Detailed Instructions on How To Use a Roller from Washington, DC Area Contractor
Presumably you’ve been following along on our detailed description of how to paint a surface, and you’re now looking at an area with all the edges and corners masterfully cut in with a brush (in accordance with our instructions). If not, take a minute to check out Painting 101: Anatomy of a Brushstroke, to get you caught up to that point. If you’re just curious for some advice on how to wield your roller, you’ve come to the right place.
First of all, while there isn’t quite as much variety in rollers as there is in brushes, you still need to take some care to purchase high quality equipment. The cheap all-in-one roller set-ups will not usually give you the same longevity or smoothness of finish as a pro set-up; and the rip-off is, the pro set-ups aren’t really that much more expensive! Here is what you’ll need:
1) A good sturdy roller frame. It should be expandable, with bearings at the sides and threads at the bottom, and made of strong, heavy-gauge wire. (Reusable)
2) An extender or thread-ended broom handle to help you reach out-of the way spots. (Reusable)
3) A paint container. While most hardware stores push paint trays, you can get more use, and better utility, out of a 5-gallon bucket with a vertical bucket-screen mounted inside it. The bucket can hold a lot more paint than a tray, allowing for less time between refills, it is easier to transport from spot to spot, or to cover if you need to take a lunch break, and the vertical tray draws extra paint off the roller more effectively than the nearly-horizontal tray. Most professionals use a bucket and screen set-up; there is no reason why you shouldn’t, too. (Reusable).
4) High-quality roller covers that match your paint and substrate. The general rule of thumb for rolling is, the rougher the substrate, and the more viscous the paint, the longer the roller nap. Smoother surfaces and thicker paint can be rolled with a smoother, short-sheared cover, while rough surfaces and runny paint will benefit from a longer-napped cover. Good quality covers have a plastic core, rather than cardboard. Cardboard cores can start to soften after absorbing paint, and the glue holding the nap can dissolve in certain solvents, causing the roller to fall apart halfway through the job. Each paint you use needs its own roller cover.
Once you have your equipment, load the roller by submerging it halfway into the paint, then rolling it up the screen. Repeat this motion several times, until the roller is saturated and nearly dripping with paint.
Next: how to actually roll your paint? There are several competing strategies for creating the smoothest possible distribution of paint with a roller, all of which expand upon the principle of “wet-edge”. Wet-edge is the theory that a fresh stroke of paint should always be overlapped with the wettest paint from the previous stroke, so that the paint dries to form a continuous film. With a roller, using wet-edge techniques can avoid both seams and roller marks; two common imperfections of an amateur paint job. Here we are going to describe the classic ‘W’ technique.
Start from one corner of your surface, about six inches from each edge. Move your roller up and down to create a large ‘W’ shape, filling in the center of a large section. Once you have your W, use small strokes to spread out the paint, filling in the remaining unpainted space. You can leave paint stokes and roller marks at this point in the process, the goal being to get as much wet paint on a large surface area as possible. Next, reload your roller and move to an adjacent section of your surface, and repeat the process, creating another W and filling it in, overlapping the old section slightly with your small strokes to fill in the margins. Finally, without reloading your roller, go over both sections together, smoothing out lumps, eliminating roller marks, and making the paint film continuous.
Since it covers so much area so quickly, and since it usually marks the end of a job, rolling is a very satisfying process. Invest in the right equipment, purchase the right paint, and by the end of this step, you will be ready to celebrate a beautifully coated surface and a job well done!