PICKS The Essentials: Pros talk up their favorite brushes and roller covers

A painter’s work habits and technique factor in to their preferences for a variety of tools, but that’s especially the case for brushes and roller covers. Handle length or style, bristle stiffness, roller nap depth, substrate demands—it all matters. Here’s what we learned from four pros who recently talked to inPAINT about their favorite brushes and roller covers.

BY BRIAN SODOMA

1 Caty Saville

This lead painter at Ohio-based Johnson Specialty Painters specializes in residential interior repaints. Her go-to brush for the water-based acrylics she regularly uses is an angled Wooster Ultra/ Pro Firm in 2" and 2-1/2" widths. She also has a backup in the Wooster Pro Nylon/Polyester brush.

“I really like the firm bristles on the Ultra/Pro because they don’t fray and they’re great for a straight line, and I love the way it holds paint and doesn’t drip out like other brushes,” she said. “I prefer Wooster as they hold up very well.”

She particularly likes the thicker handles of the two brushes and appreciates how easy they are to clean. Saville gets about two years of use out of her brushes and maintains them by hand-spinning after cleaning with hot water.

“The latex peels right off and the ferrules don’t rust as easily as other brands, so you don’t have to worry about rust leaking into the paint,” she added.

For rolling interior walls, she turns to 9," 14" and 18" Wooster Pro Shed-Resistant Woven roller covers. She prefers a 3/8" nap for smooth interior walls and ceilings. For the occasional textured wall, she uses a 1/2" nap and 3/4" for rougher, more porous surfaces such as cinder blocks.

“The 3/8" spreads out easier and doesn’t take on too much paint,” she noted. “I also replace the roller covers after every job. You just don’t get the same performance as you did before if you keep reusing them.”