Straight Lines

Sorry DB. I was referring to the idea about the toe kick material

Like Stripes said... your goal should be to paint curbs without having to use tape or plastic or shoe molding or whatever. I only use it for areas that need masking, like a pole in a sea of yellow, or tight corner that can't be done freehand. But never on normal curb, even if it's right next to a sidewalk, and never on a handicap ramp cut down. If thats what your using it for, your wasting time. You'll be surprised what you can do without that crutch.

Cove Base?

I don't normally use any tape. I just spray directly. But, where I see that it could come in handy is when you spray a curb and you get to the drop down area. It could help on the height change when the spray wants to go wide as the curb goes down.... Whitey---->

Could Be

We use long strips of plastic that we make our stencils out of it is about 5 inches wide.We put these strips down on top of the curb along the paint to make a straight edge.we only do this where we have wheel stops and where we cant just run the machine on the sidewalk.

Stripes, I hope to one day be as efficient with a striping machine as your are, but being new in the business and trying to achieve to same standards as you I need every trick I can get. I may be calling them by the wrong name but what I am calling shoe molding is a 4 foot strip of plastic sold in the flooring department at your local hardware store. It also comes in rolls at longer lengths. Here are some of the uses I use them for. (1) outline curbs that are difficult to paint (2) to make sharp edges on squared off corners (3) mask off around poles (4) block over spray on sidewalks (5) mask off the edges of ramps when i paint them (6) they work great for masking off around wheel stops (7) outline stop bar ( I do a lot of red and yellow curbs they make a real clean line where they meet. (9) spray a parking stall when the surfaces isn't smooth Whitey they help in height changes also. Whiteline the idea just came to me out of wanting to do the best job I can do. I hope this has cleared up some confussion Michael445 Have A Blessed Day

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&p…

Looks like the mystery has been uncovered. My bad guys, I was calling cove base shoe molding. Sorry for the confussion. Anyway cove base works great for me in the areas I mentioned. Thanks jpanz and BornToStripe. Have A Blessed Day

I used to use tape and or plastic to mask off areas that are a challenge. and still do for areas that you just can't do by hand. There is nothing wrong with it, of course, but the goal is to be as efficient as you can and still do good job. As with using tape/shingles to start lines, using tape/plastic to mask curb becomes a habit that gets harder to break the more you become dependant on them. All we are saying is that when you can, you should try to start breaking the habit. With practice, you will not need them anymore, and your efficiency will go way up. A good example is with curb cuts. When I first started, I used to tape off, or use plastic for every curb cut because I wanted to be perfect. After getting used to the feel of the gun in my hand (and seeing others do it) I tried to not use anything. It only took a couple of tries (fixing the first few with plastic/tape/cleaning up overspray) and I suddenly got good at painting the cuts free hand. What a time saver not having to stop mask off things, just spray and go. Does it look as good as masking everything? no.. but if done well, it is more than exceptable, it looks great. If you haven't already, look here http://parkinglotplanet.com/forum/index.php/topic,2674.ms… That's one of my guys doing a curb cut at the end of the clip. Yes he got a little paint on the sidewalk. He usually doesn't, and if so we usually clean it off (I had a talk with him about cleaning it off). When there are dozens of these on a job, it can mean saving a lot of time and effort.

Going to lowes? Grab a few bundles of roofing shingles while youre at it. THey also come in handy along side the ldpe and toe kicks. By golly, just dont let the customer roll up while you got that mess strewn all around his parking lot. Might just run you off the property.

I think Jim moonlights at Lowes during the night-time hours as a stock boy . . . .

Winters in NJ....