Another spraying question: exterior
So this summer is the big summer – that is, the first year I have time to attend to my yard and house exterior.
I want to paint my ugly duckling, which has aluminum siding. This doesn’t lend itself to being rolled. My house is quite small – 20′ x 30′ – so brushing the whole thing with a 3″ or 4″ brush isn’t too daunting. Just give ‘er!
That being said, should I think about spraying? My neighbours’ house to the west is, oh, 8′ from my house. I would be SERIOUSLY worried about overspray drifting onto their house. Or car.
I’ve never sprayed anything, and the concept has kind of grabbed my imagination. It seems like it could be a handy skill to learn. I painted my kitchen, and I got so tired of brushing the doors that I skipped the backs. My wife doesn’t mind, but I’m kind of ashamed. Also, in theory I could have done a much better job with a sprayer.
Replies
bump!
DO WHAT YOU DO BEST AND PAY FOR THE REST!!!!
Durrr. . . . .
Well, I don't spray much so I'm biased.
But I have brushed a few aluminum sided houses. It looked fine, and
everyone was happy. The brush strokes help it look real to me.
Of course the prep is the important part anyway.
Spraying is a great thing to learn.
But even on the best days, 8' from your neighbor isnt the place to learn it, unless you get it groovy from them to plastic their house while you shoot yours.
Which kind of defeats the whole time savings thing.
"do what you do best . . . " yeah ok, so nobody is here to learn squat. We just stagnate in what we knew when we came to the forum and cough up for everything else. The whole reason we come here is to stay on top of the learning curve and bounce ideas off each other.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
I'm definitely leaning towards brushing. But I watched the video with Jon Tobey, and he wuz big pimpin' wid his Graco! Shpphhhh! Shppphhhhh!
The use of spray equipment doesn't make a poor painter good. An airless is used for a major reason, production. But it doesn't speed up the job in every case. Sometimes it's faster to leave the airless in the truck.
There are also thinks that an airless can't do, like bridge end grain or rough grain, it needs to be brushed to get it to fill. There's no reason siding can't be rolled or brushed and look good.
I've seen houses sprayed with vehicles within feet and not gotten any spray on them. I've also seen houses sprayed that hit multiple cars in a parking lot 2 blocks away. It's mostly in the wind direction. :)
But...far be it from me to stand in the way of someone trying hard to justify a tool purchase.
Proximity to that house is definitely a concern.
I would practice with a surface that may have a few imperfections like drywall, wooden siding or a fence. The smoother the surface, ie. metal siding, the more it will reveal overlap, missed spots or in the worse case runs.
I would consider doing the side closest to your neighbour with a roller such as the WHIZZ. It is rounded on one end almost the exact width as the metal clapboard.
Good luck,
jon
Russian saying
I want to paint my ugly duckling, which has aluminum siding. This doesn't lend itself to being rolled.
Why not?
I have cedar shingles on my house and I used a 9" roller on most of it. For a smaller exposure you could always use a 7" or even a 4" roller which would still be much faster than brushing.
Of course, theres still the bottom edge to deal with. I painted those first, one section at a time, and followed immediately with the roller to even out any drips/runs.
I'm also trying to justify a sprayer for a couple of jobs I have coming up, so far I haven't convinced myself.
I painted this duplex I own, aluminum siding. So much easier & quicker than wood. Pressure wash it and away you go. I used SW Duration & a 4 in brush - covered great. I tried the roller method and wasn't happy with the 'look' of the finish.
One note, painting in the sun, once the sun heats the siding the paint dries almost instantly. I found a using cheaper brushes and rotating them in/out worked best. As one got clogged with dried paint I'd drop into a bucket of water to soak and use a cleaned brush.
Rented a man lift for all the high stuff. Prepped & painted the whole thing in just over a week, solo.
-Norm