Cleaning paint brushes

As a professional painting company, we take care of our clients, our employees and our painting equipment.  We use sprayers, ladders, and paint brushes.  Like many other businesses, the current economic conditions have taught us to be more efficient with our equipment and minimize waste. The problem with paint brushes is keeping them clean and efficient for long periods of time.  If your paintbrush is worn out and out of shape, it will not produce straight lines, and it will hold smaller amounts of paint, resulting in increased labor costs.  Paying a team member to clean brushes on daily basis can be costly, so we came up with a quick and effective method of cleaning paint brushes and keeping them in good shape.  Some of the paintbrushes in the photos bellow have been used by Elegant Painting crew for seven plus years!!

With this method, you do not need any special paint brush cleaning chemicals, there is little to no muscle involved, and your brushes come out clean as new.

This old brush has been in service for over 7 years and was ready to be retired. After cleaning, it may not be suitable for any precise interior work, but it can be used for exterior projects for a few more years.

What you need:

• Wire brush driver attachment

  Power drill or screw driver

• 4 in. Drill Mount Quick-Strip Wire Brush.  Available at Home depot $17.00
• Empty 5 gallon bucket with some water
• Carpenter’s clamp

18 Volt Ryobi driver with wire brush attachment.

Clamp the brush inside the paint bucket

Start by filling up your 5 gallon paint bucket about 3/4 with clean water.  You will be using this water to hold your bucket in place as you work, and also for rinsing as you wire brush.  Now clamp your brush on the inside of the brush.  You can also simply hold the brush in place, if you have strong hands and use protective gloves, but keep in mind the wire brush can slip and get your hands!

With your driver set in reverse, approach the brush from the right side.  Use both hands, and wire brush bristles, and the heel of bristles.  You can also adjust your clamp and wire brush the handle of the brush.  You may need to stop and use a putty knife to scrape away more stubborn layers of dried paint.

Make sure the driver is set to reverse, and is rotating counter clockwise.

Wire brush the edges of the paint brush, stop often and dip the brush in water.

Another before and after

By Elegant Painting Kirkland, WA

Come find us on Google+