Extend the life of your paintbrushes with these easy tips

Sometimes you can get away with buying cheap paintbrushes or pads. These usually are meant to be thrown away after each project. But some of us like to use really good brushes and rollers, and with the steep cost, we should know how to properly care for them so they will last a long time. Here are some of our favorite tips:

First of all, it's been the rule of thumb for years that you should use synthetic-bristle brushes with latex paint and natural-bristle brushes with oil-based paint. It's still a great idea, although there are a lot more choices today.

Before you start using your brush, it's a good idea to comb the bristles to get rid of any that are loose. You don't want these in your paint project!

If you are using a water-based paint, wet the brush with a little warm water before dipping it into the paint. This will prevent the bristles from caking up for as long as you work. Use paint thinner to premoisten a brush for use with oil-based paint.

After you have finished painting, the real work begins. It's important to clean your brushes as soon as you have finished using them. Put them in a bucket of water or solvent as soon as you are finished painting. If you used a water-soluble paint, soak it in warm water. If you used oil-based paint, use solvent.

Attach your paintbrush to a short length of dowel or a paint stir stick so that, as you stand it in the bucket, the bristles are not sitting on the bottom of the bucket. This will prevent clogging and curling of the bristles.

Do a final soap-and-water rinse to remove any residue from the bristles and make sure it's ready for the next paint project.

Use your hands or an old hair comb to straighten the bristles, and hang the brush so that the bristles are facing downward and straight as they dry.

Once the brush is dry, you can put it back into the plastic cover it came in or wrap a paper sack around it loosely and hang it up. You want to store it so that the bristles are protected from dust and from bending.

Your investment will pay off the next time you need to paint and don't have to buy a new brush.

House numbers

In some communities it's required to have your house numbers (address) clearly visible from the street. Even if you don't have to display them, it's a great idea to do so. One very clever way is to get some colorful pots - as many pots as you have numbers in your address - set them up in a highly visible place and put big numbers right on the pots. Now you can display your address where everyone can see it, and add a little class to your yard at the same time. You can use special paint that would make them visible at night, too.

Keep your feet dry

We all know to wear plastic gloves to keep our hands dry when we are working with wet or messy materials. Well, you can do the same thing for your feet. The gloves probably won't fit your feet, but empty bread bags or even newspaper bags might work. Worn over socks, you can keep your feet dry even if the water gets beyond your boots! Keep some handy the next time you are working in the garden or out for a stroll on a cold morning.

Super hints

• If your sliding patio door is getting hard to slide, just clean out the track and rub it down with some petroleum jelly. This usually will lubricate the track and door wheels, and make the door much easier to move.

@Preformatted:• I don't like to wear work gloves unless I just have to. Most are too big for my hands and just feel bulky. So when I am painting or doing some other project that is not dangerous, just messy, I put a coating of petroleum jelly onto my hands before I start. The petroleum jelly acts like a shield and, with soap and hot water, comes off, along with any paint, when I wash my hands.

• Want to know how clean your toilet bowl really is? Just look under the rim with a hand mirror. It will show you exactly where you missed the last time you cleaned!

Q. We use scented candles to keep mosquitoes away from our outside patio in the summer, and some wax dripped on the table and concrete floor, staining both. Can you tell us how to get the stains out?

A. Dissolve the stain with mineral-spirits paint thinner and cover the spot with an absorbent, like clay cat litter or cornmeal, overnight. Then sweep the stain away the next day.

Q. I have an older home with aluminum windows. I would like to know what type of paint to use on them. I want to paint them to match the rest of the trim, which is dark brown. Can you help me?

A. Use a primer made for use over exterior metal. Then use any exterior paint. The primer is the key to success. Since you are using a dark paint, look for a dark-colored primer. It will be easier to cover, and you should get good results.

Q. We have a small leak in our patio roof. It's almost flat and has a tarlike covering and gravel over that. How can we repair the leak on this type of roof?

A. Once you locate the leaking area, you should be able to pull the gravel off and repair it with roofing tar. It can be purchased in a caulking tube or in a bucket, depending upon the size of the repair. Then put the gravel back over the tar, and you should be OK. This is a common problem and should be inspected once a year.

Reader tips

• I've never wallpapered before, and thought I would start small. The wife and I put up a border in our son's room and ran into a problem. The ceiling was slightly off, and even though the border was straight, the ceiling showed around the edges on one whole wall. The wife had the great idea to use ceiling paint on the top of the wall where it was showing. It worked to camouflage the areas. Now they don't show much at all.

• It might sound crazy, but I used car wax on my bar countertop. It worked great. I got the idea from a friend of mine who had tried it. It cleaned the surface off pretty well and gives it a nice shine. Plus, it won't let stains soak in if anyone spills anything on it. I know, because I already did, and it just beaded up on the surface.

• I use the same system in my shop that I use in my office at work to hold papers. I have a large rubber band that is stretched over a cabinet door. I stick papers underneath the band, and they are very handy when I need to whip them out. I handle claims, and I need cost charts and things like that right at my fingertips, and this makes it easy. I keep my instruction manuals handy in the shop this way. They are not stuffed in some overflowing drawer somewhere in the garage; they are right where I need them when I need some help.

• I wish I could afford the large plastic bins that lots of other people use. I have a few but, being a pack rat, never seem to have enough. I use contact paper, which is vinyl, to cover the boxes. This is less expensive and doesn't have the watertight lid, but certainly will protect my belongings from moisture damage. It's easy to do and allows me to store more things for less money.

• I had to move a lot of plants indoors this past week. We have had lower temperatures than I remember having in a long time. I ran out of pots to put the plants in and had to make do. I made some from old CD holders. These are the large plastic containers that hold a stack of 100 CDs. They are about the same size as a flowerpot. I just flipped the top (the large, round part) upside down and put a layer of rocks into the bottom of it to help with the drainage. Then I put soil and a plant inside. It's kind of neat because you can see the roots from the outside, too.

Shoptalk

• Demolition sure can be a lot of fun, especially with a Hackzall M12 Cordless Reciprocating Saw. It's compact, lightweight and allows you to get into tight spaces. The Hackzall weighs in at only 2.6 pounds and comes with two powerful 12-volt lithium-ion batteries, a 30-minute charger and a 2-year battery warranty and 5-year tool warranty. You get enough power and run time to cut through 80 pieces of 1.5-inch PVC pipe on a single charge, and you can easily take it up on the roof, out in the country or under the house - wherever you need to get a tough job done. It's put out by Milwaukee Tool and is available at a variety of tool dealers or online at milwaukeetool.com.

@Preformatted:• Hyde Tools 10-in-1 Multi-Tool is a must-have on your next paint project. It looks like a putty knife, and can remove putty, but its unique design also allows it to scrape paint, clean rollers, spread compound, open up cracks, remove grout and set screws with the hammer head. It even has built-in screwdriver-bit storage. It can do a lot more, too. The handle is designed for comfort when doing these hard chores for long periods of time, and it's easily affordable, at about $8. To learn more or to find a dealer, visit hydetools.com.

• Write to Al and Kelly Carrell in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or visit the Carrells' Web site at thesuperhandyman.com.

© 2010, Cowles Syndicate Inc.