Re-using Paint

No, not scraping it off the wall and watering it.

Facts: Businesses pay a small fortune to dispose of hazardous waste; hazardous waste includes part-used cans of paint; condominiums may pay you a smaller fortune to cart the paint away. At the least, they'll give it to you.

Here is the haul from a condominium across the street from me. I selected white, pale blue, and beige as the three most useful colors for ME.

If I were running a painting business I'd probably pick up the lot.

For $7.77 at Home Hardware I purchased a "Super Lid", a plastic funnel and two paper filter cones.

I salvaged a used drying sheet from the laundry room as an afterthought. I'm not sure how they will all hook together, but we'll see ...

The Super Lid fits onto an open 1-gallon paint can and makes for easy pouring. The salesman told me it helps avoid the fallout of crumbs of dried paint from the rim.

Someone on my floor tosses out 4-litre water bottles. I dry them out and figure they'll be great storage jars for paint.

It has dawned on me that the dryer sheet fits neatly over the Super Lid, making for an extra filter layer.

Above is a view of the underside of the Super Lid with the dryer sheet resting across it.

Let's see how well it works.

Here's the view from above. The air-vent cap is close to the edge of the counter.

The dryer sheet is barely visible under the lid.

I can explain everything!

I have sorted the cans by inspection into:

5 cans latex white (one of which is a semi-gloss, another is self-priming).

5 cans latex eggshell (which appears to me to be white!)

2 cans of beige and 1 can of pearl (which seems to be grey).

All this before opening the cans; we will see what we will see.

I decided not to include the smaller cans, which tend towards wood stain, oil-based full gloss, and so on.

Of the 5 white cans, one feels full, the rest about ¼ full, so I figure to get 2 4-litre jugs of latex white out of this batch.

Here I am with the paper filter in place; it takes forEVER to filter the paint. I decide that filtering paint is for the professionals, and discard the paper cone.

After 15 minutes work levering off lids, fitting the Super Lid, and pouring, I have a gallon of white paint. Normal cost in the store anything from $30 upwards.

Now to explore the eggshell ... which turns out to be what we used to call "off-white".

Here are three 4-litre jars of white paint. Certainly good enough for small interior rooms such as a bathroom or a storage locker.

Notes

1: Before opening the cans, vacumn thoroughly around the rim to remove loose grit, dried paint etc.

2: Some cans will be rusty around the rim; they are probably rusted inside too, so not every can will produce usable paint.

3: The lids and empty cans represent a hazard; you are obliged to dispose of YOUR hazardous waste too. Removing useable paint has reduced, but not eliminated, a hazard.

4: Use smaller plastic jugs (2-litre, 1-litre) for smaller harvests of paint.

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