The most basic application tool for paint is the paint brush. The paint brush, albeit slower than a roller or sprayer, is a “all in one” paint applicator. The brush can get into grooves and small areas that a roller can’t. Even spray application often needs to be pushed into the pores of the substrate by “back rolling”. The roller by itself cannot paint anything completely be itself. It needs the aid of the brush to trim out at the ceiling line or where the wall meets trim. The sprayer on the other hand, can paint most any substrate by itself (using masking tape or spray shields), but it is not suitable for all substrates because of the risk of overspray.
Brushing technique: How to apply paint with a paint brush
Grip the brush with four fingers on one side of the brush and the thumb on the other, holding the brush on the “ferrule” - the metal band and the top of the bristles.
Load your brush by dipping it into the paint about 1/3 of the bristle length into the paint pail. Remove the excess paint by tapping the loaded brush against the inside walls of the paint pail once, then bring the brush to the substrate to be painted. Dipping the brush too deeply will cause paint to get up into the heel of the brush which will lead to paint migrating onto the ferrule - which is where you should be holding the brush. This leads to paint getting on your hands and creates a mess. Look at a professional painter’s brush while s/he is painting and you will see a clean brush from start of the day to end of the day. The basic formula for brushing paint is:
Lay it on - Lay it off - and leave it.
Leave it
Don’t over-brush paint or you will leave brush marks in the paint and/or lap marks. Brush marks will flow out if you leave the paint alone while it is still “wet” and not semi-dry.
Brush in the direction of the length - not the width
As a rule, brush in the direction of the wood grain, or length of a board. When brushing large substrates, you can apply the paint by brushing it on in any “which way”, but as a rule, lay it off in the direction of the wood or length of the substrate.
Avoid lap marks
When painting with a brush (or any applicator), you need to “keep a wet edge” so that you can merge painted sections together. When a section of paint sets up and dries or is semi dry, and you then merge the nest section of paint into it, you will leave a lap mark. The overlapped area of the two sections will look different that the rest of the painted area. Usually lap marks will be shinier (called “flashing”) and a slightly different color than the rest of the area.
The paint brush’s role in paint application
Paint brushes used in conjunction with a paint roller - known as “brush and roll”. The paint brush’s role is to “cut in” and edge where a roller is not able to get at. Brushes are the tool of choice for applying enamels and varnish. The paint brush applies paint more smoothly than a roller. In fact, a good brush will lay down a good leveling enamel so smoothly that it can be hard to tell whether the paint was applied with a brush or sprayer.
Mixing roller and brush
To speed up the brush, many painters will lay the paint on with a roller and then lay it off with the tips of a brush. This combines the speed of the roller, with the quality and smoothness of a brush.
Laying the paint on
Spread the paint out on the substrate with moderate pressure.
Laying the paint off
Using just the tips of the bristles, lightly smooth the brush marks down. For good hiding you want to eliminate poor covering “start” marks at the beginning of the brush stroke. To do this, you will brush from “dry” and finish the stroke into the previously painted “wet“ area. This means when you are merging two sections of paint together you lay the paint off into the previously painted section.
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Paint Brushes
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