I thought I’d do a very quick blog for DFUK on the easiest way to clean a paint scuttle. Promise not to keep you too long with this one, but I’ll give you some handy tips.
First off, a scuttle is another word for a type of painting bucket and an alternative to the traditional tray. Most professional decorators use a scuttle because they’re generally a lot better than trays. You can get them online, or from any trade decorating centre.
Priming Scuttles or Trays so you don’t Need to Clean Them
I know this is a blog on the best ways to clean a paint scuttle, but you don’t always need to. A lot of professional decorators I know will use a paint scuttle several times before they clean it.
All you need to do is abrade the inside of your scuttle or tray and then coat it with an adhesion primer. This will prevent flaky paint. Then you can use it as you normally would, scrape the leftover paint out with a brush when you’re done, and allow the residue to dry.
Using a paint scuttle several times before cleaning it is less messy, and better for the environment.
Washing your Scuttle with Water
You can pick your scuttle up, take it to the sink, rinse, and scrub with a cloth at the end of every use. This can be a bit messy, so it may be better to take it outside and use a hosepipe. Neither of these options is ideal because you’re bound to end up with paint all over you. I do anyway 😉
Using Cleaning Agents to Clean a Paint tray or Scuttle
There is a slightly easier way of cleaning your paint scuttles out. There’s a product called Viro-Sol, which is available online and can be diluted with water. It’s a cleaning product that disintegrates paint. It doesn’t matter what paint, be it water or oil-based, dry or wet.
You can fill a dirty paint scuttle with a diluted Viro-Sol solution, leave it overnight, then simply rinse the scuttle out…. Dead easy. Click here to see current prices.
Traditional Paint Scuttle liners
Inexpensive disposable plastic liners which go inside your scuttle wile you’re using it. They are good and they’re cheap enough, but I don’t like them because of the environmental impact. As a decorator, I go through too much single use plastic as it is, without lining my scuttles with it. You can get these online easily enough, or most trade paint centres. Click here to see current prices.
Final Thoughts
I told you I’d keep it short and sweet. Cleaning paint scuttles isn’t the most exciting topic in the world, but it’s handy to know how decorators do it.
I don’t like washing them in a sink when I’ve finished using them. It’s far too messy, and I don’t like the environmental impact of all that paint gong down the drain. I much prefer to prime a paint scuttle, then allow it to dry in-between uses.
Wouldn’t worry about using plastic liners. Washing paint down the drain is 100x worse for the environment. Paint is the biggest source of microplastics and is awful to put in our water.
Either use the flexible liner like you mentioned or disposable ones