-in bristle type is fine but of course you can't buy them worn-in! Get a good synthetic brush from a pro paint shop. Something like a Hamilton Silver. They make a knife edge and are stiff enough that you can put the paint where you want it, instead of where the bristles want to split off to. The Harris synthetic brushes I've used have all been very poor.

It helps if the paint isn't too thick. If you put a cupful of say a non-drip paint into a small pot and add a very small amount of white spirit, it will become much easier to control. Try half a teaspoonful of white spirit, stir and leave it, covered, for half an hour. It will re-jellify!

Once you aren't fighting the materials you'll find it easy to put the paint just onto the glass, leaving a straight enough edge.

The window-scraper tools are fine, as long as you don't have to say get up a ladder again to get to the window!

Also a mahl stick can be a godsend for some applications. That's a stick of wood with a ball of rag tied round one end. Use as a guide for your hand.

But I repeat, if you get the brush and paint working properly, you'll just need to "set" the brush in the bevel against the window. You'll be using the bevel as the guide. A 35mm brush will hold enough paint for an edge say 500-600mm.