Paint Brushes

maggie111

Just thought I would pop in here to get a bit of advice from those who will know better!

We're in a small 2 bed terraced house and the 2 of us are going to be painting our newly plastered kitchen, lounge, and hall-stairs-landing this week after PVA-ing. We've bought 2 rollers, 1 extension handle, 1 radiator roller. We've got buckets and a roller tray and I'm pretty sure we know what paint we're going to use.

I imagine we're going to need to paint around the cabinets in the kitchen with brushes, and we're going to need to do some cutting in with paint brushes as well. So, questions:

Can you paint some of a wall with a paint brush and some of it with a roller - or will that show through?

With average quality paint how many coats will we need? I'm thinking 1-2?

How many paint brushes do we need? (I'm thinking 2-3 for the skirting and woodwork and 2 for cutting in?)

Will any general sandpaper work for preparing the skirting and door frames for painting?

Can someone help advise with what paint brushes to buy? My Dad suggested that if we bought very expensive ones we wouldn't be able to look after them and be able to use them for other projects, so we should get middle grade ones that it doesn't matter if we ruin them. But can someone recommend a brand or what to pick up in Wickes/B&Q?

Thanks for your time! I have good guesses but when I tell my husband my opinions he always wants someone elses!

alexlyne

I've used cheap brushes to throw away in the past, but they've been awful to use, so not worth it.
I now use Harris no-loss brushes. They seem to do the job and aren't that expensive. Plus, they are considerably cheaper in Asda than they are in B&Q (like half the price) - so can throw away if I don't clean em properly!

ormus

most walls will need at least 2 coats. 3 or 4 sometimes.
sandpaper? get a pkt of different grades.

brushes? a few sizes for wood painting. say 1 inch 2 inch 3 inch. (ps, i use a 2 inch brush for nearly everything).
for walls, a 5 inch is ok.
some cheap brushes are ok, others are complete shy te.

maggie111

Thanks for the advice guys! I have seen the Harris brushes so I guess I will pick some of those up!

Can you part paint/part roller a wall - or does it look daft?

pinkteapot

Big fan of Harris brushes too. Although for cutting in we recently bought a B&Q fine brush - one of these:

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9254738&fh_view_size=10&fh_location=%2f%2fcatal!!!1%2fen_GB&fh_search=fine+brush&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&isSearch=true

(they do them in various widths but all are thin)

And that has been brilliant for cutting in. Definitely recommended and it was slightly cheaper than the Harris fine brush (in B&Q anyway)

For painting on fresh plaster I'd say you'll want at least two coats as ormus said. Not heard of PVAing before painting before. What I've always been told is to do a first coat of watered down paint (half water, half paint) as the plaster is very dry and just absolutely soaks up paint. As a result, you waste lots of paint if you do a normal first coat.

Re rollering/brushing, I usually paint the edges first with a brush, then roller over the top and get as close to the edge as possible. Rollering does give a slightly different texture so you do have a smoother brushed part around the edge, but you can get a roller pretty close to the edge so it doesn't matter and doesn't show unless you look up close. Alternative is to paint the whole thing but that takes a lot longer if you have large areas to do.

As for cleaning brushes, I agree with your dad. For emulsion, cleaning is easy as they'll wash out just with water. However, for gloss, radiator paint etc, I normally end up throwing the brushes out. I don't seem to be able to get them properly clean no matter how much turps/white spirit I use.

ormus

the pros always use two sets of brushes. a set for white paint, and a set for other colors.
the white ones are put in water between jobs. only the brushes for colors are cleaned in turps etc...

tip:
diy ers can/should use good/decent brushes for white, and then use the cheap ones for colors.
then just throw em away after use.

virtually the only non white color i use, is black, for outside jobs. so i use cheap brushes for those jobs.
(metalwork and pipes etc).

maggie111

Thanks so much for the advice guys!!! Very much appreciated

vaio

maggie111 wrote: »

.....We're in a small 2 bed terraced house and the 2 of us are going to be painting our newly plastered kitchen, lounge, and hall-stairs-landing this week after PVA-ing. ......

you'll regret it if you do, if it's freshly plastered just put a watered down coat on first to seal it.

pinkteapot

Ooh one more tip I learned just before the last room I painted.... In between painting sessions you can wrap the wet brush in cling film so you don't have to bother cleaning it. The paint on the brush will stay wet (obviously get the paint as dry as you can on the wall first) so you can just carry on later.

Not sure how long you can leave them like that for - I only used this trick for lunch breaks etc. It would probably be OK overnight though...

chiefgoobster

I've wrapped brushes in cling film and used them the next day.
Just 'work' the brush on a spare bit of wood for a bit until it loosens up , then away you go !

bobhawke

Don't buy cheap paint or cheap brushes. Cheap paint is too thin, sprays about too much and needs too many coats. Cheap brushes disintegrate as you use them and you end up spending more time picking bits of brush off the wall than actually painting them.