If you have decided to give your property a fresh lick of paint, your paint brush is your most important tool. If you want to ensure your paint is applied properly, there's a few things you should know. As arming yourself with all the right knowledge will make it all the more likely that your paint job will be a good one!
Your Paint Brushes Don't Have to Be Disposable
If you go to your local shops, you will find that you can get paint brushes for really cheap. In fact, you can get pretty decent brushes, use them once and chuck them away when you're done. However cleaning them need not be such a chore. Most painters and decorators will clean their paint brushes after every painting session, and you will save money in the long run if you do the same.
Synthetic or Natural Hair Brushes
Paint brushes are either made from natural or synthetic fibres. Natural hair brushes are normally used for oil based paints, and they actually paint the surface as opposed to just spreading the paint about. Natural fibre paint brushes include camel hair, squirrel hair and badger hair. Specialist badger hair brushes tend to cost the most, but have excellent texture which makes them great when used with oil based paints and varnishes. Even better, with natural hair brushes, they are a lot easier to clean than synthetic brushes, and you will get a lot of repeat use out of them. Synthetic brushes can be used with all types of paint but are typically used with water based and emulsion paints.
Drawbacks of Cheap Brushes
Although you will be saving money going for cheaper brushes, you will find that the bristles are a lot stiffer. This will cause marks in your paint job, and you will even see bristles falling out after just a few uses. This becomes particularly problematic when you are painting a door frame, and after just a few hours, you need to pick out bristles from the paint.
Picking a Good Paint Brush
When examining paint brushes to buy, decent brushes will have split ends. When brushes have split ends, this allows more paint to be collected and applied to the surface, giving it a smooth texture. So the more split ends there are, the more paint that will be applied to the surface. You will also find that good quality paint brushes have different sized bristles – this means even more paint can be collected and applied. So if you do go for a cheaper brush, try and make sure that the bristles aren't uniform.
If this sounds like too much hard work – then leave it to the professionals. At Hynon Painters & Decorators, we have been painting and decorating in Croydon, Mitcham, Morden, Sutton, West Wickham, Coulsdon, Epsom, Leatherhead, New Addington, Kingston and Dulwich for many years now. We pride ourselves on our customer service, workmanship and punctuality. If you need anything painted, get in touch with us to book your no obligation consultation.