Paint Sprayer questions

[boomerang]

I was going to post this in the Tools thread but it might divert the thread away from its original purpose.

For you guys with the paint sprayers, if you have used it indoors, what is the "mess" factor? Would you or have you painted interior walls with carpet or other finished floors in place? What about cutting in? What if you wanted to do a single wall in a room a different color than the others. Would it require a lot of masking? Could you do a ceiling with it and not get a lot of overspray on the walls?

I need to paint a few ceilings and virtually every wall in a condo we purchased and I'm trying to decide if I want to do it myself or hire it out. I don't mind rolling too much and I'm good at cutting in, but cutting in and then rolling into a wet edge can be tough when you're doing it all yourself. To complicate matters the place has vaulted ceilings which means a lot of ladder work. I'd love to spray if I thought it was a good solution.

Also, what's cleanup like with a sprayer? I would be spraying latex.

 

[Greenman]

With finished floors and trim in place, I've always found spraying to be far more trouble than it's worth. The prep time murders you. Everything has to be masked and covered. Cut it in then roll it, don't worry about rolling into a wet edge, it won't show unless you're using gloss paint. They sell a roller that stores the paint in the handle, think it's called a paint stick, twenty bucks at the home depot, and they work well. It's surprising how much time you save not loading your roller every 30 seconds.

 

[Humpy]

Painters will spray inside an empty house/apartment between renters but its really low quality, one color, work just to cover up all the stains. It's empty so a crew of minions can come in and mask pretty quick.

Otherwise, in an occupied house it doesn't really make sense to spray. As Greenman said, overall it will be more work than by hand. You might save some time by pulling all the doors and any removable shelving, etc. into the garage and spraying them.

I only spray water soluble materials any more so clean up is pretty easy.

 

[Kaido]

Depends on your setup. I originally got a Graco HV2900 HVLP setup for $40 on eBay for painting a projector screen with, but it's also useful for doing house-painting projects. It basically acts like a large spray paint can. Here's a video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRz0kEKRLOs

Here's a video with a different color that lets you see it a bit better, there's some more spraying halfway into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlcHpewQodw

I don't know what the successor to the HV2900 is, but you could probably find one used online, it's a pretty good little unit for what you're looking to do.

 

[Kaido]

With finished floors and trim in place, I've always found spraying to be far more trouble than it's worth. The prep time murders you. Everything has to be masked and covered. Cut it in then roll it, don't worry about rolling into a wet edge, it won't show unless you're using gloss paint. They sell a roller that stores the paint in the handle, think it's called a paint stick, twenty bucks at the home depot, and they work well. It's surprising how much time you save not loading your roller every 30 seconds.

Yeah, prep time is the worst part of the job. I hate masking stuff haha. Although once you tape everything (use the blue painter's tape!) & have all of the plastic sheets laid out covering everything, it goes pretty quick.

The HVLP gun approach is nice because the spray is actually fairly contained & dries pretty quickly, so you can do a room by yourself faster & with a lot less effort. Definitely worth the money if you're doing the job by yourself & don't want to spend a zillion years doing it roller style. I've done some houses primarily with rollers & you definitely feel it the next day! Haha. But if you don't mind the work, rolls go reasonably quickly too.

 

[Humpy]

Depends on your setup. I originally got a Graco HV2900 HVLP setup for $40 on eBay for painting a projector screen with, but it's also useful for doing house-painting projects. It basically acts like a large spray paint can. Here's a video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRz0kEKRLOs

Everyone has different needs and expectations, which is fine of course. To me the painting being done in that video looks quite a bit slower than using a roller. HVLP excels at atomization and pattern control. Perfect for spraying some paints, stain, dye, and topcoats on things like furniture and cabinetry (or a projector screen) where the final finish is slowly built up over several applications expecting a high quality result.

When I think of spraying walls were coverage is the goal I think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exutpB3n1aM

 

[boomerang]

Thanks for all the replies. I did a little research after posting this and the consensus seems to be the same. Too much prep work and I was also reading about wearing a respirator and covering head to toe because the paint is still "wet" that floats around until eventually settling. Brush and roller is how it will get done. I'll have to make a personal decision on whether I do it or hire it out.

 

[Greenman]

Having it done by a sub is another pain in the ass. Around here we have two kinds of painters, the alcoholics that own a brush and once painted their moms kitchen, and the guys that think they're Michale Angelo and expect to make a thousand bucks a day.

 

[boomerang]

Having it done by a sub is another pain in the ass. Around here we have two kinds of painters, the alcoholics that own a brush and once painted their moms kitchen, and the guys that think they're Michale Angelo and expect to make a thousand bucks a day.

it's pretty much the same here and I don't think you're exaggerating one bit. Painters seem to have the impression that there is some highly skilled aspect to their work that should demand exorbitant compensation. But the painting needs to be done in Florida so I'm sure it will be different there. And yes, I'm kidding about Florida. It won't be different.