Caring for your paintbrushes and other painting implements is extremely important. Good paintbrushes cost money, and the best way to maximize your return on investment is to keep them well cleaned. Let’s look at the basics of Cleaning Paintbrushes and Rollers.

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Cleaning Paintbrushes

A properly cleaned brush will not only last longer, it will also apply the paint onto the surface more effectively. A little known secret is to coat the brush with the solvent before you put the actual finish paint on. This will ensure that the paint doesn’t dry onto the brush and it will also prevent it from clumping. In fact, if the paint job is one of considerable length, then take a break to re apply the solvent before continuing.

Never store a brush unless it is clean and dry. After painting, dip the paintbrush in clean solvent and wash out with warm water. If the paintbrush is made up of Natural Bristles, you can even use shampoo. If your brush came with packaging, use that to store it so that it retains it’s original shape.

Cleaning Rollers

Cleaning rollers is a tricky business. The main reason for this is that you have to be very careful to make sure that it doesn’t get bent out of shape. There are many ways to do this. One technique is to use a putty knife to scrape of the excess paint from the roller first before washing it out with detergent and water. There is a special device called a brush and Roller that spins the roller inside a bucket. This effectively takes out all the paint by the virtue of centrifugal force.

Paint can be applied with several tools, and till now, we have only looked at Paint Brushes. However, to cover large smooth areas, a paint brush is very ineffective. Paint Rollers to a much better job.

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Paint Rollers are basically cylinders with absorbent material on them. The cylinders move around an axle, which allow an even coat of paint to be applied. The amount of paint that a roller can hold is quite large, and this makes them very convenient.

However, using a roller is an art. If you apply too much pressure, the paint will move to the ends creating “ridges” in the paint job.

Put the paint into a tray lined with aluminium foil for easy cleaning later on. Dip the roller into the paint and roll it in letting the paint get sucked up. Apply the paint on the wall in up and down strokes alternating with diagonal strokes every now and then. Keep moving. If you go over the wet paint several times, the paint will dry too fast. Also, the roller needs to be kept wet at all times. If the paint is allowed to dry on it, it will be useless.

Keep in mind that you have to use a paint brush for corners and other nooks and crannies.

Rough or textures surfaces have bumps and irregularities on them. This affects everything related to painting them right from preparation to how you finish off. They typically require more surface preparation, and take well to oil paints. However, due to the disadvantages of oil paints, it’s best to learn how to paint well using water based or latex paints, which are both environment friendlier as well as cheaper.

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The key concept in painting rough surfaces, is to load more paint onto the brush. A wide 4 inch brush does the job nicely provided you work the bristles into the surface. This, along with the extra paint, fills in the hollows. as well as paints both sides of raised surfaces.

The best type of brush to use for textured surfaces is one that is “Exterior Grade”. They have firm bristles that hold the paint well. To ensure that the various surfaces of the textured paint are covered, the stroke that used is more like poking the wall instead of dragging the brush across it. Also keep in mind that exterior grade paint is thicker than normal paint. Instead of dipping your brush into it, you will have to ’scoop’ it out.

We read earlier about painting walls with Oil Based Paints. Now we look at painting with Emulsion or Water Soluble paints. An Emulsion is essentially a mixture of two substances that are somewhat incompatible. In water based paints, the pigment is suspended in water, and cannot be fully absorbed by it.

photo credit: ▲ lewis chaplin

Emulsion paints give a nice sheen when applied. The degree of sheen can be chosen along with the paint. They also tend to become hard as the sheen increases. Emulsified paints will be thicker and cloudier than other paints. They contain additional components known as fillers to stabilize them. Different additives impart various properties, depending on the requirements like bacterial growth control, and antifreeze foam control.

To paint with these paints, it is preferable to use a thick brush. Unlike with oil paints, you must apply the paint in all directions. If you start at the top of the wall, continue horizontally across the top, moving in a criss cross pattern. Make sure that you don’t apply too much paint. Once a horizontal patch is done, you can start on painting immediately below it.

While “Laying Off” the paint, use a dry brush and maintain the criss cross pattern.

In an earlier post, we read about “Laying Off” the paint Job. In this post, I will give some pointers about how to actually paint a small section of the wall. It’s very easy, and if you follow the instruction, you will get a neat finish. I’m assuming that you’re using a paint brush for this.

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1. Start by painting vertical strips parallel to each other. Leave a gap that is slightly smaller than the width of the brush itself.
2. Without dipping the brush to get more paint, use the paint from the strips to close the gap between them horizontally. Use horizontal brush strokes for this.
3. Now you have to “Lay off” the paint using the techniques you learned in an earlier post. Ensure that you smooth over the criss  cross brush marks, and get an even surface.
4. Now use the same technique for the patch of wall underneath the one you just painted. Continue with this until the wall is done.

It’s important to ensure that the meeting point between the patches is not visible. Don’t allow the paint to build up. Make sure that the vertical strips of each patch merge gracefully into the adjacent sections.

