Easy technique for painting window grids?

16 years ago

We have begun the herculean task of painting all the trim in the house. Every window, glass door, etc has real divided lights. We have tried just painting with a 1" brush, then using a scraper, and it has worked, more or less. But we are now in the family room, with additional challenges.

1. Each light has solar window film installed. Scraping this needs to be done very delicately and is time consuming.

2. In addition to having MANY of these divisions, there are several that are high up, needing a 16' ladder. As we are not so seasoned as painters we would prefer not to spend a lot of time up there, just enough to get the job done.

We tried taping a couple of windows, and it might work for the lower ones, but being up there could make it harder. And then there are the curved dividers...

Any effective tricks to reduce the workload? Thanks!

Comments (2)

paintguy22
16 years ago
One thing that might be worth a shot is some of that liquid masking. One I have heard good things about is Jasco Mask and Seal. We used to just spray it over the whole window and the product would sink into the wood but not the glass so that after you are done painting you just peel it off the glass. What you can do is just use a brush and it's okay if you get some on the wood because after you are done painting you will just score the line between the wood and glass and just peel the liquid masking off. Just don't leave it on too long before removing it....follow the manufacturers recs concerning that.
weed_cutter
16 years ago
Try using a 2" angled trim brush. I have found I can do a better job with a larger brush and in fact I use a 3" brush on most of my trim and cutting in work. Maybe it's just what I'm used to but I think it really works. I do have a theory on it but don't care to go into it now.

Don't start with a loaded brush next to the glass, start your stroke maybe 1/4" away and slide the brush to the glass as you stroke.

My twin "bad" brother came up with this - when you're 16 feet down and looking up at a window maybe you just can't see that 1/16" next to the glass that didn't get a fresh coat of white over the old white.
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