Ribbit, and rip it

21-day tape, it said. Masking tape has a "day value". It's meant to be the number of days you can leave the tape in place and still be able to remove it without damage to the surface. My Frog Tape has been up since yesterday morning, and today, after completing the second coat of Willow Tree, I took it down. My previous traumatic experience in the bedroom has been on my mind a lot this weekend and I was determined not to leave the tape in place a moment longer than necessary. The "oldest" piece was up for about 27 hours.

Do not use on paint that has not been properly cured, it said. Leave it at least 3 days, it said. I left it 7.

Click on the photo to see the full extent of the damage. True, it was nowhere near as bad as the bedroom. Only somewhere between 10-15% (linear) of the ceiling had its paint pulled off. With the old blue tape it was closer to 90%.

A six-fold improvement is, however, still not perfect, and leaves me with a patch-up job to do next weekend. On the positive side, Frog Tape's clever system of a polymer gel (or something) that expands as soon as the emulsion paint wets it, sealing the edge of the tape and leaving a perfectly clean line, did work very well in those areas where the tape came off without damage. I'd definitely use it again.