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Cleaning
Paint Brushes
Once you have invested in good painting tools that will
last you have a few years, you will have to maintain them
properly for them to last that long. One of the first
things that you will have to do is to clean it well after
painting. Cleaning and removing paint from a paintbrush,
roller and a paint pad is not an easy task. But here are a
few easy tips. Follow them and you tools will look as good
as new once cleaned.
 While
painting with water based paints, clean brushes after
every two hours and when painting ends.
Remove
extra paint from pad and brush using a brush-cleaning tool
with teeth to scrap the paint off.
Make
a solution of one gallon of warm water and ½ a cup of
fabric softener. The softener is a wetting agent, which
reduces the surface tension of water when it dissolves in
it, thus helping the paint to dissolve quickly. Make many
gallons of this solution.
Dip
the brush or pad into the solution and move it around
while counting till 10. The paint will dislodge itself
from the brush and settle at the bottom of the bucket.
Dry
the brush in a paintbrush spinner to remove water from the
brush. Make you own spinner. Take a 5-gallon bucket with a
lid. Make an 8-inch hole in the middle of the lid. Place a
plastic trash bag inside the bucket and replace the lid.
Now splatter the brush inside the bucket, the splatter
remains inside the plastic trash bag. Dispose off the
plastic bag.
Do
not use dish wash soap to clean brushes. It will cause the
bushing and the bristles to stick together.
After
cleaning the brush in the warm water and fabric softener
solution there is no need to rinse it in water. Repeatedly
washing the brush in this solution, allows the fabric
softener to coat the bushing and the bristles, which
allows the paint to flow smoothly from the brush.
Use
the same method to clean rollers and paint pads. Cleaning
paint from rollers takes some more time and a number of
dips in the solution. But the end result is the same. |
