We've lived in older homes for many years now and anytime we've needed to do a quick paint touch up, 9/10 times it's oil paint. The bummer is, 9/10 times we're out of turpentine (to clean our brushes when finished), which causes us to leave that little touch up for later. But not anymore...
... dish soap!! It has the ability to be gentle on your brushes while removing the sticky, slick paint behind.
Try filling a small cup or jar with regular (non-foaming) dish soap so it is slightly deeper than the head of your brush. Mix your brush in the soap, coating as many bristles as possible. Remove brush and wipe on a paper towel or newspaper. The soap gives the paint something to stick to and will be left behind on the paper towel. Just repeat until your brush is clean!
Turpentine will always get your brush cleaner in the end, but it's a great way to save a brush if you don't have any around!
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Comments (11)
Who knew?
My question is: Now that the water has oil-based paint in it - What's the appropriate safe way to dispose of it?
Certainly not down the sink...
I just use a q-tip if the touch up is really small.
I just buy cheap paintbrushes/rollers every time. I know it's wasteful but I'm too lazy for cleanup.
I use throw-away brushes and rollers, too. I figure it's easier on the environment than using chemical solvents and/or a ton of water.
I do have a good brush for latex paint which I wash thoroughly after each use, but rollers take too much water to clean.
You can also clean your brush with some oil (like mineral or corn) as the first step - oil attracts oil - and once most of the paint has been removed, finish the cleaning with a bar of Ivory soap. That's what I've done for years in my painting studio.
@bepsf - most paint is not very toxic itself unless it has pigments in it that are toxic (lead, cadmium, etc). Turpentine is the portion of the cleaning up process that you don't allow to go down the drain. So doing the cleaning under running water (ideally warm to break down the oils) is fine.
home body --
Thanks for the info - I've been wanting to paint the insides of my closets w/ oil-based paint since it generally wears better but I've been concerned about cleanup.
I always used Murphy's oil soap.
this is fine for house painting brushes, but if you're using fine art brushes - the expensive kind - dish soap destroys the hairs that are used. disposable brushes are actually just a better way to go.
@ bepsf: a little bit of oil-based paint in the water isn't harmful. it's just oil-based - like bacon grease. you wouldn't want to pour an entire pan of grease down your sink, because it would clog, but the little bit that comes from washing it away is fine.
as an artist, i've used oil paints for years, and every art school i know of only prohibits the pouring of turpentine down the sink. the only harmful ingredients in oil paints tend to be certain pigments themselves, like cadmium. wall paints contain none of those. your sink should be fine!
oops. home body already answered that. please ignore me, and i promise i'll read more carefully next time!
I'm a painter, and I've always used mild dish soap to clean my oil brushes. (I don't use any turpentine or paint thinner whatsoever, because it's difficult to dispose of.) However, filling a container with soap and dipping the brush in it is seriously wasteful. You just need to squirt out enough soap to break down the oil. For a 2" brush, that would usually be a toothpaste like dollop.
After cleaning, you can rinse the brush with plain water and wash it down the drain. As Lilacarese said, it's just oil. The bigger issue with artists' paints is the heavy metal components in the pigments. I doubt that's a problem with typical oil-based wall paint.