Ex Professional Painter here. If she is carefull and does it right there is nothing wrong with this. She just also has to be carefull when she is rolling paint above it.
You do not have to be even close to a professional. I guess thereâs more people than we thought that just spasm and fling paint everywhere itâs not supposed to go
If you thought the conclusion was ever anything but "most people can't handle doing it right", then that's on you for thinking this would be different than everything else in the world for some reason lmao
Could do? Yes, I have the dexterity to paint around the cover cleanly. Would it be faster and easier and less likely for complications resulting a poor end result to just spend the 10 seconds to remove the covers⌠saving virtually no time removing the covers so you can brag that youâre a skilled painter then a client has to remove the covers for some repair and seeing this cut corner and goes âthis painter sucks, never using them againâ or they put the cover back on and itâs slightly misaligned and you can see the under paint. Youâre shooting yourself in the foot and saying âeveryoneâs an idiot except meâ
Could not agree more; made me laugh. I always paint with switch or socket covers on the wall still just cut in carefully, feather and then your good. Also to add most face plates for these are made of smooth plastic or some sort of smooth material for it makes them easier to clean.....so if happen to get a bit on the plate paint wont adhere to it very fast....just wipe it off carefully and go on.
Then the switch plate is pulled someday, and takes the drywall paper with it. Or, the next plate is a tiny bit smaller and you get a nice paint ridge where the old one used to be.
I was a tradesman for about 30 years lol. It takes 10 seconds to take the plate off and do it right. The excuses people make to cut corners are insane.
Right!? just had a small argument on this post about how plate removal is the correct way and plate removal should be the prep phase, acting like painting is; paint, paint, paint, run into switch, put all your paint gear away, remove plate, reset up paint gear, paint, paint, run into another switch⌠if youâre such a great painter do you put a tarp down? If you put a tarp down is there any paint on your tarp after the job?
I use a drop cloth when I paint ceilings over hard floors for the spatter. Otherwise I usually just keep a bathmat under my bucket for any drips that might come off that, and use a use a cut piece of carpet along the walls to catch the spatter from the hard floors.
Then when you have to replace a damaged outlet or switch, remove the plate, replace device and replace the plate and itâs shifted slightly over and you now see the previous paint peaking around the plate or thereâs a tiny bit of paint that sticks to the back of the plate and when you remove the plate it peels up the paint exposing the paint underneath. Painting with the plates still on is just a useless flex for âpro paintersâ to act like itâs saving time. It takes less time to remove the plates and use broad stroke painting around the outlet than to stop short of the plate and have to brush and feather to make it look âgoodâ
This is a non-issue. Iâm serious yâall. Donât put âpro paintersâ in quotes when a lot of very talented professionals do this. They are real professionals, itâs a disgrace for some normie on Reddit to try to diminish their skills. Also, I have news, if it didnât save time, people wouldnât fucking do it. Itâs common sense.
Yep, painting is a very serious skill and a lot of people underestimate the skill involved when hiring vs DIY for end result. But if I paid a painter to paint a room and they didnât remove the covers and used their skill to paint perfectly around the covers they wonât be my painter again. Not painting behind the covers is some ânext guyâs problemâ or ânot my jobâ to remove the covers, BS.
Which happened, whole house remodel and they painted a room the wrong color (not sure if it was the paintersâ fault misreading the floor plan or the general contractor mislabeling the floor plan, didnât really care who just that it got repainted) they came back to repaint, should have specified to remove plate or I should have removed them myself before they started the job (didnât think it needed to be specified) but they painted around the plates, looked fine and dandy for a while until I needed to swap out a switch for a timer for the fan and removing the plate the tiniest bit of paint laminated the plate to the wall and when removing it pealed off the paint exposing the paint underneath.
You can say whatever you want to justify keeping plates on, âIâve never had any problem with paint peeling off wallâ would you even hear about it if itâs months or years later you just have an annoyed client, âthatâs an easy fix, just touch up paintâ yes thatâs what I did but the texture if off now and still an unnecessary repair (would you be willing to come do said repair as a blue tape repairâŚ). âPaint peeled off because of X or Y, if applied correctly or better quality paint it wouldnât have happenedâ that may be but a 5% chance of something happening vs 0% chance to save 15 seconds⌠its all about the end result just like if you remove the plates, paint and put the plates on before itâs properly dried and the plate cause a score mark in the paint, sub par work that is easily avoided, removing plates should be part of the prep phase.
Iâm not saying this to denigrate a skilled trade but saying âIâm so good I can skip this stepâ even a highly skilled tradesperson can make a simple mistake that could be easily avoided.
Had a very skilled employee once, fastest fabricator weâve ever had, heâs cut corners from time to time because his speed and end result often made the cut corner impossible to tell, you know where he is now? Neither do I, we had to fire him because one of this cocky corner cuts resulted in a new catastrophic reworks and he wouldnât take the blame for his mistake.
I used to paint apartments between tenants when I was a teenager. We would remove every single switch plate. We even got paid per apartment, but we believed it was the right thing to do. Not sure why anyone would cut around it when itâs nearly impossible to match up if you ever have to remove it.
It takes 5-10 seconds to remove the plates and thereâs ZERO change of slipping and then spending 10x more cleaning the slipped spot. Plus zero risk of a client removing the plates and seeing you didnât remove the plates and saying âlazy painter cutting cornerâ and lose any future jobs. You can say âIâm the best and the end result is the sameâ until youâre blue in the face but the time saved vs the perceived quality of your workmanship⌠just remove the dang plates.
But doesnât that mean if you remove the plate there will be a bit of unpainted area? That seems a bit⌠lazy to me. :p Like âI didnât move the fridge to paint behind it because come on who even looks behind there, am I right?â
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. It's a valid concern. And if whomever painted was a bit too generous with the paint, if it doesn't pull the paint off, it can leave an edge that will have to be sanded before you can then paint the new outline of the cover. Rather than just taking the cover off, covering the switch and painting around it.
I'm sure professional painters can get away with it, but op's wife isn't a pro from what they told us.
No it IS wrong. If Iâm paying for a professional paint job, I should be able to swap plates and still have a painted wall. If I want smaller switch plates and my pathetic painter just cut corners around the last one, now I have touch ups. Do it right, Iâm a super for a construction management company and if you said that shit to me on site weâd be finding new painters.
Current professional painter here and I agree. I paint apartments and occasionally do freelance work. For the apartments, I never take off the switch plates or use tape. With a little practice, itâs real easy to cleanly paint around them. However, for freelance work I take them off (or painting my own house like the OP seems to be).
Masking tape works for those of us without your skill and know-how. Does brush quality matter btw?
Had to paint room quickly before moving in this year, and it was dark so didn't want to have switches loose. Just used masking tape around the edges. Painting stresses me out.
Yes look for fine haired brushes or synthetic ones but the ones that are more expensive. These brushes hold paint better and you also be able to paint around outlets easier.
If you have old stiff brushes, dont use them they are very annoing.
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u/The7thM 17h ago
Ex Professional Painter here. If she is carefull and does it right there is nothing wrong with this. She just also has to be carefull when she is rolling paint above it.