You should either have a wet edge (the BM method) or a completely dry edge (your method) when you paint over the cut-in line. If the edge is dried to the tacky stage the roller will pull the cut-in paint off the wall.

Here's my method:

1 - Feather the cut-in area out into the room 6-8 inches, from 100% coverage 3-4 inches out from the wall to barely 10% (just visible) at the end of the feather. The goal is to NOT have a straight line of paint.

2 - let it dry completely

3 - When I roll the wall, I cover the cut-in area, making at one full stroke parallel to the wall or ceiling and as close as I can get with the roller. The broad feathered area minimizes the 'framing" effect you get if you have a 4-inch cut in with a hard edge and then cover it with the roller.

I also tend to apply paint thicker than most non-professionals, which also minimizes the framing effect.

That videos methods may be ideal IN THEORY...but in actual practice...it would be nutso!

Besides...if you're chasing a cut-in line around the wall with a roller, and only doing 3' down....what's happening with the edge of your 3' path?!??!?!

>>> All that accomplishes is moving your cut-in down 3'!!
>>> Also...by the time you get back around the room, THAT roller edge is now near-dry, making the main body of wall all that much harder to blend in, if at all!
>>> PLUS...that edge is now @ EYE-LEVEL, instead of 8' up!

(Faron shaking his head here!!)

Unless you live behind a roller/brush, here's MY perfect technique:
* Cut-in the whole room first...everything!
* Modern latexes dry too fast to EVER keep up with a wet cut-in edge.
* I just brush my cut-in down ~ 3" to a hazy/feather-edge.
* Now when rolling, I'll roll horizontally about 3', pretty tight to ceiling (and/or sidewall, etc.), with my pressure eased-off slightly over the cut-in...just to get a little roller-stipple, but not a full coat of paint, over the cut-in.
* Now I always do a "Column" of paint. On an 8' wall, I'll do 4 sections of paint in a column 3' wide. That's 4 ROLLER-LOADS OF PAINT IN A 3'-wide COLUMN.
* When done with this column, don't re-load. Bring roller to the upper-left and lightly do a continuous sweep over your paint to the baseboard. REPEAT these light downsweeps and end about 6" shy of your columns' right edge.
* Repeat around room!
* The whole idea of the light downstrokes is to even and level your main roller areas. You'll have thick&thin spots you can't see because they're wet! Plus you avoid the "baseball-field" mowed look when paint is leaning the same direction!
* I always do this and my paint looks perfect...no banding, thin areas, differing reflection-angles, etc.

Faron

Ok, good. I actually use both of your methods. Like LG, I do a broad feathered cut-in all around, then roll the walls in columns top to bottom. I also roll over the cut-ins as close to the edges as possible to minimize any brushstrokes.

Here's another thing I found curious. The painter in the video used an extension pole when painting the wall--top to bottom of what looked to be a standard 8-ft wall. Of course, as she was rolling from top to bottom she was backing into the room to maintain steady pressure. Looked like more of a hassle than just rolling the wall up close and personal.

Whether or not to use a long extension pole is up to you.

I use Faron's column method, making sure to use enough paint to get good coverage. The #1 noobie painter flaw is they try to do too much wall per roller-full and end up with skips and thin spots. One roller-full does (for me) about a 2x3 section of wall.

I make a W or an X and then roll it sideways into the finished part and then top to bottom, ending each column with the one long top to bottom smoothing stroke. It usually works best if you start on your dominant side (right end of the wall for a righty, left end for a leftie) and work around the room that way. Try not to cross your arm in front of your body.

Windows ... I do above the window as if it were a small wall, then do under the window, then resume the columns on the other side of the window.

Another question, please. Assuming you're doing two coats, do you folks cut in twice as recommended in the video? I normally cut in once (depending on the coverage and base coat), and then roll very close to the cut-in edge. I tend to have a heavy hand with the cutting in, though.

Are you sure that this wasn't an old video? Really, the speedy dry times of modern day paints makes keeping the wet edge impossible, even for very fast pro painters. The whole method of cutting and rolling as you go is really old school. A rolling pole is always recommended, but this depends on your coordination level. Some people just can't operate one. You should not need to move your body back and forth when using a pole either...you stay in one spot and adjust the length of the pole to a comfortable position. You can cut in once and roll twice, but this is technically cheating. You are right though, depending on the color, one cut in is sometimes enough, especially if you can roll very tight, it may not be noticeable.

