You Need to Do This Before Using a New Paint Roller Cover

Family Handyman

Just because there’s not a big bold sign on your brand new paint roller cover telling you the hacks you need to know to paint evenly and smoothly, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any! In fact, there’s one very simple piece of knowledge that’s going to make your painting project turn out a whole lot better.

Here’s what you should not do on your next painting project.

The hack to remember before using your new roller cover is to “condition” it.

A veteran painting contractor shares his secrets on how to paint a room fast, while producing first-rate results.

Paint roller covers are made from several different materials. There are wool or natural-fiber covers and then there are synthetic (man-made) fiber covers. The best roller covers are made of a mix of wool and synthetic.

Prior to using your brand new cover, you need to condition it. To do this, you’ll want to place the new cover on the paint roller, fill a spray bottle with water and then spin the roller and spray the roller cover until it’s noticeably wet.

Here’s more information on how to paint faster and smoother with the right rolling techniques.

Next, remove excess water by dry spinning the roller, allowing excess water to spin off. Then roll the cover onto a bare, clean surface, like a piece of cardboard. This conditioning process ensures any loose fibers on the roller cover are removed so that they don’t get into the paint and onto your wall or ceiling. Note that if the roller cover will be used with an oil-based paint, the cover should be conditioned with the solvent used to thin the paint, instead of water.

Use these 10 tips to make your interior painting projects go faster and smoother.

This quick and easy process of conditioning your brand new paint roller cover results in a more flawless paint job.

To help you avoid mistakes on your next paint job, we put together this list gathered from painting experts, Family Handyman editors and Field Editors.

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