Cleaning up after painting

[Jim S]

I don't really mind painting, but cleaning brushes/pads/rollers takes ages to do properly. Short of buying new ones every time has anyone any tips, before I go mad?

[meow2222]

If you hate it that much, use 5 for £1 brushes.

NT

[Tim Watts]

I buy new ones.

When you compare the cost of a few (or even a dozen) brushes agains the cost of the paint, it's usually a small fraction. And I find trying to clean them costs more in solvent.

The exception is rollers and emulsion - as it only takes water and the results are good I do do this..

[Nightjar]

I always buy cheap brushes and throw them away when I've finished. It saves a lot of hassle and modern ones don't drop bristles the way cheap brushes used to.

[Mike Barnes]

This is probably stating the obvious, something you're doing already, but that won't stop me. :-)

If I'm going to be using the brush for the same paint the next day or a few days later, I don't bother cleaning it, I just wrap the bristles in cling film to stop them drying out.

[Adrian]

Solvent...? This is 2014... Isn't damn near all household paint water- based these days, so just clean under the tap? (then a once-over with some washing-up liquid)

[Chris French]

Whereas I never bother with rollers, seems to take for ever. I tend to clean brushes (though only at the end of that bit of painting), but sometimes ICBA :-)

[damduck-egg]

Garden hose nozzle set on a jet can be quite effective ,I do mine above an outside drain . You do need some sort of shield to stop it flying everwhere and over yourself , mine is an old mower grassbox.

G.Harman

[Dave Liquorice]

With rollers and the tray they fit nicely into supermarket carrier bags. Roller in tray and any left ver paint bag up from paint end, lighly pushe down to reduce amount of air. Second bag from the other end again pushed down to reduce contained air and stop circulation. Will keep for several days.

Brushes, well most of the "painting" I'm doing at the momemnt is varnishing (water based) so using sythetic brushes which aren't cheap but the varnish being water based cleaning isn't a great problem. But again for a few hours betwen coats or overnight cling film is your friend.

[alan_m]

If it is water based paint just put all the brushes and rollers in the washing machine on a cold programme.

[GMM]

Seems to me that the greatest benefit of going over to water based gloss is that brushes wash out easily under a running tap. I always used to use cheapo ones and bin them after use but now can use good ones and wash them in running water. Of course, you have to dry them out properly before using them again.

[spuorgelgoog]

Attaching the roller to a power drill and centrifuging the paint off is effective.

or buy a roller handle from a pound shop and cut the handle part off.

Owain

[The Medway Handyman]

Visit Wilkinsons.

Perfectly good roller/tray/sleeve £2. Not worth the effort to wash then, chuck in bin.

Visit Toolstation. 24 one use brushes £9:98.

[Adrian]

Jackson Pollock? Is that you?

[Adrian]

I can only imagine domestic repercussions to that, regardless of reality/facts/logic.

[Tim Watts]

I still prefer paint that works!

eg Sadolin, floor paint and lots of others I've used recently that have been solvent based...

[Tim Watts]

I like the texture that rollers give :)

Plus I have a garden, so I take a hose to them outside.

[Tim Watts]

I do that with the rollers - but only after hosing off 90% of the paint. Otherwise it is a *lot* of heavy pigment to dump into the sump...

[Tim Watts]

Here's what not to do:

Wash a load of rags you've used for danish oil. Machine ponged for months! Did not seem to damage it though...

[Cash]

The only problem with that is that you have to 'break in' the new brushes every time. If you don't, you're forever picking out the odd brush hair from the painted surface (a bugger on gloss or stain) and the 'thick' tip of the brush makes it a swine to get a decent 'cut in' when painting edges against other surfaces.

The brushes that use for 'good work' are around 30 years old (Hamiltons), seldom drop a hair and cutting is a doddle - and they are cleaned and dried after every use quite quickly and left hanging on hooks.

Cash