Cleaning paint brushes & rollers & fosse septiques

[want2move09]

We are in the process of buying a lovely house in France and our thoughts came to decorating. How do you clean your brushes & rollers after use if you have a fosse septique? We just take it for granted in the uk by washing under tap, or using white spirit which is then thrown down the grid and we don't want to harm the bacteria in our fosse.

[mint]

Not knowing any different, I chucked all our "stuff" on the grass and some other stuff went to the decheterie (civic amenity site)

[trees 2]

My emulsion/water based paint brushes are ALWAYS washed outside, either in a bucket of water, or under the outside tap, when it's not raining. The tap drains into a little grating which in turn drains into a local ditch.

Paint is NEVER put down the fosse.........I may be being over cautious but..........?

As for oil-based paints, I use Wickes brush cleaner, brought from the UK. I clean brushes in old glass topped coffee jars, and always put the top back after, to avoid it evaporating. When it gets a bit claggy,  let it settle, then decant the clean-ish stuff into another jar for later, and chuck the old jar away at the dechetterie.

Wickes stuff is water soluble, so the brushes are then washed under the outside tap with a little washing up liquid.

HTH

[Gluestick]

Best stuff to clean paintbrushes is Swarfega: no Swafega, shake a 50/50 mix of paraffin, white spirit, turps subs, or diesel oil and washing up liquid until it emulsifies. Clean throughly and wash with plain water.

Job done.

If you have hard brushes, use old brake fluid, which is also water miscible. Soak 'em overnight and scrape off the gluggy old paint; wash with Swarfega or your own mix, working well into bristles.

Wash in plain water.

 

[Jo]

I always wash my emulsion brushes/rollers in a bucket of water which I then empty onto the grass,   I use white spirit for the gloss, which I take to the dechetterie.  Not sure what effect it would have on my Fosse, and don't want to risk it![+o(]

[newbiee]

Line paint trays with clingfilm before pouring paint into it , then when you've finished just fold the clingfilm in on itself and chuck away ... one less thing to clean.

The best way I've found for cleaning rollers and paint pads is to scrape as much paint of as poss using an old knife or spoon, then hold under a SLOWLY running tap and clean and squeeze as the water trickles over it.  This way it takes one bowl full of water (which I then throw outside) instead of masses and masses of water.

[TroisChatNoir]

Hi

everything one does in life is a personal choice!

I scrape off the excess paint with a metal implement and an old rag then wash the brush in a bucket til clean, afterwards I wrap the brush/roller in clingfilm and store in an airtight plastic bag it should stay soft until next use that way. I then empty the bucket into a screw top container ready to take to the tip.

Paint as far as I'm aware is a pollutant and should never be disposed of anywhere but the local Tip or dechette our tip keeper is always helpful and has taken gallons of painty water/white spirit from me I like to believe it is then taken away and disposed of in some non polluting way.

After being on mains drainage in the U.K. for years seemed to alter the perception of what happens to the waste from the house having to look after my fosse changes everything, I had my mum stay a couple of years ago and really didn't know what to say  when I found her happily washing the emulsion roller in the kitchen sink using gallons of water which went straight into the fosse!