Rolling With an Extension Pole

The Problem

Two habits mark out a first-time painter, and both end the same way — a sore back and a slow, patchy job: dipping brushes and sleeves straight into the paint tin, and rolling a whole room with the 9-inch frame held in your hand.

The Techniques

Don't paint out of the tin. On any decent-sized room, the tin holds your whole supply but only lets you reach a teaspoon of it at a time, and you're bent over it all day. Pour paint into a scuttle (a wide painter's bucket) — a proper working reservoir that loads a sleeve in one dip.

Don't roll bare-handed. A 9-inch frame with just a sleeve on it means you're at the wall, reaching up and crouching down, forever — and the coat comes out uneven. Screw on an extension pole, even a short one. Stand back from the wall, dip the sleeve, and work in sections: start from the middle of the wall and work up, then fill down. It's faster, the coverage is more even, and your back survives the project.

The Problem

Most people roll walls with the roller frame right in their hand — crouching for the bottom of the wall, stretching for the top, pressing too hard from awkward angles. The result is wasted paint, uneven coverage, and a sore back before the second wall is done.

The Technique

1. Screw the roller frame onto an extension pole — about a $30 purchase.
2. Start at the top of the wall and roll all the way to the bottom in one continuous pass, holding the roller gently to the wall. The pole's leverage does what your wrist was straining to do, with less pressure and better control.
3. When a section's laid on, come back to where you started and roll over it again lightly, top to bottom — this is back-rolling. You're picking up the extra paint sitting heavy on the wall and redistributing it into the areas that aren't quite as wet.

Coverage evens out, the finish loses its heavy-and-light stripes, and you end the day clean and unfatigued.