Large interior walls are often painted with a roller. Roller painting has two main advantages over brushes. It covers a large amount of surface area in minimal time, and it gives a suitably neat and smooth finish. When roller painting is prepared and executed well there is fairly little wastage.
The only drawback of roller painting is that it cannot adequately cover corners and edges. But these are easily filled in with a brush.
Roller Painting Services Sydney
Roller painting requires both the roller and a ramp tray.
The roller itself consists of a roller cage, the metal wire frame on a handle, and a fabric sleeve that holds the paint. These both come in various sizes, but 30 cm width (1 foot) is standard for most walls. Obviously the sleeve and cage must be designed to fit together.
The thickness of the material around roller sleeve is termed the ‘nap’. The thickness of the nap will affect the glossiness of the paint. A thin nap, 6-8mm, is suitably for glossy paint finishes. A thicker nap, 12mm, is suitable for matt or eggshell paint finishes. Very thick naps are sometimes used for painting rough surfaces like concrete.
Roller Technique Professional Painters Sydney
Before using the roller it is best to paint all the corners and edges of the wall with a small brush. A 2-3 cm wide brush is usually a good size.
- Wash the roller sleeve in water to remove any fuzz
- Attach the sleeve to the frame
- Partly fill the tray with paint
- Dip the sleeve into the paint till it is at half its depth
- Then move the roller back and forth over the ramp of the tray till the paint is evenly distributed over the roller sleeve. Do this each time the roller runs out of paint.
- Move the roller over the wall surface that you wish to paint. Only paint a small section of the wall at a time – perhaps a 60cm square.
- Paint the section of the wall in a zigzag pattern. Then fill in any gaps in the paint.
- Once the section of wall is covered go over the area with long parallel strokes.
- Repeat this process on the next small section of the wall, until the whole wall is painted.
If you have to take a break from painting then cover the roller in cling wrap to prevent the paint from drying.
When finished, wash the roller sleeve in water.
Oil based paint rarely uses a roller because cleaning is too difficult. Disposable sleeves are available for oil based painting projects.
Residential House Painting Sydney
Roller painting gives great results when using matt or eggshell paint on interior gyprock walls.