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Trick Of The Trade: A Useful Assist When Stirring Coatings

Jul 17, 2026

This issue’s tip is from Alex Franklin, owner/operator of Kalispell, Mont.-based Revive DecksNFloors LLC:

When you shake your finish jugs before applying your finish, if you turn the jugs upside down, you can usually still see the solids in the bottom of the jugs (in this picture , I had already shaken that finish, but you can see that wasn’t enough to get all the solids off the bottom of the jugs:

1 M 826 Wfb As26 Tot Pic1 Solids

To help distribute the solids, I put a couple of small clean rocks in the jugs (you could also put in marbles):

1 N 826 Wfb As26 Tot Pic2 Showingrock1 O 826 Wfb As26 Tot Pic3 Addingrock

Either of those will stir up the solids for you as you’re shaking your finish jugs—just like the marble inside of a can of spray paint does:

1 P 826 Wfb As26 Tot Pic4 Nosolids

You’re going to be straining your finish anyway, so that will catch the rocks or marbles as you’re pouring. This is helpful with waterborne finishes or oil-based finishes (or paint, or stain, or any coating).

Pinterest 100x100See a collection of previous job-site tips on our Pinterest Trick of the Trade board. Do you have a Trick of the Trade to share? Email it to WFB. If we use it, we'll send you a WFB T-shirt.

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