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One question I haven't seen asked though: How many coats are you re-using your foam rollers for? I have three coats on one roller and it seems to be really nasty. I clean them after every coat w/ Mineral Spirits, but they still get nasty. I am replacing all my roller pads and roller tonight for the next 3 coats.

John



That is a good question. I am bad. I used a fresh foam roller EACH TIME I did a coating. I didn't want any dried paint skin on my roller or any variations in the foams firmness where some spots were drying.

The cost of these high density foam rollers is such that you can afford to splurge on the foamies.

Some of the guys have gotten away with multiple re-use of their rollers. Tricks like thorougly cleaning them off with mineral spirit and then placing them in a sealed jar or wrapped up in a plastic baggie to deprive them of air have been used by some folks.

The one thing about even the high density foam rollers is that 'at some point' even the high density foam will start degrading and disintegrating. You will know when that time has arrived because your roller will start leaving bit of foam on your rolled paint.

As I said... for me.. it was worth it to always start a new coating with a fresh brush.

The funniest thing was... imagine these white tampon shaped foam rollers being tossed in to my garbage can at the end of each painting session. And I was painting RED. I can't imagine what the garbage man thought when he dumped the garbage can into the back of the garbage truck and he saw what looked like a slew of bloodied tampons...

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