Top 10 Painting Tools Every Painter Needs.

This is Chris, the Idaho painter. In this video, I'm going to talk about 10 painting tools that every do-it-yourself painter or professional painter should have in their toolbox. So, stay tuned for this video. So, item number one, this is kind of a simple tool, but this is a tool that I actually always have in my p pocket when I'm actually painting. And this is a painters 5 in1 tool. And it's called a five in one tool because this actually tool does five different things. And this curved portion of it right here, this portion actually is used to scrape the excess paint out of your roller. So you can save the paint. There's actually a lot of paint that's actually loaded up in this thing. So when you're done, it'll make the cleaning process a lot faster by just scraping it and you're going to save the paint that's in there. So that's one thing that sinks down. It actually acts as a acts as a scraper. We use it a lot on exterior u painting, doing scraping. This actually acts as a putty knife. You can actually apply putty. Acts as a screwdriver on the end. It acts as a pointed scraper there. We use it a lot. All of our cans, we're opening our cans of paint with this 5in-1 tool. It makes opening a gallon of paint really easy. This cutter on when you're opening a 5gallon bucket, this thing actually cuts a 5gallon bucket to pull the strap off to open it. But the painters 5 in1 tool is a very key tool to have as a painter. So, the next item we're going to get into, if we're working painting in a bedroom, we're going to be doing our ceiling cutins. I'm going to start off with just a simple bucket. And every painter should actually have a cutin bucket. I use like a two gallon bucket with a onegon grid inside this thing. And you never actually want to paint out of the gallon of paint itself. It's um it's it can actually tip over a lot easier. The base on these things are a lot more sturdier. You're going to load in just about um not quite a half a gallon of paint in here. So, the center of weight is lower to the ground and it won't tip and it's a lot easier. It's got a bigger opening in it to actually work out of and do your cutins and do your rolling out of. So, you got to have a 2gallon bucket. So, the bucket was item number two. And what actually goes in the bucket is my 4-in nap. And I like this 4-in roller with a 3/8 inch nap on this for doing all my cutins and trim work around the interior, you know, of a house. Or we actually use them on the exteriors, too. So, this is a great item for interior and exterior. But, it's good to invest in just a good quality one if you're a do-it-yourselfer that'll last you basically pretty much a lifetime if you just keep it clean properly. I got videos on how to properly clean your rollers and brushes to make them so they'll last a lifetime. So, you don't want to go, you know, extremely cheap. If you get one that's really cheap when you're rolling, this wire frame will actually bend and then it'll give you what we call, you know, lap marks and trailing edges. But this one, I think, is just five bucks for this. I actually the the roller cover that goes on it, it's a 3/8 in nap, is the most common one we use. And I actually really like the pretty white woven white dove naps. Those things are splattered least little the least amount that any nap or roller that I've ever used before. And they actually lay out the paint very well, leave a nice finish to them. So, it's these. This is what it actually looks like. This is a um a 4-in pretty white woven nap right there. So, to finish off my cutting bucket with the next item, we're going to talk about a paintbrush. And this paint brush right here, this is the most versatile paint brush that we actually use. And we had our vans are loaded with this thing. And it's a 38 3in angled sash brush. And I actually like the pretty brush. This is a pretty clearcut brush. It's my favorite brush for doing interior painting. And it it gives me the straightest lines, the best cutins that I've actually um ever done with a paintbrush before is with this brush. But really the the key thing, not everybody has access to same brand names of paint brushes. There's a lot of good ones out there. Worster makes a good brush. Corona makes a good brush, but this one the key thing is the 3in brush. It's going to cover a wider area. Your cutins and fillins um will go a lot farther. But in versus just a narrower brush, this is the most versatile one. I like an angled sash one cuz it gets up into the corners a lot easier versus just a flat brush. But a 3-in angle sash brush is how um I finish off my cutting bucket. And now we'll go on to the next item. Now, you got to have something to roll your walls. And the next item we'll talk about is a roller frame and cover right here. The roller frame, you definitely want to purchase a really good roller frame. This is a contractor roller frame right here. And the reason why you don't want to buy cheap ones is when you're rolling your wall, this a cheap frame, this will actually flax a lot. And if it flexes and bends, you can't put enough pressure on the roller itself to really get the paint down into the texture of the wall. And then it will actually leave trailing edges or lap marks cuz when you're putting the pressure on the roller, it'll bend and flex and it'll put more pressure on this end, which will leave like a little heavy edge. And so you always want to invest in, you know, the best 9-in roller frame that you can get. a roller cover on here. Same like my 4-in one. I use a white white dove 3/8 in pretty nap and it's a white woven nap. And this is an excellent nap. Once again, splatters very little. If you're using a really high-end paint, it splatters almost none at all. We'll roll ceilings with a product from Sherwin Williams called Eminence. And using that product and this paint, rolling a ceilings in a whole house, you maybe will have one or two speckles on your face and that's it. It's an excellent combination, but this is of essential tool, the 9-in roller. Now, we'll go on to the next item, which is the pan that goes along with this roller. And what I do see a lot of do-it-yourselfers uh do is purchase those really small pans that hardly hold any paint. This is a onegon pan. This is the pan that you should actually buy. This is a one onegon metal pan. And we actually typically put a liner in these pans, which is really which is really cheap, like 50 cents. So you don't have to just keep building up paint in this thing or cleaning it. You just pull