Tom's Home repair Pages

April 30, 2026

Painting and Paint Brushes

My first tip. Don't be a cheapskate. Buy good paint and good brushes.

I have a philosophy here that applies to many things. When over 80 percent of the project is my labor, I won't pinch pennies on material costs.

For paint, I have settled on Dunn-Edwards. The shop in town has civilized people that give me good advice and don't have an "attitude" because I am not a pro or regular customer. I won't begin to tell you about the treatment I got from Sherwin-Williams, and we won't even talk about Home Depot. Dunn Edwards offers various quality tiers. I get the second from their top tier, which they call "Sparta-shield".

A quick note. Don't fall for "contractor grade". This doesn't mean what you think. It means "barely good enough" and is cheap so the contractor can make more money.

Brushes

I use Purdy or Wooster. A quality professional brush just makes things more pleasant, and if you take proper care of them, they will last almost forever. Two tips:

Don't dip the brush more than 3/4 of an inch into the paint. Half way is the general rule.
Clean the brush immediately when you finish for the day.

Restoring neglected brushes

If you do as I say above, you won't need this. But theory and practice are not always the same, so here we go:

Cleaning ruined brushes

He says that "Murphy's oil soap" is the magic sauce. And get yourself a brush comb. Don't use hot water to clean, only warm water.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Home repair pages / tom@mmto.org