How to Clean a Roller and Brush

Painting and Decorating Concourse

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Once you have finished the job, your work is still not done, you still have clean up to do. If you used oil based paint I would knock the cover off the roller, let it dry, then throw it out. I don't wash out roller covers used in oil paint, there is too much hazardous waste created with the solvent used to clean them out. I will usually use a "throw away" brush too (not a cheap brush, but a good china bristle brush that I can get as cheaply as possible) to avoid cleaning the brush out too. The only oil brush that I will

How to Clean Your Roller and Brush

routinely clean out are faux finishing brushes which cost more and are harder to find.

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Purdy Corporation's "Colossus" which comes in standard 9" and "jumbo" 9" sizes, cleans up beautifully and quickly.

A typical 5 in 1 painter's tool. This one is manufactured by Red Devil (they call this version a 7 in 1)

Before we get to the cleaning...

You should know that all roller covers do not clean up the same. Some clean up in a matter of a minute or two, and some after ten minutes of cleaning still will be somewhat stiff the next day. There are a few covers known for cleaning up easily, one is generically the lambs wool cover. I don't use lambs wool in latex any more because they get floppy when used with latex paint. There are various synthetic covers made for latex paint that clean up well, my favorite is the Colossus made by Purdy. The Colossus cleans up quickly and thoroughly in a matter of minutes and is nice and soft the next day because it cleaned up thoroughly.

Pre-clean the roller

Pre-clean the roller by scraping off the residual paint left on the cover with the "C" edge side of your "5 in 1" tool. Once scraped clean, proceed to the roller washing appliance.

Roller Washer

I use the roller cleaning appliance similar to the one pictured to the right. I have gone through two or three of them is the last fifteen years or so. The device is simple, it screws onto the facet and you "hang" the roller over the edge and turn the water on. The water pressure jets out along the length of the roller and spins and cleans the roller.

After the roller is clean, spin it dry with a spinner tool (seen below).

Cleaning out your brushes

Cleaning out the brush is a little simpler, hold the brush under running water with bristles pointing up. Flex the bristles as you run water into the heel of the brush, this will clean the brush all the way from bristle tips to the heel. Brushes will usually clean up pretty quickly and thoroughly. When done, spin it dry, and hang up for final drying overnight.