In previous posts you learnt about “Cutting in” corners so as to prevent the paint from staining the other wall. If you want to be 100 percent sure that you don’t accidentally mark the opposite wall, you can use “Masking Tape”.

Image Credit: Chris Campbell

Masking tape is no different from normal self-adhesive tape. However, there are different grades of adhesive tape, and different grades vary considerably with regard to their adhesive properties, the ease of tearing, and how well they keep paint out.

The tape is simply applied over the areas where you don’t want the paint to go. When you’re done with the paint job, you just peel it off. Depending on the surface you want to protect, you can use various grades of tape. The idea is to get a tape that will peel off without damaging the surface, as well as stay on for the length of time that you want to paint for.

Adhesive strength is measured on a scale of 1-100. We want it to be around 50 for our purposes. Masking tape is especially useful for spray painting. Since you can’t really control where the paint goes, the tape will neatly cordon off the areas you want to keep dry. The better the quality of the tape, the better the edge doesn’t let the paint ‘bleed’ under it.

Painting corners is not easy. You might find that in the process of painting, you have applied so much paint that the corners become ‘clogged’ and thick. Also, if the corner is the joint between two different colors, then you want to ensure that you don’t ‘taint’ the other color with the paint.

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It can be a tricky business, but we haven’t been painting for hundreds of years without coming up with some techniques! And that’s what makes humans successful after all. The sharing of knowledge and not having to start from scratch.

Enough philosophy. Small brushes do nicely for this job. Load up your brush with paint. If you take too much, it will run down, so take just enough as your experience tells you is enough. You are going to use only the tip of the paint brush. So hold it in the pencil grip.

Start slightly away from the corner and ‘Cut’ into it from the side. This has the advantage of removing excess paint before you reach the corner. It’s a knack that you will soon pick up. Don’t start too far off, and you’ll be fine. Once you’ve reached the corner, continue painting all the way through. Keep a wet rag handy in case you make mistakes and rub some paint the wrong way!

Other options for those who are uncomfortable, is to use masking tape. But more on that later!

No, it isn’t what you think. I’m not asking you to stop painting, or take a break. The phrase “Laying Off” in the context of a paint job, refers to a certain technique that is employed towards the end of painting a surface. The purpose is to finish off the job with some final strokes that enable a smooth finish to manifest.

photo credit: merfam

When you paint a surface, you don’t paint all of it in one direction. You use several different small steps, with breaks. Neither do you paint all of a surface in one go. This is because by the time you finish one long surface, the first part would have already stared to dry off, and you would have lost the chance to do it properly.

Leaving aside the actual technique of painting (I’ll talk about that in a later article), once you have finished a segment, you need to give it the once over with your brush. The idea is to use only the tip of your brush without using any force. You need to smooth over the various brush strokes, and achieve a uniform consistent finish.

Use a minimum amount of paint while doing this, and the Laying off process will be successful. Laying off is a very important aspect of painting, and you must master it if you want your work to look professional.

In an earlier post, we discussed the basics of paint brushes, and what is good for them. In this article, we will learn a little more about their sizes, what paints suit which brushes, and why they are still preferred to rollers and pads.

Image Credit: Terence J Sullivan

The size of a paint brush refers to the size of the head. It is usually measured in millimeters or inches. The size depends on a) What the size of the surface being painted is, and b) What you’re more comfortable with.

The larger the paint brush, the more quickly you get tired while painting, though obviously the paint gets laid on faster with a bigger brush. The method of holding the brush varies with the size as well. Smaller brushes are held with the fingers like a pencil, whereas larger ones utilize the whoe fist.

A rule of thumb is never to use a paint brush that is larger than the surface you are painting on. This means that if you’re painting the legs of a stool, the paint brush must be small enough to get into all the nooks and crannies.

When you buy a brush, the choice is between synthetic and natural bristles. As discussed in our earlier article, both have their advantages. However, if you’re going to use oil based paint, then natural bristles are preferred over synthetic ones. If you use natural bristles with latex or water based paint, the bristles will spread out making it more difficult to achieve a proper finish.

Non Drip paints are a special category of paints that do not ‘run’. They feel jelly like. In reality, they possess a property called Thixotropy. Thixotropic paints do not have a fixed viscosity over time. That means that their consistency changes depending on the conditions. In this regard, they are called “Non-Newtonian”, which means that their viscosity cannot be captures by a single constant.

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These paints become liquid under pressure. The will be jelly like in the can. But if you stir it inside the can itself, it becomes a liquid. If you leave it alone for a while, the paint will be a jelly once more.

Non-Drip paints are useful if you don’t want the hasse of cleaning up the floor after your paint job. Or if you have a carpet that you don’t want to take out. There is a trick in applying the paint however. The idea is to take out a blob of paint with the brush without wiping off any excess. You must ensure that not too much paint is applied so that it does not run.

Also, overbrushing will cause the gel like paint to undergo stress and become a liquid, which will run down the wall, hence defeating the very purpose of the Non-Drip paint.