out the liner, toss them. But we actually just leave the liners in them, let them dry, and then reuse them. And eventually when the the liners get so heavy with paint, we just throw them away. But you should be purchasing a metal pan. That's a onegon pan to go along with your 9-in roller. So I believe we're on to item number six, and that is a cocking gun. So I got my cutting bucket, you know, set up. I got my uh roller and pan set up. I'm going to get begin my painting, but I'm going to begin masking. In order to do clean cutting lines on the interior, you're always going to or we always actually coaul our tape and do a method of uh using frog tape and clear cocking to get really laser straight lines. But we're using cocking guns. If you got any cracks around any of your trim, you got to If you've got um doing on the exterior of a house, there's a lot of cocking on the exterior. But the cocking gun is a very versatile item. We don't we don't use really super expensive cocking guns. But the cocking guns I like and the features I want in a cocking gun. I have actually have a video that shows you the exact cocking guns that I like and the all the features that I like in them. But but I just use these. I think I pay, you know,5 or $6 for this style cocking gun right here. You can spend up to, I think, $20 for a cocking gun that's, you know, got nice rubber handles with grips and stuff like that. But this is the one I like. You got to have a cocking gun. So, make sure that's on your list of list of items to purchase. Now, move on to another very essential item to use, and that's a drop cloth. And I know a lot of do-it-yourselfers, you can just grab a old sheet in your house or um anything else, a blanket to cover stuff up. But if you the difference between just say an old sheet and a drop cloth, these things are meant to have paint spilt on them and absorb the paint and and not have it actually go all the way through the drop cloth into your floor or whatever you're trying to protect. A sheet is very thin and if you spill paint on it, it's going to go right through that sheet like really fast. It definitely will help with just small splatters and stuff, but you definitely you should invest in a drop cloth. This is what your pan should actually set on that you're actually rolling out of. Or if you ever set your cutin bucket down or your gallon of paint, set it on a a drop cloth. And the most uh versatile drop cloth to get is a 9x12 or we actually like the 4x15 runners. But this drop cloth right here, this is probably the one. If I had one drop cloth to purchase, this would be the one. And if I don't know if you can see the little there's all these little black dots on here, but they're little uh pieces of rubber. And this thing on the back side of it has those black dots. And then on the other side, it's just canvas. And those black dots are non-slip. So you can set this this droploth on say a tile floor, a hardwood floor, set a ladder on it. The ladder won't slide. And that's important if you're using an extension ladder on your drop cloth that the extension ladder won't slide on a slick surface. So, it's very important. That's a drop cloth. I think uh it's a 3M drop cloth we just p purchased from our local paint store. And I think that drop cloth runs about $15. Very important to have is a drop cloth in your arsenal of tools. Another one of the best investments you can make in painting that is having an extension pole. And there's a lot of different size extension poles you can buy and different ones different ways they lock and release. But I like the ones with this lever right here. This is, you know, a really convenient extension pole to use. This is a 4 to 8 foot extension pole. And if I had only one I can buy, which I've got every size imaginable, I have probably four of each one of them. But if I can only have one extension pole, I'd buy this one, which is 4T, and then it extends out to 8 ft. It's going to make your painting a lot faster and just going to save your knees, save your back. It just makes the painting a lot more enjoyable. And a lot of people just overlook this, but this is a tool. I think this uh this extension pole right here is approximately about a $20 extension pole. Once again, this is going to last you a lifetime. So, now I'm on to the last item. Item number 10. And this thing came out with a a long time ago, and it's a hair masker. And this thing actually takes a roll of tape and it actually applies the tape onto paper or plastic so you can mask really fast. It's something that every painter, every professional painter obviously has to have one of these things. If you're spraying, it makes your masking so much faster. But even if you're just rolling walls to just run around your walls, tack this stuff, you know, all around your baseboards so you don't get splatter on your carpet before you lay your drop cloth down. It's It just makes the painting process a lot easier. It It makes less liability of getting stuff on your carpets, on your floors. We run just take just pull the stuff off, tack it to the windows so it sits on the window sills, and we're just using it for just all kinds of stuff. This is a tool that every single do-it-yourselfer or every single professional painter must have. It's going to make your painting a lot faster, a lot more efficient, and if you're a professional, you're just going to make more money in the long run. So, there you have it. The 10 essential tools for every do-it-yourself painter or professional painter. Hopefully, you've enjoyed this video. If you got any tips, tricks, please leave them in the comments below. If you've got any tools that you think should be added to this this list, I would love to hear about them. So, leave them right down there in the comments. I answer all my comments and questions, so just throw them down there. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please consider subscribing. Please consider giving me a thumbs up and a like. It's just a simple way to help support my channel. If you want to see more tips and tricks on painting or home improvement, go check me out on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or even or even Instagram. And once again, we'll see you on my next video. And you could also go check out my website, the idahoopainter.com, to check out my tool store. All these tools that you've actually seen me show here, I actually or seen me that I've actually shown here in this video, you can go purchase them in my tool store on my website theidaho.com. See you next time.