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I'm in the process of painting my living room and I tried using my old roller but it's just dreadful.

I figure a bit of cleaning goes a long way to get a good solid paint job. So I'm here asking how I best can clean it.

I've tried running it under water and rubbing it vigorously, but to no avail, I've also "scraped" a bit of paint off it but I'm afraid to break the roller by doing it too hard.

enter image description here

Any and all help is greatly appreciated

The Evil Greebo
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Gurkmeja101
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    Is this a paint roller with a removable, ***disposable*** brush? – The Evil Greebo Jun 27 '17 at 17:52
  • I guess it's disposable, but I would like to be able to reuse it if possible. – Gurkmeja101 Jun 27 '17 at 17:54
  • Rinse thoroughly and *dry with a towel*. If you don't dry to some extent, the residual paint will settle to the lowest point and harden. If you wring or dry the roller it will dry more uniformly. – isherwood Jun 27 '17 at 18:48
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    Toss it. If you intend to reuse it you must better clean/preserve the brush/roller after the prior use. – Hot Licks Jun 28 '17 at 11:56
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    ... before you let it dry after you used it last time. – Mazura Jun 28 '17 at 12:53
  • If you can tell us the paint type and the roller type, then we may be able to find a solvent that will dissolve the paint without harming the roller. It's going to cost more and take a lot more time than buying a new roller, but if you're determined to use this one, that is likely your only option. – Adam Davis Jun 28 '17 at 17:51

4 Answers4

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These are consumables

You wouldn't worry about reusing a rubber glove or a paper towel. If it's pristine, sure... But generally you don't expect to.

That roller cover is $3, the hot dog is $1 and the brush is $2.

Stannius makes a good point about buying a quality brush and taking care of it. That idea actually harkens back to the age when everything was brushed (and oil based) and the best brushes were badger. It makes even more sense with latex/emulsion. Won't work with 2-part paints, though.

It's a waste of your time

You used these supplies for a previous paint job. At the end of that job, you left them in that state. That means at that time, you chose to scrap them.

And that's fine. Cleaning them better would've taken more effort. Your decision back them was probably correct. Getting them clean is a lot of work and your time also has value.

Okay then... Here's how you save them

Short-term: you wrap them tightly in plastic, ideally in a ziplock bag and press all the air out. Air makes them dry and cure. If they are a 2-part paint such as an epoxy or LPU, you must put them in the fridge or freezer, and you will need a dedicated fridge just for that, because the fumes will contaminate food. I can get 2-4 days tops this way. This doesn't always work, if your wrapping is poor they will dry in the bag. If you don't want to chance it, use the following longer term methods.

Long term:

Latex/emulsion paints: you work them in soap and water. A lot. You work soap and water into them aggressively, rinse, over and over. Brush/roll on a clear surface (such as the bottom of the sink) to see how well you are doing. You are done when they are so clean it is impossible to tell what color you had been painting. For rollers, some multi-purpose paint scrapers have a hook for squeezing out rollers.

enter image description here source

Alkyds, lacquers, and other oil base: Paint the brush out as far as possible on masking paper (don't use newspaper). Splash it with a bit of thinner, work the thinner in, and brush it out again. Repeat until diminishing returns. Now put 1/2" of thinner in the bottom of a soup can and work the brush in it. Dump the thinner, repeat until the thinner runs nearly clear. Hang the brush by the hole to dry. Try not to spend more on thinner than the brush is worth, and don't do this on Spare The Air days.

  • For rollers, toss them in the trash unless you have a useful application for the paint-contaminated thinner you'll burn through trying to clean them. For instance I'm fond of painting ultra-thin, and so I save the thinner for later reducing the next coat. Roll them out on masking paper, put 1/8" of thinner in a clean roller tray, roll through the thinner, squeeze it out as dry as possible, recycle that thinner, repeat until clean.

2-part coatings of any kind that come in an A and B part: into the trash it goes. Because you definitely will spend 4x the brush's worth in the expensive solvent.

