Masking up and getting tight internal corners

by Joel
(Suffolk)

How do you go about masking up the walls when trying to keep them clean? PVA is messy and gets everywhere and I want to prevent getting anything on the walls while plastering my artex ceilings. I put the masking tape too close to the ceiling on my last two ceilings and now they are stuck to the ceiling at the edges that join it, so I'll probably get a razor blade to trim it up. Obviously I need to go lower with the tape but my question is how to you clear up the glue or plaster that gets on that little strip between the wall and the ceiling.

Secondly how do you achieve tight internal corners? I have the corner trowel and have been using it when the ceiling has firmed up so as not to make any marks on the ceiling. Do you add anymore plaster to do the internal corners?

Also some of the corners are at 45 degrees due to the beam that the ceiling goes up to is at that angle. These corners are very difficult to get a good clean edge with and I don't know how I can achieve this.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 👍

Answer
Hi Joel,

Skimming the ceilings are very difficult to do without getting on the walls as you now know. Often it may be that you just have to redecorate the whole room, but if you really want to avoid this all I can say there is no easy way - but the only chance you have is to go back to putting the masking tape higher and cutting with a razor blade as you did. This will leave an untidy corner which can be tidied up with decorators caulk. Simply run some along the corner and smooth very carefully with your finger ensuring that you don't go too low down on the wall and then paint a nice straight line.

The corner trowel is designed for forming a corner when you are doing both faces to which the corner relates. It is always best for beginners to do 1 face at a time as you are - and you then do not use the corner trowel. You take extra care with your trowel and in the later stages as shown in the videos - clean any excess off the adjacent wall or ceiling and form a nice crisp corner with your brush.

Hope this helps
Paul

Comments for Masking up and getting tight internal corners

Click here to add your own comments

Mar 03, 2018
Thanks
by: Anonymous

Thanks for the tip on using the caulk to get the finish. Glad to hear it is difficult to keep things clean as I thought it might just be me. Il keep these tips in mind for my next ceiling . Cheers

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to General Help.