Spike Tape pulling up paint

[AmySue]

Hey everyone. I’ve been having issues with spike tape pulling up every layer of paint on our Masonite floors. I’ve tried different primers and different sealers. No matter what I do, how many layers or what type of paint I use; the spike tape always pulls up the paint and the smooth layer of the Masonite. Does anyone have any Ideas on how I can stop this from happening?

Thanks

[Angelique Powers]

This has slowly becoming an industry problem across the land. So a few things to know:

A- Spike tape pulls up with a pressure of about 50lbs per square inch – according to what one manufacturer told me.

B- Paint is not designed to be “pulled” – pushed sure, but not pulled- it’s structure isn’t built that way- why do you think 3m has made millions inventing a tape for paint.

C- When the tape pulls up past all of your layers of paint and into the substrate of the maso, mdf,plywood- that is a structural fail of the substrate- not you or your paint.

They have been changing all of the glues and formaldehyde recipes in the past years to meet California environmental laws, hence why everyone is seeing problems.

With all that being said, it’s still all about the first layer of primer, and I have had decent luck with Zinnser 123. And asking people to pull off the tape a bit slower.

I used to love using straight Black ToughPrime on my black floors, but I have noticed more and more failures of that product over the past year or so- so now I prime it white first.

As for sealers I’ve also had good luck with Ben Moore Stays Clear but that is super pricey.

[AmySue]

I have used a lot of the Zinnser 123, it didn’t help as much as I hoped. One of the worst floors I had was primed with it. I’m never at tech or focus days either so I am never the one to pull the tape up, the TD has been trying to help with pulling the tape, but the lighting crew covered the floor during the current show and ripped up a bunch of X’s.

Thanks for the info

[Batul Rizvi]

I ask our LX designer to use painter’s tape for focus tape and that typically helps there.

For actual spike marks, I ask our SM team to put the tape on their clothing first, and then place it on the floor. If a lot of scenery is rolling over the spike marks, I’ll suggest painting spikes which alleviates any peeling paint problems.

[AmySue]

Thanks! yeah We’ve asked the lighting crew to use painters tape but they always make a grab for the spike. We paint all our spikes just before previews but during tech with the constant changing pulls it up. The clothing idea will probably work really well I’ll definitely ask the SM crew about starting that

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