Paintbrushes are the most commonly misused tools used in the home by do-it-yourselfers. The most common? Well, that is not cleaning your brushes at all and coming back a few months later to bristles as hard as a rock and unwavering in their commitment to never being useful ever again. Even though most of us know we have to keep the paint brushes clean, or purchase cleaning kits to keep our tools in good shape, other errors can reduce their lives if we want them to last. Here we explore the four most common mistakes and offer some advice on prolonging the life of your tools.
You leave the brush to soak
The futile hope of the soaker is that the brush will miraculously separate itself from the paint, even with the adhesive that helps it stick to the wall when soaked in water or white spirits. You are likely to come back to a still dirty brush with paint and likely fewer bristles. If you soak it in an oil thinning solution, you risk the liquid getting to work on the materials used to keep the brush together. It is a trick that can irreversibly damage your brushes.
If you are looking to keep your brushes moist in between coats, then storing them in water is a useful way to avoid the bristles stiffening. However, it is not a means of cleaning the brush after use.
You give the bristles only a quick clean
No matter if you use oil or water-based paint, you will shorten the life of your brushes if you do not thoroughly clean the brush. It is tempting to think it is clean when the surface paint is gone. Remember, though, the best brushes are designed to soak up the paint to allow you to spread more paint in a single dip.
When thoroughly cleaning off paint, Job One is to get rid of the excess with a cloth. You then need to clean and wash the hair until there is no trace of paint. Some people suggest using a golf club brush to clean your paint brushes. One side of the golf club cleaner is the metal strips, perfect for getting in between the bristles. Finally, make double sure that the paint has gone from the base of the brush. It is best to get in there with your fingers and some soap and work out the excess. Old paint at the base shortens the bristles and makes the brush less flexible.
You store a wet brush upright
It is another common mistake to leave your brushes to dry pretty much like you would a plate after washing up. Leaving the brush upright and you will allow water to gather in the bristles and under the ferrule, which again could loosen the glue. The brush is then likely to come apart of the hair of the brush will fall away.
The best way to maintain your brushes is to carefully rinse and then pat them dry. Then, you should leave them flat in a dry environment to dry. It is a good idea to keep them far from a source of heat. When the brush is completely dry, you can then store them bristle up in a jar.
You store your brushes bristle-down
You have gone to so much trouble so far, and your brush is thoroughly clean and dry. Now, you need to store these brushes bristle-up if you want to sustain the life of these tools. If you put their hair down, you put pressure on the bristles. As the hair in the brush is flexible, to allow you to get in those hard to reach places, the bristles will flex and bend under the continued pressure of their own weight. This gravity on the bristles will irreparably ruin the shape of the brush and make it harder to get that much-admired accuracy the next time you paint.
Professional painters and decorators have a tool that keeps the brushes off the bottom of the jar, even when soaking between pains. Clip a medium binder clip to the top of the jar and spread the arms to span the container. This way, the bristles will remain straight and true for your next cutting in session.
If you are storing your brushes for a long time, use the hole on the handle to store them from the ceiling. You can thread them onto a wire or a piece of tubing and keep them stored up and out of the way.
