Are paint sprayers useful?

I need to do a significant amoung of painting (an entire apartment + a building’s hallway).  Ideally I would like to do this job myself.  At the same time, I have painted before and know that it takes a lot of time.  I am considering buying a paint sprayer, but I have never used one before.  If you have used one before, what is your opinion of them?  Are they useful or just a waste of money?  Do they save a significant amount of time over the traditional roller?  What are their major drawbacks?  Lastly, any recommendation on a good paint sprayer?

nintzk

in Painters and Painting & Stripping 13 years and 3 months ago

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rh | 13 years and 3 months ago

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Definitely faster than rolling and a lot more pleasant except for the cleaning of the machine. I’ve never used the sprayer indoors but I did paint an entire exterior of an 1100 square foot detached house all by my little self within a couple of days when rolling or brush would have taken me a month.

BKsearch | 13 years and 3 months ago

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  Ok. I am not a pro, just a guy who’s used sprayers and is doing research on them: I’ve used an airless similar to the Graco mentioned and it made a huge mess with a lot of overspray. Granted it was MUCH faster than a roller for the heavily textured surfaces I was painting. If you go that route you will absolutely need to mask everything very well if you don’t want paint on it. If everything in the room is white, you’ll be golden. If you have a lot of trim or details that are natural wood, you are going to spend a lot of time masking. The floor should probably be masked no matter what. The drops are so fine that most of the overspray will dry in the air, but some still sticks. Regular professional airless systems, IMO, means fast but lots of overspray and mess. Good for white box type spaces. I’ve got to do something similar (a whole house: interior) in the near future and have been checking out high volume low pressure (HVLP) systems because I don’t want to get paint everywhere. The advantage to an HVLP system is that there is very little overspray compared to conventional airless sprayers. While there is still some overspray, I feel more comfortable using them indoors with good ventilation compared to a traditional sprayer. Yes, HVLP is slower, but you have more control. You can find some videos on youtube that illustrate what I am talking about. You might be able to get away with a big paint shield and bit of masking indoors. The Fuji Mini Mite is well reviewed and the v4 is supposed to take thicker paints better than the v3. I’d recommend renting a sprayer rather than purchasing one for your first time around just to see if you like it. You can find rental outfits for both types of sprayers (airless and HVLP) in the city and it will save you a bit of cash if you decide spraying isn’t for you.

wyckoff | 13 years and 3 months ago

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They are certainly not a panacea.  I used to have a Wagner, and it ended up in the trash.  It was great for laying down primer, but I found a brush and roller to be far superior for the final coats.  First off, high quality paint tends to be thicker than the sprayer likes, so it clogs, and thinning out the paint is a bit counter productive if you ask me.  Second, getting a perfectly even finish takes a lot of practise, and unless you are planning on making this a full time job, probably not worth the learning curve.  Third, with a sprayer you have to tape everything off wherever the color changes, like ceilings and trim, which is a time consuming PITA.  If I wanted to use a sprayer again, I’d hire the guy who has the top of the line commercial model and the 1000 hours of practise to go with it.

bks2f | 13 years and 3 months ago

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Graco Airless _Paint Sprayer_ 257070 is what i use. Its alot faster then a roller and it cost 550\. you can get it at home depo. The only bad thing about it is you have to change the filter every job. Good luck if u have anymore questions just ask.