Thanks, everybody. And, Paint Guy, the video is still up on the BM site which is why I thought it was current. Guess the web designer has been working on the Aura pages!

Prof -
I usually only cut in once, but I apply a really thick coat the first time, and roll extremely close to the edges.

How about ceiling technique? 8' columns on a wall are manageable but with wide rooms, how do you manage the ceiling without these fast drying paints being tacky for the next section?

I want to paint my ceilings last, lol. Bad idea?

Bad idea?

yes

Why? I did this in the bathroom. The paint is so thick it doesn't seem to splatter.

It's easier to cut a straight line with the wall paint to a finished ceiling than it is to make a straight line with ceiling paint over your head when the walls are already complete. That is the main reason I do ceilings first, then walls. I suppose if you are using tape though, the order doesn't matter as much.

ok then it's about ceiling lines not splatter or something else?

I probably will do the ceiling a little lighter or in some areas will anyway. Bathroom was all the same paint. I'm also using matte. Right, but flat for the ceiling. I used the matte B&S all over in the bathroom.

Maybe I could do the ceiling cutting in part first but not the dreaded roller part.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Mon, Jan 21, 13 at 20:05

Do the whole ceiling part first!

Brush the ceiling-paint onto the side wall about 3" down.
Feather-out the bottom edge to nothing.

Now...ALL of the overhead is done!
If something gets splatted onto the side-walls, who cares! You haven't painted them yet...;-) !!

Next, as PG said, just cut-in your walls. At the top, you can leave a 1/2" or even a full 1" of the C-P on the sidewall showing.

Faron

okay, okay, but it is intimidating to start there!

How about ceiling technique? The 8' columns on a wall are manageable but with wider rooms, how do you manage rolling the ceiling without these fast drying paints being tacky for the next section?

Flat or vaulted...and how high?

Think of yourself painting inside a shoebox! The underside of the "lid" is your ceiling. Obviously, it's rectangular.
* Draw an imaginary line down the middle of the LONG length.
* Now you've got 2 long/skinny rectangles.
* Roll each rect. across its SHORT side. This translates into "real-life" reachable stroking-lengths...usually!
* Plus, your footwork is mainly in a straight line, centered under the skinny rectangles!
* On your FIRST roll, start ~1' AWAY from the wall, and roll at AN ANGLE towards the corner. We'll just say you're doing ~5'-6' roll...MAX.
* Now roll square-to-the-wall at the edge, moving out from the corner, going towards the start of that angled stroke.
* Next, roll thru the first pass, at a slight angle, to the opposite corner.
* Then, just "square-up" this edge by rolling-over the first angled pass.

>>> All you're doing here is painting a ~2'x6' skinny X!
* Don't push too hard on the first passes!!
* You wanna slowly unload the roller equally on the first 2 strokes.
* The other 2-4 strokes in this SKINNY X are ~90% overlapping, with some squaring-off rolls.

>>> For the 2nd section away from the sidewall, start ~1' AWAY from your wet-edge, roll at the slight angle towards your 1st X....and repeat through this X.
* When you meet your 1st sections' edge, slightly overlap ~1", with slightly less pressure on that edge. It's all about finesse here!
* Practice this little "dance" with a dry roller 1st~.
* You'll maybe be doing ~6 long/continuous strokes per X.

>>> Use a good Cover!!

Faron

Have to read through this again but I would never have thought of that! I can do it!

Thanks : )

I guess I'm an old fashioned gal then as I cut and roll at the same time....I keep a cutting brush in the roller tray, cut it in and roll, cut it in and roll...no up and down as what I need is all in the single tray....

Not that AD's approach is "wrong"...it's just "inefficient".

Constantly switching tools is a lot of wasted motion, & increases odds of a paint accident.

