Cutting In: What is it and how do I do it?

You might hear your painting services professional mention “cutting in” or read the term in a few handy blogs. What does it mean?

Cutting in means that you use a smaller, handheld paintbrush on areas that are too tight for rollers to adequately reach. Areas like: 

• Corners
• Ceiling line, 
• Near Baseboards
• Actual trims

Why do we do it?

Typically, you would cut in when using a standard roller brush isn’t possible. But your painting services handyman might opt to cut in when using a roller brush just wouldn’t look as nice. Example: There’s nothing technically wrong with using a roller brush to paint doorway trim. It just wouldn’t look as nice.

Cutting in also prevents dripping and splatter, and it keeps rollers from becoming damaged or from damaging your walls. A painting services professional will know from experience when to cut in and when to use a roller brush, so you don’t have to worry about if the right technique is being used. 

How do we do it? 

Knowing how to cut in can take some practice. As a professional, your handyman painter has cut in about a hundred times and will know exactly how to get the hard to reach crevices, as well as do so in a way that doesn’t waste paint or cause drips. 

In general though, we might try the following things: 

• Using a small container or tray: We’ll fill a small container of paint (about 1 inch). That way, we’re not oversaturating the brush and we’re minimizing the potential for spills. 
• Patting excess paint off the brush: Instead of wiping excess paint off the side of the brush, we’ll keep the paint brush loaded to better utilize all of our paint
• Avoid using painters tape unless necessary: Painters tape is great, but we try not to use it when cutting in. Painters tape in corners or on ceilings can mess up the job or leave weird areas of the wall that didn’t get covered. 

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to Handyman Connection today.