5 Must-Have Painting Tools for Painters

 

If you paint for a living or not, having handy house painting tools on site helps you complete projects faster and more efficiently. I have included five tools you might not be using that I personally like instead of the common paint brushes and roller sleeves everyone uses. I have been using these versatile painting tools for many years on a variety of projects.

Here are some of my favorite tools for painting

1. M3000 Hand Masker from 3M

Painting involves preparation, and without a hand masker tool, you have to tape and cover surfaces with plastic. In terms of masking, the 3M hand masker is a must-have tool that saves a lot of time. Since I've been using the 3M hand masker for 20 years, I can't imagine doing my paint prep without it.

You can use either 3M plastic or paper and any painter's tape you want with the masker. Using the tool, you can apply tape and masking film simultaneously to a surface instead of having to apply them separately. As soon as the plastic roll is taped to the surface, it unfolds to cover the surface you want to protect. Whether you need to cover floors, walls, ceilings, windows, or furniture, the 3M masker will do the trick.

2. Pivit Ladder Tool

Every painter should own a Pivit ladder tool. For painting high walls over stairs, removing window shutters, and working on rooftops, the Pivit tool is my personal favorite.

The tool is very versatile and can be used for a variety of ladder leveling tasks. An extension ladder can be leveled on stairs, or a plank can be held using it. When I paint walls over stairs, I mostly use it as a leveler. In order to increase grip and stability, the bottom of the Pivit is covered with a rubbery material. This tool has worked well under my ladders for several years without any issues.

Additionally, you can use it to hold some small tools and a paint can when painting from a steep rooftop. You can use this when climbing a ladder with tools in hand and climbing on and off a roof. Bottom feet have anti-slip material to prevent the tool from slipping on roofs.

3. Extending Paint Brushes

It is not always possible to paint around light fixtures on high walls and ceilings with an extension ladder alone. You may not feel safe climbing up a ladder at extreme heights or the area is hard to reach. It's here that an extension pole with a paint brush extender really comes in handy.

To change the angle of a paint brush extender, you had to loosen and tighten an adjustable arm on a metal holder. It is common for wingnuts on metal brush extenders to loosen during painting, requiring them to be adjusted.

It took me a long time to switch from metal brush holders to the GooseNeck extendable paint brush. As a result of the brush's adjustable nature and ability to attach directly to a painting pole, this tool has changed my painting game completely. Paint brushes can be bent to any angle without adjusting wingnuts or metal parts.

4. Roof Boot

The Roof Boot is made by the same company that makes the Pivot tool I recommended earlier in this article. It is possible to use both tools at the same time or separately. It's dangerous and challenging to set up a ladder on a roof or use multiple toe boards if you do a lot of exterior painting.

Depending on the steepness of the roof, toe boards must be nailed to the roof in order to be painted. When you use too many toe boards, you end up with too many holes that need to be filled after you paint. A roof boot fastens to the roof with only four screws, allowing you to use an extension ladder on the roof rather than creating multiple holes in the roof with toe boards.

With this tool, you can use an extension ladder to gain access to gables and other areas not accessible from the ground when using a ladder.

5. The 18-inch paint roller

Painting walls and ceilings with an 18-inch roller instead of a 9-inch roller is much faster, and this size definitely gets the job done. When I paint ceilings, I get terrible neck pain, so the faster I can paint them, the better. Painters who use 18-inch rollers instead of 9-inch rollers paint rooms faster.

It's only disadvantage is the added weight when the roller is saturated with paint, but for the time it saves, it's worth it. A 9-inch roller can also be used in conjunction with an 18-inch roller. Paint small and narrow areas with the 9-inch roller.

I have used Wooster and Purdy 18-inch roller frames and they are the best. It is necessary to purchase an over-sized paint tray along with this large roller sleeve and frame. The paint trays are huge and can hold a lot of paint. If you don't want to have to clean out the paint at the end of the day, place a garbage bag in the tray.