My wife and I are debating whether we should tackle some projects during our new home construction. One of the projects we’re considering doing ourselves is painting. On the one hand I’ve painted many things in my life: decks, walls, ceilings, cabinets, etc. and never had any issues. At the risk of offending professional painters I think painting is one of the trades we might be able to swap out for our own labor. On the other hand I’m not sure I want to tape off all the trim in our 3200 s.f. house (is it really necessary to tape off if we cut in the edges by hand?) and I KNOW I don’t want to paint our two story family room – I’m not a big fan of heights or setting up scaffolding.
With that said, if we do tackle the <9′ high rooms on our own what does everyone recommend for a power painting unit? Do you recommend a power painter, or just roll/brush it on? Thanks!
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On the one hand you're talking about not wanting to mask off the trim, and on the other hand you're asking about a power painter ... that seems to be contradictory. Use a good brush to cut to the trim, and roll the rest.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Ditto Ed. If you use a power painter-especially indoors-you WILL get paint everywhere, so taping and masking are mandatory.
I just painted the outside of my house and bought a Graco XR7 to do so. The masking was a pain but it worked really well and definitely cut down the overall time. Then I used it in one of the apartment units my MIL owns, and the results were not as good-specifically because paint gets everywhere, including you.
If you go the sprayer route, steer very clear of the Wagner Power Painters. They are crap.
Thanks for the heads up on Wagner. When you factor in all prep work - for both spraying and rolling/brushing - how much time do you guesstimate you saved by spraying vs. brushing/rolling.
Well, for someone who has never used a sprayer before I would say that spraying would actually take a lot more time than the old-fashioned way. The big issue is clean-up, they take more time to clean up than use, and since you have to tape everything that's a huge amount of time before you even begin Save the money, buy good angled cutting brushes, don't tape and just go at it. Cutting by hand you can also stop and go, a big advantage since you are doing it on your own, with a sprayer you can't just say "oh I have a few spare hours maybe I can cut in the dining room".
I've been looking at power painters to paint my deck, shed and fence. I finally decided against getting one after speaking to a local paint store. He said that they're not a good idea if you're going to use it only a few times a year, because of condensation in the unit between uses and difficulty in cleaning the system out thoroughly, especially if oil-based coatings are used. He said that any system under $600 - $800 aren't worth the trouble. All of the reviews on power painters I've read are spotty, literally and figuratively. Some people like them, some said they made a big mess with them.
I have a leaky air compressor and an old DeVilbiss gun. My money is problably better spent fixing both of them than in a power painter.
We do a lot of painting of rental properties. My DW rents an $1800 unit from a rental store for $50/day and gets it saturday for a 2days-1day rent deal. I wouldn't roller that house.
Buy some nice canvas tarps, tape, get a sprayer, and you will move through it fast. Buy paint in 5-gallon buckets. DW can cover 2-coats 2-rooms /day including stuff new construction wouldn't have to deal with. rollering takes forever. We've done that too.
remodeler
Sprayers are good if you use them all day everyday but the hook it up, repair it, time for a ontime job will drive ya nuts.We roll with 18in. rollers on 10-15,000s.f. homes and always do well.I bring in a spray guy(sub.) if the house is perfectly clean and ready to go,very rare! other than that I sometimes have this guy shoot my white ceilings and prime 1 ft. down the walls to save me time.This has been the biggest time saver I have come up with because of the ease of what happens after that,rolling 1 primer and 2 coats on the walls after.Another trick on 2 houses that I did was to prime it all (trim,walls and ceilings) with the sprayer, then 2 finish latex on the ceiling and finish the walls with rollers and trim by hand .All of these systems work for very specific jobs and depend on having control of the job site for however many days you need it .... good luck!
I agree with what Ed Hilton said. No need for tape if you've got a steady hand. Rollers are pretty quick. I work with another guy and I cut in and he follows with the roller. If you do it that way, the cut in paint doesn't dry and leave lap marks where you roll into it.
I found a Wagner power painter to be great for applying finish down my arm. Maybe good for applying deodorant, but after about five minutes I was ready to throw the thing through a wall or something. Lady wanted me to use it to put waterseal on her siding. Never take a job like that again.