Cleaning your Paintbrushes and Rollers

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.