[DIYusually]

I've used the higher-line paints from the orange and blue big box stores before, but in getting some professional painting contractor estimates recently I noticed that every one of them specifies either Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore paint.

Since I ended up deciding to do the painting job myself, I stopped in to both SW and BM today to see for myself what the difference was. As it turned out, the prices per gallon were not that much different (especially with a 30% off sale going on at SW this month) than the big box higher end paints.

While in the SW store, there was a prominent display for the Purdy 18-inch adjustable roller frame and those gigantic 18-inch rollers. I had never really noticed the 18-inch rollers before at the big box stores but seeing as I'm looking at painting about 3000 sq ft of interior residential wall space soon, I was thinking an 18-inch roller being twice as wide as the standard 9-inch roller might cut out a good deal of rolling time. (Yes, I know it won't be half but still...)

I asked the SW counter person about the 18-inch roller and then the SW guy in the back mixing up some paint yells out that it wouldn't be worth it to paint a bedroom. The counter person told me that typical users of the 18-inh rollers are guys painting large open commercial wall spaces, people who work at museums painting and repainting exhibition spaces, etc.

I get those commercial and institutional uses, and I can see how an 18-inch roller might be unwieldy in a bedroom with a lot of windows and door cutouts, but I also have a lot of large unbroken space in hallways, living and family rooms, etc.

I'm just looking for other people's practical experience with these giant rollers because there is a definite increased cost in the roller frame, the giant-sized rollers, and even the big special-sized roller pan you have to invest in. I'm only doing this house interior for myself so I won't be using this equipment again for probably years (other than maybe loaning it out to friends and family) but the time savings might be worth the increased equipment cost if these rollers did live up to the theoretical marketing hype.

So my question is: are these 18-inch rollers really an effective time savings? (It doesn't help that on some retail websites, buyers comment how the roller frame plastic cam locks loosen up after a short period of time, making the roller hard to use at best, and at worse coming loose and throwing a roller loaded with paint all over the floor.)

 

[oh'mike]

I've used them a few times.

They are great for huge ceilings and tall ,large walls.

Not easy to control--clumsy to use--the frames can leave marks on the walls/ceilings.

I agree with the paint store, best to stick with the standard roller. They have a special use, but not ideal for your typical interior paint job.

 

[mathmonger]

They are fun to use for the first hour. Then you realize they are really heavy. And they are less able to handle bumps and dips in the walls. The walls have to be nice and flat to use an 18. And they have arms at both ends, so they are tough to get into corners. Probably not worth it.

 

[ZTMAN]

If you are looking for speed, use the 9" roller with a 2-4' extension pole. It will make the job go a lot faster.

 

[Gymschu]

All of the above.

 

[ToolSeeker]

The first couple times they are a bear to use. Plus the expense for 1 job the roller frame, the roller covers, the bucket for the roller to fit in alone is like $30. As for being heavy an 18" 1/2 inch nap roller gets heavy real quick, now put it on the end of an extension pole. Also in a room with much trim, windows and doors, changing from 1 roller to another (from 18 to 9) and back can cause problems with todays fast drying paints.

 

[DIYusually]

Perfect! Thanks for all the great advice, guys - just what I was looking for. (I was hoping to get firsthand advice from you guys in particular since I was reading some of the Painting forum topics last night and noticed that you guys were posting a lot of good advice.)

You've convinced me to skip the 18-inch roller (especially since the Sherwin Williams' price yesterday for a complete Purdy 18-inch set-up of everything ToolSeeker listed was more like $70-$80, and even with the unadvertised 35% off "everything you can fit into a SW 5 gal blue bucket" sale they are running this week in my area, it's still north of $45).

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