I just did an LPU project. I ordered 3 boxes of chip brushes, and 20 of the exotic LPU tolerant rollers. They are a consumable, like thinner.

How to save dried out plastic roller trays: soak them in water, for a really long time. I found this out when I abandoned a tray I had used too many times for 2-part epoxy primer. It filled with rain. The epoxy coating chipped and blistered, I flexed the tray and the coating just popped out in chips. This surprised me, as epoxy coatings are used to line the inside of tanks. That works because roller trays have a very glossy finish paint doesn't want to stick to. The water gave it the nudge it needed to let go. It would not happen in a properly prepared tank interior.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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    What are "spare the air" days? Is that like a day with a heavy pollution prediction? – Criggie Jun 28 '17 at 00:45
  • Great answer! In my experience, to really clean a roller after regular use with latex paint takes so much water that I suspect it may be better for the environment to dispose of the roller, rather than throw gallons of paint-contaminated water down the drain trying to wash it. If I'm going to use it again in a short period (like, after lunch) I have had good luck wrapping the head in clingwrap or old plastic grocery store bags. – AlwaysLearning Jun 28 '17 at 04:03
  • I can confirm the "soak for a long time" technique: I filled an old latex paint can with water, let it soak for a few days, and the long-dried paint peeled right off, leaving me with a perfectly-good one-gallon bucket. – Mark Jun 28 '17 at 05:14
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    For emulsion (latex) paint rollers you can get a bit of plastic shaped like a funnel that squeegees the paint out of the bristles, meaning you use a lot less water in washing. Or of course just use your hand. – Chris H Jun 28 '17 at 08:00
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    There are (or at least were, last I looked) some "brush saver" chemicals on the market that will often dissolve hardened paint. However, they tend to leave the brush/roller in a sort of super-fuzzy, bad-hair-day state. – Hot Licks Jun 28 '17 at 11:55
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    It's probably worth using a good quality brush, and they aren't that hard to clean, thus generally I find it worth my time to clean a paint brush. – stannius Jun 28 '17 at 14:39
  • @Criggle Yes. They blast out alerts on TV, all the road signs, email/text if you subscribe, as a voluntary request to not do smoggy things. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jun 28 '17 at 16:24
  • Something I didn't see even though you provided a picture of the roller scraper tool - scrape out as much paint as possible before ever washing it. A roller can hold a surprising amount of paint. Squeezing it all out before anything else saves paint and is much quicker. Same goes for any brush or roller. Squeeze it out first. – JPhi1618 Jun 28 '17 at 18:46
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I think you're going to be much less frustrated if you just buy a new roller brush. Those are meant to be disposable and not to be stored for long periods.

You can get away with short term re-use by wrapping them in a plastic bag and freezing them overnight but once the paint has set and cured, its done.

The Evil Greebo
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  • Damn. Okay so for future reference, how do I clean it in between layers of paint, while the first layer is drying for example? I don't want it to become unusable after just one days painting. – Gurkmeja101 Jun 27 '17 at 17:56
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    @Gurkmeja101 You can rinse most of the paint out of a roller with clean water to reuse it. If you're using the same color on the roller, just wrap it in a plastic bag (Ziploc bags also work) and put it in the fridge or freezer as Greebo said. It'll keep overnight. Note that some roller brushes have cardboard tubes and some have plastic. The plastic ones cost more but hold up better to being washed out and reused. – Chris M. Jun 27 '17 at 18:11
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    Put it in a plastic zip-top bag, seal it good, and throw it in the fridge. It will last several days this way. Use a new cover for a different color. – mmathis Jun 27 '17 at 18:11
  • What Chris said - if you're doing a 2nd coat, same paint, just put it in bags in the fridge, the paint will be fine for a day or two. As long as it is latex paint, you can wash with warm water in the sink when done and allow to dry. You will go through a LOT of water to get all the paint out though. – The Evil Greebo Jun 27 '17 at 18:14
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    Between coats, wrap it reasonably tightly in cling film / cling wrap and the paint will stay wet. After you've finished your walls, wash the roller in lots of water, rubbing/squeezing it until the water runs clear. – Richard Ev Jun 27 '17 at 23:05
  • Seconding @RichardEverett's approach. You can also use aluminium foil. – AndyT Jun 28 '17 at 08:18
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Soaking it in water or mineral spirits for a while may help but I would recommend getting new ones. Once the paint has cured, you aren't going to fully restore the brush/roller.

