FixitUp Find: Wire Brushes—Unsung Work Horses for Paint Prep

It seems few of us pay attention to a wire brush — until it’s the only tool for the job.

We use wire brushes for all kinds of FixitUp projects —thankless work that we’re thankful we have the right tool for.

For example, there’s hardly a better tool for knocking loose paint off a steel porch railing or metal patio furniture. And for doing this work wet (to help control dust) a stainless steel bristle lasts longer, like Hyde’s 46842. A pointed nose for detail work and an overmolded rubber handle delivers a tool that gets it done.

For cleaning up masonry, usually brick and stone walls we expose during remodeling activities, steel bristles abrade mortar residue that needs to get knocked down and cleaned out.

Wire brushes can also come up big prepping an already-painted concrete porch slab for a new coat. Attack the edges of bubbled paint with a hard-bristle, D-handle brush like the Hyde 46837. Or, while this is a more general-use tool, a brush and scraper combo like Hyde’s 46835 works nicely too.

And while there’s already a tool for this, we’ve had great luck using wire brushes as brush combs for paint brushes. The tines slide into the bristles of the paint brush, breaking up the surface and interior paint so it can be cleaned out thoroughly.

Then there’s that cast iron pipe in the basement remodel. Instead of building an awkward soffit around it that would rob the room of space and grace, we painted it red, celebrating its presence. Of course, it was caked with umpteen years of shmutz which the wire brush knocked down in a day’s unsung work.