We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in
an area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
dispose of the tool cleaning water.
After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
studio have this as a continuing problem.
What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
readers here must have had and solved this problem.
Thanks
Marty
On May 21, 3:46 pm, Marty K <[email protected]> wrote:
> We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in
> an area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> dispose of the tool cleaning water.
>
> After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> studio have this as a continuing problem.
>
> What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> readers here must have had and solved this problem.
>
> Thanks
>
> Marty
The diluted cleaning water isn't really an issue...IF you don't want
to send it down the septic system, pour the cleaning water on the
driveway, it's so diluted at that point it won't cause any damage or
negative run off.
When you have left over latex paint, you have a couple of options:
Mix it with sawdust and put in the trash can. Our local collection
agency will take latex paint as long as it won't run....so us lot's of
sawdust. OR you can spread it out on cardboard, leave it in the sun
and let it dry out, then dispose of as waste. I tried to take some
old latex paint to the hazardous waste disposal day and they wouldn't
even look at it..."take it home we don't want it" was the reply.
I just finished painting our new home, and I made something that may
help you as well...take a cheap roller frame and remove and salvage
the roller holder ends and wire or what ever is used to support the
roller cover. Get a length of threaded rod the same size as the
roller frame shaft and about twice as long as the roller cover, 4 lock
nuts and washers. Your goal is to mount the roller holder on the
threaded rod, but you don't want it to spin freely and that's where
you have to put a lock nut on the rod above and below each end roller
cover. The order of items on the rod from the top: locknut, washer,
roller cover end, washer, locknut ------body of roller cover
holder------locknut, washer, roller cover end, washer, locknut. The
bottom nut can be right at the end of the threaded rod. And yes
you'll have two nuts "inside" the roller cage, but it's not a problem,
chuck the rod in a drill and hold the nut with a wrench, run the drill
while holding the nuts stationary and in no time they will be run up
the rod. Chuck the rod in a drill, and you can spin the roller cover
at high RPMs.
I used a cheap plastic scraper like used at the kitchen sink to
scrape the paint from the roller cover, no water, this is the stuff
mixed with saw dust or spread out on cardboard. Rinse the roller
cover in water and spin the roller cover on the rod contraption above
while holding it all down into a 5 gallon bucket, . Rinse again in
water mixed with Downy...I know sounds weird...but it's a surfactant
and makes the latex paint easier to remove. Spin again...and the
cover will be clean and nearly dry. Use the same downy mixture to
clean the brushes...don't rinse the downy water out the last rinse,
and they'll clean easier next time.
It's a big job...hang in there...and it'll be rewarding when it's
done. (sorry this is so long!)
DAC
efgh <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Marty K" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:uyn4i.4119$aj.1171@trndny06...
> > We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in an
> > area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> > doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> > dispose of the tool cleaning water.
> >
> > After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> > studio have this as a continuing problem.
> >
> > What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> > readers here must have had and solved this problem.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Marty
>
> I clean my brushes in the kitchen sink. Granted, I don't do a lot of
> painting either. I don't clean rollers as you can put them in a plastic bag
> for over night and they'll be just as good in the morning. When done
> painting, throw them out.
Back home in NZ I had a roller washing unit that sat in the laundry room
sink. It was basically a thick wide bore pipe (roughly 6-8" in
diameter). It was glued to a base and there was an angled input high up
and an outlet low down and a spigot in the middle. You put your roller
on the spigot, connected the top inlet to a tap with a hose and turned
on the water. Come back when it is clean. Great for the big foam
corrugated rollers for painting corrugated iron. Keep meaning to make
myself one...
Peter
--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country
www.the-brights.net
Marty K <[email protected]> wrote:
> We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in
> an area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> dispose of the tool cleaning water.
>
> After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> studio have this as a continuing problem.
>
> What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> readers here must have had and solved this problem.
>
One more tip, I discovered quite by accident that wash water can be a
useful pest control substance. Our new compost heap has been producing a
lot of whitefly which have flown across to the herb garden in my big
wooden planter (inserted relevance there) and started laying eggs etc.
In my painting I have sometimes been lazy and left buckets and roller
trays with opaque water in them lying around. The whitefly seem to see
it as solid, land and drown.
Peter
--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country
www.the-brights.net
"Marty K" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:uyn4i.4119$aj.1171@trndny06...
> We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in an
> area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> dispose of the tool cleaning water.
>
> After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> studio have this as a continuing problem.
>
> What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> readers here must have had and solved this problem.
>
> Thanks
>
> Marty
I clean my brushes in the kitchen sink. Granted, I don't do a lot of
painting either. I don't clean rollers as you can put them in a plastic bag
for over night and they'll be just as good in the morning. When done
painting, throw them out.
Knowing today's environmental over concerns.... if you generate 100's of
gallons of waste water from the latex I would call your local hazardous
waste disposal company and have them set up a holding tank, call the EPA and
let them know what you are doing, and pay the waste disposal dearly. I'm
sure they will laugh all the way to the bank...........or use the septic.
Common house hold cleaners can affect the environment more than just a bit
of latex laced water. Wanna have septic problems use lots of bleached based
cleaners. Helps kill the enzymes that make the system work.
"Marty K" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:uyn4i.4119$aj.1171@trndny06...
> We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in an
> area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> dispose of the tool cleaning water.
>
> After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> studio have this as a continuing problem.
>
> What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> readers here must have had and solved this problem.
>
> Thanks
>
> Marty
Marty K wrote:
> We are having a new home build in Vermont. This house will be sited in
> an area where septic systems and wells are used extensively. We will be
> doing some of the interior finish painting (latex only) and will have to
> dispose of the tool cleaning water.
>
> After we move in I will also have a workshop and along with the wifes
> studio have this as a continuing problem.
>
> What is the best and safest way to handle this disposal? Some of the
> readers here must have had and solved this problem.
What problem?
Like yourself, we've lived in the country with a septic system since
1974 (we built that year). Like you we've cleaned latex paint-laden
brushes and rinsed in warm soapy water many a bristle brush that had
laid coats of varnish, poly, etc. on trim and doors, etc.
Big deal, as you know, is to remove the solids from the tank every few
years. We've been doing it (during our peak use years when we had
children at home) every twelve or so. Probably due this year just to
"be safe."
Pumpers freak out when then learn how long it's been and tell us to
expect that we've got solids running out of the tank and into the field.
We nod, thank them and tell them to check it out and tell us the bad
news. So far, they've reported back that "what the hell are you doing?
You've only got 8" - 12" of solids at the bottom. Incredible?"
Haven't a clue as to WHAT we're doing right. Maybe it's the outdated
packages of yeast SWMBO tosses down the toilet every month or two?
If it's diluted, don't sweat it. I wouldn't pour the leftover paint
down the drain or skinned over paint. Rinse water shouldn't do squat.