by Catherine Lear

Created on: May 30, 2009   Last Updated: May 31, 2009

There is nothing that annoys me more than my employees not looking after the tools that I buy for them. I own a property business and I employ over twenty people that look after the property that I buy, most of them are decorators that paint the inside, and outside properties, I supply all the paintbrushes and all the material that they use. Therefore, it is not too much to ask that they look after them.

Paintbrushes can cost you quite a bit of money, that's if you buy the best ones it is folly to buy the cheaper variety and you can tell the difference as soon as start to paint, with the cheaper variety the bristles fall out and you have keep loading your brush with paint far more often than if you are using the very good ones. Therefore, it makes sense that after you have used them that you look after them.

A good paintbrush in the UK will cost as much as 20 and that is for small 2-inch one larger ones will cost as much as 40. Have you money to throw away if you have well fine but I am not in the business of throwing away good money its not the way for me to make my first million. Fortunately I employ a good British supervisor who has my best interest at heart and he makes sure that the workers look after all there tools.

To look after paintbrushes you must clean them every time you finish using them, use a good white spirit for paintbrushes that you use for glossing. The white spirit will dissolve any paint on the bristles. To clean the paintbrushes you must first dip them in a small container of white spirit, a small glass jar will do for to 2inch paintbrushes keep dipping the paintbrushes into the jar cleaning with a rag each time that you pull the paintbrush out of the jar. Do this until there is no more paint on the bristles. You can change the white spirit in the jar if it becomes to dirty.

If you are painting with an emulsion paint then just turn on your hot water tap and run your cold water tap till the water is warm not hot, because emulsion paint is water based the warm water will dissolve the paint on the bristles. You then must dry them use a clean rag to do this.

The worst thing that any person can do when they have finished cleaning there paintbrushes is to leave them in a clean jar with the bristles pointing down. The reason for not doing this is the bristles are not solid they bend, by putting them in a jar or a container with the bristles pointing down you will make them out of shape, this means that when you come to paint with them again you will find that because they are out of shape it will be harder to paint on the paint.

Always leave them on there side in a prone position that way you will find that when you come to use them again they will look like new. Good looked after paintbrushes will last for years. To give you some idea of how long they should last, my dad brought his paintbrushes over twenty years ago and they still look brand new that is because he would not buy the cheaper variety and he does what I have mentioned every time he uses them.

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