Author Topic: Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers  (Read 1927 times)

Cowardly Toaster

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Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers
« on: May 18, 2017, 10:58:38 AM »
So following up my last discussion about drywall, the painting on the remodel begins.

I dropped $190 on a Wagner sprayer at Lowes. Originally I was planning on just using it and then selling it on Craigslist for $100, but now that my dad knows I have one I don't think he will allow that because it is so handy.

So far I really like it. Just like any spray application, the key is smooth continuous movement. I keep a roller handy for the occasional thick spot. You have to play around with the flow and air pressure settings to get the spray you want.

where it really shines IMO is the hard to reach spots that you would normally tackle with a paint brush. On the flat open spots it's about as fast as a roller.

It doesn't seem to work well for the ceilings, so I just painted the corners of the wall/ceiling with plans to roll the rest.

I haven't played around with the attachment for detail work, but supposedly someone with a steady hand can paint trim with out even masking.

Clean up is a sort of a pain and needs to be meticulous, so if you are going to use it it makes sense to do as much as possible at once.

Anyways, anyone with thoughts, tips or questions, post away!

Spork

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Re: Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2017, 11:39:37 AM »

I trimmed and painted the interior of my house when we built it 5ish years ago.  I had been burned by a low end Wagner in the past (much cheaper than what you bought) and opted for a low-to-midrange Graco.  I wanted something that I could sip from a 5 gallon bucket and had a wand for doing ceilings.

I think my results were pretty good.  It did really well on high gloss trim surfaces.  My poor techniques were a little more noticeable on large flat sheen surfaces like ceilings.  I attribute most of the lower end results to my technique and not the sprayer. 

I would recommend folks buying something that will draw from buckets.  You can go through a 5 gallon bucket of paint in just a few minutes.  (I literally could make one pass across the entire downstairs and paint every surface in about 15-20 minutes.) 

Masking is a huge pain in the ass.  I'd like to hear how well the trim paint without masking works for you.   IWe would spend an entire week with 2 people (this was pre-FIRE, so this means nights and weekends) masking off the house. 

Less is more with sprayers.  You're better off doing several coats of thin coverage than trying to cover everything on one go.  As I said... it's super quick to blast an entire house once it's masked, so putting on several thin coats (with a little dry time between) is very easy to do.

I'll also mention: my sprayer (possibly others) requires a storage solution when you're done.  In other words, you clean it up, then prime the entire system with a special solution.  It is supposed to prevent any left-behind paint from gumming things up and prevent any left-behind water from rusting/corroding.

Cowardly Toaster

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Re: Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2017, 11:49:20 AM »

I trimmed and painted the interior of my house when we built it 5ish years ago.  I had been burned by a low end Wagner in the past (much cheaper than what you bought) and opted for a low-to-midrange Graco.  I wanted something that I could sip from a 5 gallon bucket and had a wand for doing ceilings.

I think my results were pretty good.  It did really well on high gloss trim surfaces.  My poor techniques were a little more noticeable on large flat sheen surfaces like ceilings.  I attribute most of the lower end results to my technique and not the sprayer. 

I would recommend folks buying something that will draw from buckets.  You can go through a 5 gallon bucket of paint in just a few minutes.  (I literally could make one pass across the entire downstairs and paint every surface in about 15-20 minutes.) 

Masking is a huge pain in the ass.  I'd like to hear how well the trim paint without masking works for you.   IWe would spend an entire week with 2 people (this was pre-FIRE, so this means nights and weekends) masking off the house. 

Less is more with sprayers.  You're better off doing several coats of thin coverage than trying to cover everything on one go.  As I said... it's super quick to blast an entire house once it's masked, so putting on several thin coats (with a little dry time between) is very easy to do.

I'll also mention: my sprayer (possibly others) requires a storage solution when you're done.  In other words, you clean it up, then prime the entire system with a special solution.  It is supposed to prevent any left-behind paint from gumming things up and prevent any left-behind water from rusting/corroding.

The Wagner one I have does have a very small (1/2 gallon?) container that attaches to the bottom of the gun. So ya, it kinda stinks to be constantly refilling. Honestly though, it's hard to imagine dropping much more than $200 on a sprayer unless you were remodeling a house every year.

anotherAlias

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Re: Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2017, 11:55:12 AM »
Oh great, you've just fed my 'WantToHaveIt' monster.  I've been thinking of getting a sprayer to paint the furniture that I'm planning on building.  I like building stuff but loathe painting fiddly bits.

Spork

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Re: Interior Painting and Paint Sprayers
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2017, 12:00:47 PM »

The Wagner one I have does have a very small (1/2 gallon?) container that attaches to the bottom of the gun. So ya, it kinda stinks to be constantly refilling. Honestly though, it's hard to imagine dropping much more than $200 on a sprayer unless you were remodeling a house every year.

I think I spent around $350.  It was an easy choice.  I had the estimate for the painter in front of me.  I think we saved about $5k, even after accounting for buying the sprayer.