DIYbanter - View Single Post - Solid stain cedar siding, spray or brush?

TomR[_3_]

wrote:
I'm going to paint my house which has cedar siding and trying
to decide whether to just use a brush or use a sprayer and
back-brush it? Any thoughts? One thing I've noticed in working
with the sample colors, the siding has a rough grain and with
a brush it takes some effort and going over it multiple times
to get the stain into all the nooks and crannies. I'm thinking
a sprayer might be better at flying the paint into those spots,
then the brush finishes working it in and smooths it out? Seems
like it could go faster.

But it also seems that spray/brush would work best with two
people, one to spray, one two brush? Don't have a sprayer
either, but looks like I could buy a decent one for under $200.

I am hoping that you get some useful responses to these questions since I
would be interested in seeing what others think about this idea.

Given what you wrote, my inclination would be to suggest that spraying and
back brushing would probably be the fastest and most efficient approach.

But, if it were ME actually doing it, I am not sure how well I would do with
the sprayer and spray process. I would probably have to watch a ton of
How-To YouTube videos to get a sense of how to do it and see if I think I
could do it.. I would be concerned about the type of sprayer, the type of
paint, how to keep the sprayer clean and working properly, avoiding
overspray, avoiding spray particles ending up on neighbors cars, etc.

Rather than buying a sprayer, I think I would be inclined to rent a
commercial grade sprayer and try using that first.

A friend and I did once spray the entire inside of a vacant 3-story home
that we owned together at the shore many years ago -- all white ceilings and
walls, and nothing fancy. His family had a painting business so he showed
me what to do. It worked out okay, and it was fun to do and try, but it
wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I had a professional painting company paint the exterior of a 2 story
colonial style home with asbestos siding and they used a sprayer for a lot
of the work. They knew what they were doing and may quick work of the job.
They put tarps on the roof to prevent overspray and carried hand-held
aluminum(?) spray shields to block off areas that they wanted to protect
from the overspray. The good news about doing exterior painting is that you
don't have to worry about messing up the interior of the house and there
aren't really overhead ceilings etc to deal with (just some eaves).

As far as brush painting without the spray process, the only thing I could
think of would be to be sure to glob on lots of paint and then brush it out.
The extra paint should cause the paint to flow into the crevices better.
Too little paint on the paint brush can take forever to try to get the paint
into the tiny crevices and spaces. I learned that from some professional
painters when I was a teenager. Or, maybe roll the paint on fairly heavy
and then brush it out.

My guess is that before I would venture into me doing any spray painting I
would probably try a couple of other techniques first at ground level and
see how it worked out.