This Clever Hack Will Change How You Use Painter’s Tape

Taping before you paint is an important first step in achieving a clean paint job. But you can’t just slap some painter’s tape haphazardly on the wall and start painting. You need to apply it to the walls smoothly to ensure that no paint bleeds underneath and ruins your otherwise crisp lines. To that end, there are a few different tricks and techniques that people like to use to properly apply painter’s tape, including this roller hack.

What’s the Trick?

The team at Handy Space on YouTube has a clever painter’s tape roller hack: mount the tape on the roller! Instead of holding the roll in your hand, measuring out the strip that needs to be taped, and hoping you didn’t get any creases in the process, you can let the roller do most of the work for you. In their reel, Handy Space shows that they’ve put two rolls of painter’s tape on their roller.

The bottom roll is the one dispensing the tape, the top roll is there as an easy refill and to keep the bottom roll moving. In the video, one of the team members gets a portion of the painter’s tape down on the floor and then steps on it to hold it in place. They then quickly move the roller forward, and a clean, smooth line of tape follows behind.

Why Is This Painter’s Tape Roller Hack Better Than Others?

OK, so this is a cool hack… but why is it better than other methods? With most things, there’s a certain degree of personal preference to take into account. If you’ve been painting for years and have developed a technique that works really well for you, you may not want or need a new idea. But for most of us, painting isn’t a regular chore on our list, so anything that helps keep the tape lines smooth is a welcome suggestion.

With this technique, you can roll out strips of painter’s tape as long as you need; you don’t have to do large sections in pieces. This means you don’t have to worry about seams along the tape in places where you’ve had to cut one strip and add a new one right next to it. The roller hack also helps keep your application smooth. It’s a bit like applying a new screen protector on your phone: you can minimize the amount of adhesive exposed at once and ensure that it only connects to the wall you’re painting, not to itself or to the trim or any other obstacles.

Source

Painter, Take Note! A Clever Trick with Tape and Roller, Handy Space on YouTube.