[blu878]

So 3M makes those adhesive thingies so you can hang stuff on your wall. They're supposed to hold a lot of weight and yet easily be removed from the wall without damaging the paint. I know that's not necessarily true because I saw one of them rip the paint off the wall when it was removed. To be fair, the adhesive strip was not put on the wall properly because the instructions say to clean the area with alcohol first and that was not done.

But what about painter's tape? Can that be left on the wall long-term without damaging the paint? Like if someone wanted to use the tape to hang posters on the wall or something like that. I'm also going to assume that the answer may depend on the brand, quality, and type of paint. I've found that regular Scotch tape comes off a brand name glossy painted wall with no problems, but will leaves marks or take the paint off of other paint jobs (flat paint or cheap paint).

 

[SW Dweller]

Painters tape left on much over a week will have issues being removed. The hotter and dryer it is the shorter time frame.

 

[mathmonger]

I have some on the siding of my house. You'd think it would get wet and soak off over time, but it's actually the opposite. It is baked on there and impossible to remove.

 

[mark sr]

Masking tape on the exterior should always be removed ASAP. There is more leeway inside but still shouldn't be left long term. Blue or green tape will come off easier than the old white/tan masking tape.

 

[Half-fast eddie]

My mother had her upstairs bedroom and bathroom pained about a hunnert years ago, and they used the old tan masking tape. That’s all that was available back then. For some reason they didn’t get in a hurry, left the tape on for about a month. Bad move. Good thing she was retired and didn't have anything else to do for the next couple of months except pull it off in tiny pieces. Not only had the adhesive bonded really well, the paper had become brittle.

 

[woodco]

So 3M makes those adhesive thingies so you can hang stuff on your wall. They're supposed to hold a lot of weight and yet easily be removed from the wall without damaging the paint. I know that's not necessarily true because I saw one of them rip the paint off the wall when it was removed. To be fair, the adhesive strip was not put on the wall properly because the instructions say to clean the area with alcohol first and that was not done.

But what about painter's tape? Can that be left on the wall long-term without damaging the paint? Like if someone wanted to use the tape to hang posters on the wall or something like that. I'm also going to assume that the answer may depend on the brand, quality, and type of paint. I've found that regular Scotch tape comes off a brand name glossy painted wall with no problems, but will leaves marks or take the paint off of other paint jobs (flat paint or cheap paint).

A lot of that has to do with how well the wall was primed and painted in the first place. Its not nesessarily the tapes fault. Blue tape will have the best chance of releasing in the future. A little tip is to heat it with a blow dryer a little, if its hard to remove. Its best to use tacks for posters. Or, they have that clay-like sticky stuff, you roll into a little ball and can stick posters to the wall with. I dont recall having issues with removing that stuff. Just avoid the double sided thicker foamy kind of stuff. It takes hours to scrape that stuff off the wall... I've also seen little sticky tabs on one side, with a pin that sticks in the wall, to hang posters invisibly. ITs a lot easier to fill a pinhole, than remove old adhesive, or patch where the wall pulled off.