How To Clean Paint Rollers - Simple Ways To Reuse It

After hours of painting, you start to wonder how to clean paint rollers to reuse it the next time, right? It is understandable as prices are escalating day by day, and it’s better to save a few bucks rather than throw your rollers into the trash can.

Read this article to know the best way of cleaning your paint rollers.

How To Clean Paint rollers from Latex-based Paint

Before you start the cleaning process, one important thing to do is determine what kind of paint you used. There are two kinds of paint on the market – latex-based paint and oil-based paint. Different types of paint require different types of cleaning solutions and could affect the cleaning process’s effectiveness.

Now you’ve known what the kind of paint is, let’s continue to find out the cleaning process.

Step 1 – Preparation

First, you should protect your hand with a pair of gloves. You can use old dishwashing gloves or buy new gloves at the supermarket. These tools will protect your hands against chemicals from paint.

Next, don’t forget to protect your eyes with plastic goggles.

Then find a place to clean your paint rollers because the paint could drop to your floor and create a mess.

A basement or a garage are suitable places to clean your rollers. Or you could take some newspaper and place it on the floor. When you finish, you only need to throw all the newspapers.

Step 2 – Remove Excess Paint

Now, it’s time to start. The first thing you need to do is remove any excess paint – the paint you haven’t wholly painted by running the roller on a plane of anything that you don’t use anymore.

You can finish when you can not see any new paint on the plane.

Next, disassemble the rollers and then continue to use a putty knife to scrape the remaining paint.

You can do this by scraping the rollers over the paint bottle that you used. Typically, there is still paint on its edges, so concentrate on them.

Step 3 – Clean The Paint Rollers

Before cleaning the rollers, we need to prepare the cleaning solution. For latex-based paint, the detergent chosen is dishwashing liquid. Now, take the cleaning solution by adding two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid to a tank of water. Note that you should choose a tank that is big enough to fit with the rollers.

After cleaning the paint rollers with warm water, you should place the rollers into the cleaning solution and then rub the roller to clean the paint as much as possible. Now you put the rollers outside and replace the dirty water with a new cleaning solution.

Continue to rub the rollers with the new cleaning solution until all the paint is cleaned.

After that, wash away the cleaning solution with warm water.

Step 4 – Dry The Paint

The final step is drying the water in the rollers. Wrap the rollers with a dry cloth, let the cloth quickly absorb all the excess water, and then dry in the sun. Or you could dry it with a dryer in case you have to use the rollers immediately.

For Oil-based Paint

For oil-based paints, the cleaning procedure is roughly the same as that of latex-based paints. However, the different point here is that we need to change the cleaning solution.

First, it is necessary to find out what the suitable solvent is. You can look for it on the paint’s label. In general, popular solvents should be mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, and paint thinner.

After getting rid of the excess paint, pour the solvent into a stray until the fluid is sufficient to cover the rollers. Put the rollers into the tray for about 6 minutes and use your hands to rub the rollers gently.

If there is still dirt in the rollers, replace the old solvent with the new one and repeat to rub it with the new solvent until no paint is left in your roller. Finally, you dry it with a dryer or place it in the sun.

Note that you should not throw away the solvent. Carefully pour the solvent that you used into to bottle and put it in your garage or base for the next time.

Other Ways To Clean Paint Rollers

Well, if you don’t want to waste your time cleaning the paint rollers, we will show you a way to do it.

In this way, what you need to do is wrap your paint roller in a plastic bag. You should ensure that there are no holes in your bag because the paint will lead outside. At best, you should wrap the roller with more than two bags.

Then put it in the refrigerator and harden the paint. This way is beneficial when you have not finished your work. The next day, you just need to take the rollers out of the refrigerator and use it. The cold temperature will help keep the paint fresh, so you don’t need to worry it will affect the paint’s quality.

The second way is also an easy way to clean your rollers. If your house has an outdoor hose, you only need to turn the hose on high mode and directly point at the rollers. The rollers will start to spin, which creates the centrifugal force. This force, along with the water pressure, will help to clean all the remaining paint.

This way will create a mess, so you need to wear unused clothes. We also recommend that you should get rid of any excess paint before cleaning the rollers.

However, using a hose is only suitable for cleaning latex-based paint. So if you use oil-based paint, don’t use it.

Read late: A Quick Approach on Using a Paint Roller

In A Nutshell

So, have you known “how to clean paint rollers”? Cleaning paint rollers is not too complicated if you know all the steps. If you like these tips, we hope that you will share this article with your friends.

Thank you for your time!

Peter Levick

Architect

I am a licensed architect who is passionate about all things home improvement industries, I have been doing DIY painting projects and have developed lots of experience around home improvement over the 10 years.