I have an exterior moulding between my siding and the soffit that I need to paint, without getting paint on the siding. Hard as I try, the brush gets a little messy. Ideally, a nice 1.5" roller would probably zip right through it, but I can't find one. Any ideas? Advice? Thanks!
cut a 3" roller in half.
Uh, tape off the siding?
a roller isn't going to be any neater than a brush.
this is like cutting in a ceiling next to the wall -- when you dip your brush just wipe the side that'll be next to the siding so that there's not much paint on it, and cut a straight line.
or, do like the other guy said and mask the siding.
"Hopkins" wrote
I worked in the carpentry trades for 26+ years, and I got to talk with and watch hundreds of professional painters over the years.
Everyone of them always slapped the brush on the inside of a paint bucket. When I first seen this done, I asked the painter what he was doing. He told me you never wipe the brush, always slap the inside of the bucket with the brush.
don't suppose you asked why did you?
wrote
I did ask, and a couple of reasons stuck with me, I can't remember all the reasons. My forte was in carpentry, so I used the tips on painting for my own home.
IIRC, one of the reasons was slapping the brush got the excess off, it also provided uniform coverage on the bristles, you didn't loosen any bristles like wiping the brush, and your brush held the paint better as a whole instead of heavy coverage on one side, and you could pull a line with better with complete uniform coverage instead of the brush dragging on one side. I'm positive I'm missing more reasons, maybe one of the painters will fill in where I left off.
Wiping the brush on the edge of the can ends up cutting the bristles and ruining the brush. It doesn't seem like the smooth inner edge of the can would cut the bristles, but it does. Slapping also leaves more paint on the surface of the brush, and it doesn't crud up the lip of the can.
RIt depends on what you're painting. If you're slinging painting on a monotone exterior, sure, wiping makes no sense. Slap some of the excess off and go.
But if you're working on some detail work, like interior trim or, in this case, the owner wants a clean edge on a 1.5" wide trim piece, you may have to wipe one side.
The idea is to carry as much paint in the brush as possible. It speeds things up by not having to reload the brush as often.
Uh, I've never cut off bristles whenever I've wiped the brush on the side of the can.
While I'm at it, when I say "wipe one side", I mean just to get the excess off the outside. I don't mean wipe so that half of the brush is dry.
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