When painting, I often use masking tape, however, when I pull it off paintwork it sometimes pulls off some of the paint with it. Is there a way to prevent this?
EDIT:
A few people have said: "make sure you take the tape of after painting". But this was happening as I was putting the tape on (to get it straight, I had to remove it and re-apply in a couple of places – which is where I noticed the paint coming off).
Best Answer
Yes this can happen, especially if you don't remove the masking tape straight away.
It might indicate that the paint isn't properly adhered to the underlying surface, but it can happen even if you've prepared the surface properly (cleaned and dried).
The only real solution is to use something else - a straight edge held to the wall is always a good choice. However, that might not work well if the wall is uneven.
You could draw a line where you want to paint to and then hold a short piece of card up to this line as you paint in small sections.
From your update it sounds like when the previous paint was applied the surface wasn't prepared properly. Your best bet in those circumstances is to remove the top layers of paint - or even all of it - until you get a sound surface for you to paint on.