A Glossary of Specialty Painting Tools
Beyond the standard brush, roller, and tray, a handful of purpose-built tools solve specific painting problems more efficiently than improvising with general-purpose equipment.
Most home painting projects only need the basics — brush, roller, tray, tape — but a number of purpose-built tools exist for specific recurring problems, each worth knowing about even if they're not needed on every project.
1. Brick rake
A brick rake (or jointer) is a narrow, curved-edge tool used to clean out and shape mortar joints between bricks before repointing or, relevant here, before painting brick — it removes loose or crumbling mortar and creates a clean, consistent joint profile that a brush or roller can then coat evenly.
2. Hot dog paint roller
A "hot dog" roller is a small-diameter, short roller (named for its shape) used for trim, tight corners, and detail work where a standard 9-inch roller is too large to maneuver — it fills the gap between a full-size roller and a brush for medium-sized flat areas needing more even coverage than a brush alone provides.
3. Paint shield
A paint shield is a handheld guard (often a thin metal or plastic plate) held against an edge — a window frame, a baseboard — while cutting in with a brush nearby, protecting the adjacent surface from stray paint without needing to mask it with tape.
4. Manual pole sander
A pole sander is a sanding pad attached to an extendable pole, letting someone sand large wall or ceiling areas (drywall joint compound, in particular) while standing, without a ladder or excessive bending — a genuine ergonomic and efficiency upgrade for any project involving significant drywall sanding.
5. Paint bucket grid
A bucket grid (or roller grid) is a metal or plastic mesh insert that hangs inside a 5-gallon bucket, replacing a standard paint tray — a roller is loaded and rolled against the grid to remove excess paint, the same function a tray's ridged section serves, but with considerably more paint capacity for a larger project needing frequent reloading.
6. Stak rack
A stak rack is a stackable painting rack (often for doors, cabinet fronts, or shutters) that holds pieces elevated and separated during painting and drying — allowing multiple pieces to be painted and dried at once without touching each other, a genuine efficiency tool for a project with many small or medium flat pieces (cabinet doors being the classic example).
7. Painter's mitt
A painter's mitt is a fabric or foam glove-style applicator, commonly used for painting railings, pipes, or other irregularly-shaped items — worn like a glove and dipped in paint, it wraps around a curved or irregular surface more completely than a flat brush or roller can, coating the full circumference in fewer passes.
8. Emery cloth
Emery cloth is an abrasive material similar to sandpaper but made with a fabric backing rather than paper, and coated with emery (a natural abrasive mineral) rather than standard sandpaper grit — it's more flexible and durable than paper-backed sandpaper, making it well suited to sanding curved or irregular surfaces (metal pipes, rounded trim) where standard sandpaper would tear or wear through quickly.
9. When these specialty tools are actually worth having
Most of these solve a specific, recurring problem rather than a one-time need — a stak rack makes sense for someone painting many cabinet doors, a brick rake for anyone regularly maintaining masonry, an emery cloth for frequent metal work. For a single small project, borrowing or renting rather than buying is often the more practical choice.
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