Besides...Paints dry pretty fast nowadays!
If I was doing this room:
* Cut-in the ceiling edges ~3" on the actual ceiling, and down ~3" onto the sidewall. Again, brush-out your bottom-edge on the wall so no ridge shows.
* OPTION-B4 even pouring the paint, caulk the wall/ceiling joint, and smooth out the bead.
* This gives a "smoothed-out" corner appearance all around the top.
* Ceiling/wall corners are rarely pristine anyway!
* Now roll the whole ceiling using the pattern I suggested.

Snookums-
* Think of laying down 10 dominos, long sides touching. Now add another row, short-sides touching the same on 1st row.
* Just mentally picture a skinny X on each domino.
* Repeat pattern in my earlier post, and soon you'll have the whole grid filled in!
* Finish-off each rect. with light/long/continuous strokes to further even-out your paint distribution in each "Domino".

Faron

Thanks for all the detailed instructions, Faron! I need to approach things in an organized way or I get lost, lol.

So when you paint a ceiling, doing the final light long strokes to even things out, do you go over both rectangles across the width of the room or just the half section you are working in?

Wow...a Jan. thread!

If it's popcorn, usually just the rectangle you're filling-in.
Ceilings are usually too impractical and long to do long-continuous strokes.

>>> Just DON'T EVEN REMOTELY let paint "run-out" of the roller!!

Faron

Impractical it is. I had to work in small sections. (Not popcorn).

This is Fresh Start primer applied over a new drywall install. Looks a bit transparent in areas, uneven saturation, so blotchy, though evenly applied. Is the one coat enough? I think I will be using BM super flat ceiling paint. I need two coats of that?

TIA! I might not live through this.

P.S. What does this mean???

Just DON'T EVEN REMOTELY let paint "run-out" of the roller!! >>

Hmmm-

...guess that could've been a little clearer!

As you're "unloading a roller-load", there comes a point where the paint starts going on "thin". This is the point where people start pushing on the pole to squish more paint out of the roller.

Doing that will kill the evenness & appearance of the ceiling.

Faron

Ah, great tip which I am sure guilty of!

Looking at the ceiling today, all dried, it looks pretty darn good. A couple skips but not as uneven as I thought going on.

Yeah, so I guess I have to really paint now, lol. Hope these colors move me when I'm done :)

Okay, so I am having trouble with the Aura setting up. I tried using more paint which helped some of the drying problems (smoother finish generally) but the "seams" are still rough. The overlap between some of the columns gets tacky and I end up with a rough feeling area between them that looks kind of like a concrete texture.

If I don't knock back (feather out) the column's wet edge very quickly (under a minute) , a small ridge occurs because it has begun to set up. But when I feather it out, then the paint is thinner and dries faster, so it gets tacky very quickly, I think.

I have tried various ways of rolling. 2 x 3 sections. Up and down. Not sure if one or the other is better but I seem to find the up and own (8 foot ceiling) more difficult to manage. And I need to run the roller tight to the ceiling and corners.

I am not working slow!

What would you suggest for the transition areas between the columns?

And does Regal Select have much more open time than Aura? Maybe I would find it easier to work with?

This post was edited by snookums2 on Thu, Jan 16, 14 at 1:41

And does Regal Select have much more open time than Aura? Maybe I would find it easier to work with?

absolutly

A minute is way too long. I think 10 seconds is even too long....I know that sounds crazy, but keeping a wet edge with Aura is really that tight. You should really use the Aura extender to help with open time. Also, close windows and turn off ceiling fans. Any movement of air will make the paint dry faster and this is what you really don't want.

I agree it's more like seconds! I didn't think anyone would believe it's that crazy, lol. I am using more and more extender. The paint is becoming kind of sloppy and can spatter. Maybe I should cut back to 4 ounces again. Max is eight. I'm wondering if it is making things worse in some way although the roughness has always cropped up one way or another.

So how in the world do you keep a wet edge for the next column to get a smooth finish all the way across?

Do you paint up and down or in smaller sections? Don't you roll tight to the ceiling, baseboard and side walls? That takes time.

Nah, there is really no time for that. I use a pole and roll ceiling to floor, usually one dip will get me about 2 roller widths (18"). I can usually roll a normal sized bedroom wall (12 foot long) in under 3 minutes, and even this isn't fast enough.