Most DIY decorators have a high turnover of paintbrushes. The need to replace is generally caused by using a low grade brush and paying a lack of care when it comes to its post use cleaning and maintenance.
You can get hold of high quality paintbrush, including Purdy and Hamilton for around £15 at your local decorating store. These make a noticeable difference to the quality of your finish as well as making the task easier due to greater paint pick up, reduced splattering and a smoother layoff.
For a brush to offer years of service it is imperative that you take the necessary steps to clean and store it correctly after each and every use. To highlight how our team of professional trade decorators clean their paintbrush we have produced a visual guide that domestic decorators can easily replicate.
Scroll down to view the full paintbrush cleaning guide.
Find this useful? Add to your website
Our Top Tips
- Never use a lot of pressure to force paint out of a brush. Be patient and rinse it several times.
- Don’t soak your brush in boiling hot water, this can cause the ferrule to expand and bristles to come loose.
- Dedicate a brush each to water based and solvent based paints. Synthetic bristle brushes can be used for either application, but don’t last or clean-up well if they alternate between applications
- If you need to reuse the brush again for the exact same job then an alternative to washing them is to place them in an airtight plastic bag, applying masking tape around the handle to keep the air out
- Once cleaned always store your brush in the jacket it came with
