Debris in the paint
Not all debris transferred to the wall come from a shedding roller cover. Some common causes for debris in the paint come from:
- From bucket or pan
Old paint will loosen from the surface of the bucket or pan once rewetted with the new paint in use. The best way to eliminate this is to scrape the bucket or pan clean of paint before using it again. If that is not feasible, you can use a new liner (for either bucket or pan) every time you paint.
- From roller grid
Old paint skins can shed off the roller grid (if you are using one with a 5 gallon bucket) too, particularly if the grid was used fairly recently. The most time between last use, will allow the paint (that did not clean off the grid) to cure, and therefore be more resistant to rewetting and shedding off the grid during use.
The cure for this is to clean all the paint off the grid after use, or don’t use a grid that was used recently that you did not clean the paint off totally. There are some bucket liners that have built in roller grids, using a new liner as such will eliminate the problem, as well as using a roller pan with a new liner.
- From paint (strain the paint)
Sometimes the source of debris in the paint comes not from the bucket, pan, roller or grid, but from the paint itself. If you are using previously opened paint, a skin may have formed and dropped down into the paint. When using previously used paint a good practice is to strain the paint with a paint strainer. Paint strainers come in different sizes. You simple pour the paint through the strainer and it will catch any debris and skins leaving you will “clean” paint.
- Picture Framing
When you “cut in” with a brush, with some colors and with sheen paints, you will get a noticeably different appearance where you used the brush from the rest of the wall where you used a roller. You need to minimize the size of the brush cut ins with dark colors and sheen paints to eliminate this “picture framing” effect.
To get the roller close as you can to a ceiling, you need to roll at the top of the wall in a horizontal band first. Try to get as close to the ceiling as you can to minimize the brushed in paint. Do the same at the baseboard down at the bottom of the wall. Inside corners and near casings, you need to get your roller as close as you can to the adjacent wall or trim to minimize the brushed in “banding”.
Roller spatter
Some paints will spatter more than others, but with any paint you can minimize the amount of spatter by using a soft woven cover. These covers hold paint better and help to eliminate the spin off effect that occurs with rolling. Rolling slower, will also go a long way to minimizing spatter. Some of the all polyester covers are terrible for creating roller spatter (but, on the other hand, they have the best hide and coverage). A good painting method is to use a soft woven spatter resistant cover when rolling ceilings which are often white - over white. Roll walls with a polyester cover if you have a big color change, but roll slowly, or use a soft woven cover and double coat for coverage.
Graying
When the internal aluminum or metal parts of the roller get wetted with paint, the paint will grid with the turning of the roller causing a gray colored paint to ooze out from the roller frame. Better roller frames have eliminated this problem by using nylon bearings and composite internal parts. The Wooster Sherlock frames are one such frame that has eliminated the graying problem altog
How to break in a new roller
- Wrap the roller with masking tape and pull the tape off. Repeat this two or three times
- Follow up with a vacuum to remove any residual lint.
If possible, start out a new roller in a closet, and/or with flat paint to minimize any stubborn stray lint pull off. Woven covers are less likely to shed than knitted rollers. Shorter naps will shed less than longer naps.
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Roller track marks
Quality roller covers have beveled ends which help to prevent roller marks, but you still need to dry roll with light pressure to eliminate tracking even with these.
- Roll the paint on in and 4’ x 4’ section
- Smooth the paint out in a “W” pattern
- Lay the paint off with a dry roller, using light pressure
- With flat paints you can lay the paint off in a “W” pattern. With sheen paints, you may have to roll the paint off in one direction only (from ceiling to floor) in order to prevent “directional pattern”
Directional pattern
Sometimes paint when rolled, will look differently with the direction of the rolling. This is something like a suede leather effect. The light reflects off the surface differently depending on the direction of the rolling. This is mostly a paint problem, but you can minimize this by using a short nap roller and/or finishing off in one direction only (see above).
Roller lint
Quality rollers are vacuumed to remove lint by the manufacture. It is always best to break a new roller cover in first in any event.