Next time, if you want to do it right, either clean the brush or roller by rinsing it with water (latex paint) or minterial spirits (oil based) to get the bulk of it off, then let it soak for an hour or so, keeping the metal and wood components of the brush out of the water. You can also wrap the brush or roller in shrink wrap between uses (same color over a short period of time) to prevent solvents from evaporating.

Honestly I would recommend just replacing rollers. Paint brushes are easy to keep clean if you follow this advice. The effort and water required to clean a roller negates the benefit of reuse.

mreff555
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You made it clear that you want to reuse it so telling you to get another one is, IMO, a bit of a smack in the face, and does not constitute an answer to the question.

Soak it in paint thinner or acetone for a few hours then wash it in a washing machine. Put old rags in the washer with it, this will help to agitate the saturated paint on the brush. After that, put it in a real dryer, do not air dry. Repeat as required.

I wrestled a bear once.
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    Putting something previously soaked in acetone into the clothesdryer sounds ... risky. – The Photon Jun 28 '17 at 17:09
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    Also, your first paragraph should be a comment on another answer, not part of a posted anser. – The Photon Jun 28 '17 at 17:10
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    Also, no amount of wishing to reuse the roller will magically make the dried paint removable. – stannius Jun 28 '17 at 18:01
  • Acetone self combusts at nearly 900 degrees. Your clothes dryer won't get anywhere near half of that. It's not wishing that makes the paint removable it's science. – I wrestled a bear once. Jun 28 '17 at 18:45
  • @Iwrestledabearonce. Auto-ignition isn't the issue. A 2.5% by volume mix of acetone in air is explosive. Potential sources of sparks include the motor brushes and static discharges from the rags rubbing against each other. I guess you feel invincible after wrestling that bear but I wouldn't take that sort of a risk. – David Richerby Jun 28 '17 at 19:13
  • i'm not going to do the math but the chance of your dryer having a hole large enough for sparks to fly thru and simultaneously having an electrical problem severe enough to cause sparks, yet not severe enough to have already broken down... the odds are probably nearly the same as getting eaten by a shark at the beach. – I wrestled a bear once. Jun 28 '17 at 19:17
  • @Iwrestledabearonce. Brushed motors can produce sparks during normal operation. And you don't need a hole that the sparks fly through; there just needs to be a path from the acetone vapours to get to the sparks, and that path very likely exists. I don't think the roller will contain enough acetone after a trip through the washing machine to be a problem, _but if it does_ an explosion doesn't seem that unlikely. – marcelm Jun 28 '17 at 19:30
  • Acetone, like gasoline, is combustable, not explosive. If you put an acetone soaked sponge in the dryer there is maybe a small chance of it catching fire but there is no chance of an explosion. Especially not in a modern appliance. – I wrestled a bear once. Jun 28 '17 at 19:37
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    @Iwrestledabearonce. An air-vapour mixture of the right proportions is _definitely_ explosive. So explosive in fact, that [fuel-air bombs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon) are a class of weapons. Confining it in a space such as a dryer only makes it worse. – marcelm Jun 28 '17 at 23:28
  • that's very interesting. thank for the link. i love learning new things. – I wrestled a bear once. Jun 29 '17 at 00:21
  • This answer ignores a basic property of paint. The whole point of *paint* is to react with air, humidity or its own B-part, and **polymerize** into an entirely new long-chain molecule **that will not dissolve in its own solvent anymore**. That long chain is what makes paint tough. Its solvent won't work, only an aggressive stripper would, and that'll melt the brush/roller. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jun 12 '22 at 17:55