Do you reuse paint brushes and rollers?

[Woodchips2]

The lockdown has enabled me to catch up on redecorating the inside of the bungalow which was long overdue. I bought new paint brushes and a good quality roller and sleeve set for not a lot of money and wondered whether people clean brushes and rollers after use or treat them as disposable items? I tend to clean the brushes which is quick with modern water based paints but rollers seem to need a lot of water and a lot of time so I usually bin them. However it just doesn't seem right to chuck them out after a single use

Regards Keith

 

[marcros]

I do reuse them. I buy decent brushes and rollers because I have found them to perform much better. I would say that painting with a decent brush is almost a pleasure, but with the cheap and nasty ones it is beyond a chore.

 

[MikeG.]

I clean and re-use.

 

[Nigel Burden]

I always clean and reuse brushes and rollers. My brushes are around forty years old and are cleaned in white spirit or brush cleaner followed by a wash in warm soapy water. I often soak the rollers for a few minutes to loosen up the paint, then rinsed and washed, but as you say, it takes a lot of water.

Nigel.

 

[Aquachiefofficer]

If I intend to continue the next day I wrap the roller in cling film when using emulsion paint and bin it when the job's finished.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.mypaintbrush.co.uk/brush-ma ... XwQAvD_BwE

For oil based paints. Brilliant.

 

[Rorschach]

Clean and reuse. You need a decorators tool/scraper to help you clean rollers, really helps.

 

[Bm101]

What everyone else said. I sometimes/often throw a cheap roller. You can't clean them properly imo. You can clean a good roller. Never a brush. Buy good decorating tools and they pay for themselves and you look after it like you would a nice car.
Purdy brushes are life changing in a painty kind of way.
https://www.purdy.com/products/brushes
Keeping in film and the decorators tool to clean roller tips also.

 

[Doug71]

Brushes, wash out if water based paint, store them in my brush mate 20 if spirit based. The brush mate boxes are excellent but I hate to think what is in the little bottle of chemical that you keep in them. If you keep brushes in that have painted handles the paint peels off or if you put a brush in with a plastic handle it just melts.

I use the disposable roller tray liners, if I'm using it next day roller and tray get cling filmed. Once job finished roller and tray liner get thrown out, life is too short to be washing out paint rollers.

 

[Richard_C]

It's a very good question.

I generally clean rollers and brushes at the end of a job and use cling film over damp kitchen roll to keep them alive overnight if the job goes on a bit.

But, if I was valuing my time at £x per hour using cheap ones and throwing them away might be cost effective.

I'm mostly retired now and tend towards keeping stuff if I can but still mid roller rinse I think "why am I doing this? " I doubt there is a simple right answer.

 

[Rorschach]

Quick tip for cleaning rollers, squeegee out as much paint as possible using the decorators tool then take it outside, put the roller in a bucket and blast with your hose pipe on jet setting, clean roller in no time.

 

[Marineboy]

I now hardly ever use oil based paints because of the pain of cleaning them. Water based paints have improved so much over the years (eg Bedec) that in my view oil based paints have no advantage. The only exception is when I use something like Zinsser BIN to cover stains. In this case I use cheap foam brushes and discard. Foam does not give as good a finish as bristle but for a base coat that isn’t important.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.toolstation.com/hamilton-pr ... r=hamilton

Reasonable brushes, dead cheap. If you ruin one it's not the end of the world.

 

[lurker]

https://www.toolstation.com/hamilton-prestige-synthetic-paintbrush-set/p12999?searchstr=hamilton

Reasonable brushes, dead cheap. If you ruin one it's not the end of the world.

You have recommended them before so I bought a set. As usual you are correct they are excellent.

 

[AJB Temple]

I clean and re-use. I tend to buy good quality rollers and brushes when they are on offer at Brewers.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.toolstation.com/hamilton-prestige-synthetic-paintbrush-set/p12999?searchstr=hamilton

Reasonable brushes, dead cheap. If you ruin one it's not the end of the world.

You have recommended them before so I bought a set. As usual you are correct they are excellent.

thank you. I think they're cheaper now than they were.

 

[gregmcateer]

I clean and reuse. Rollers- if no squeegee, disposable gloves, squeeze squeezed length. Then into a bucket of water. Sluice around. Drain, refill and leave for a bit if you have no time to finish rinsing out. After fully rinsed by hand, into washing machine on rinse, no detergent. The spin leaves it dry and fluffy, ready to go.

 

[Blockplane]

No brainer as far as l am concerned - brush costs 25 to 50p, cost to clean probably about 40p worth of white spirit, 2p worth of washing up liquid, cost of heating 5 or 6 litres of water, plus time taken to do an unpleasant job
. In my view the environmental impact of heating the water and washing white spirit (which officially you shouldn't do) and detergent down the drain is far greater than that of dumping a brush.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Small rollers:

IIRC they're a 6mm spindle. So after a good rinse, I fit a 6mm drill in my cordless. take them in the back lane and spin them up to get rid of the last vestiges of paint.

It works a treat, and they get re-used several times, which is good as the hairy ones usually shed terribly on first use but subsequent ones are better.

Hope that's useful...

E.

 

[D_W]

I reuse rollers and brushes. My parents grew up poor (well, my mother didn't grow up poor, but they lived like they were). They bought the cheapest everything they could find.

FIL is exceptionally cheap, but I noticed he had all purdy brushes, and some of them worn a little shorter in the bristles over decades, so I bought several when I bought a house and have perhaps 8 now. Still have them all - they make painting so much easier and the cost makes me more diligent about cleaning them.

I like their rollers ("white dove" or something, regular home store fare here - the highest cost of the stuff there, but they're easily available), and also clean them several times.