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PAINT SPRAYERS For painting the side of a house, are electric paint guns useful? What should I look for in buying a spray gun? Can they be used if it's windy? Is overspray a problem? --Ben We stained our entire house with one last summer, and it worked great. We bought the mid-range power sprayer (mid to high $200's) The difference between that and the top model was the big wheeled stand, not apparently the mechanicals. It worked great, but messy. Mask the windows. Mask the plants on theground. Mask yourself, wear a hat, and expect to be the color of the house for a few days. It's also a bitch to clean the sprayer, so plan to get the job all done in several days (it works well with 2 people, one to spray and one to spread the paint around and work it in with a big brush, help move the sprayer, and be paint-and-thinner wallah. You can leave the sprayer sitting in thinner overnight, then just do cleanup at the end of the job. Try borrowing one, it's a big-investment item for something rarely used. Just be sure to read the directions, don't injure yourself, and do all the careful cleanup on the mechanicals afterwards. --LizM FWIW, I bought two Wagner 300-class Power Painters last year for painting the barn. They worked really well. You can either fit them with a 1-quart paint cup for small jobs, a 1-gallon backpack for bigger jobs, or you can stick the takeup hose straight into however large a bucket of paint you desire 8-) It's also strong enough to suck and spray un-thinned latex paint. For large outdoor jobs, we found the backpack mode most convenient. Disposable liners are available for the backpack reservoir so as to make cleanup much easier. The great thing about this model is that all of the parts that touch the paint can be removed from the electrical housing for immersion-cleaning. In fact, what we tended to do at the end of the day was to fill a 5-gallon pail with soapy water (we were using latex paint), throw all the non-electrical parts in, and take it home for cleaning at our leisure. We got them for $97 each at Home Despot last year, don't know what the price is now) --Jim Paradis I've got one, and you're welcome to borrow it if you wish. I used it
outside for painting our pool fence, and it was easier and faster than
brush painting. That's the good news. The bad news is: Would I do it the same way again? I'm really not sure. My gut feeling is probably not. Don't believe any of the ad spew (Happy smiling people without realistically adequate protective gear and No Overspray) about the electric sprayers, but talk to a few other people who use them, for a variety of opinions. --Scott Lefton > For large outdoor jobs, we found the backpack mode most convenient. Disposable liners are available for the backpack reservoir so as to make cleanup much easier. I'll second this. As one of the wielders of jrp's backpack sprayers, they were wonderful to work with. However, they -do- overspray. These are not subtle instruments. If you need to cover a lot of square footage in the minimal amount of time, power sprayers are the way to go. BUT. -expect- that paint will go places other than what you're painting. This includes nearby fixtures, plants, and the nice new hiking boots you decide to wear out to a friend's barn-painting party. ("Dave, why are your boots speckled with hot pink paint?" "You don't want to know.") It's a badge of honor now, I think :) I also used a Wagner painter when doing an inside room, doing all the walls. Expect spray 2-3' from anywhere you're spraying. If you have a white fixture that has to stay white, and you'll be anywhere near it, Mask! Mask! Mask! Okay! dave, now with a pair of speckled pink boots, and a speckled grey guitar case (was in the room where I was painting the walls) --Dave Belfer-Shevett |
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