"Harry Everhart" wrote in message
...
I am planning to spray paint my house with latex stain. That is what is
on it right now. I own a Sears compressor and a spray gun - but several
people told me that the "airless paint guns" do a better and easier job.
Can I spray latex stain with one of these guns? Has anyone completed an
entire house using this method?
I plan to pressure wash the house thoroughly and use a bleach/water
solution to clean off any mildew - etc - before I start painting.
I am newly retired and just bought this house in Tallahassee. The paint
is ok now - but some spots need work - I figure I will just try to pant
the whole house. I will stain it the same color - gray - I will take a
sample to Lowes and let them match it.
What kind of airless paint gun do you have - and how do you like it? I
plan on buying one for this job.
Harry, et al:
We renovated our rent house to turn it into a vacation rental two years plus
ago. It was a pretty big project, stripping every square foot of wallpaper,
fixing drywall, retexturing, exterior paint, painting block walls, you name
it, we did it.
We decided that an airless was the way to go. Now, mind you that every
stick of furniture was out of there, and the floor was bare. That makes a
big difference when using an airless.
I shopped around, and decided on a Graco XR7 because of asking in the
newsgroup, and epinions.com ratings. They sell new for around $500. I
bought one on ebay for $360, and it was like new. I sprayed the entire
house, using one person spraying, and on person backrolling. I used it to
shoot the entire "popcorn" ceiling, which is a b**** to do any other way.
It was S-I-M-P-L-E with an airless. In the meantime, I have also sprayed
4,000 square feet of block wall with it. Today, I used it to spray a garage
conversion. We started at two PM, and it is now 4:17 PM, and we are done,
put away, cleaned up, and I am inside on the computer. I have used it the
two previous days spraying a coat of primer over new drywall, and the first
coat.
Airless sprayers are the way to go, but they are not the thing for all
applications. For areas where you just want to spray large quantities of
paint, it is like spraying it with a garden hose it goes on that fast. The
downside is that you will spend as much or more time masking and cleaning up
as spraying. But you get thicker consistent coats of paint with MUCH less
labor. There are ins and outs of using it, but when you analyze how much
work two men can do in a day, it is incredibly more productive than any
other method. Now, that does not include doing fine work, as an airless
wouldn't be very good for that. Airless sprayers are the cat's meow for
some things, and worthless for others. They shine for volume spraying.
I suggest you look at the Graco XR7, and consider it over the XR5. It is
the big brother, and if you ever want to really spray 50 gallons of paint on
a block wall, it won't stutter once. The XR5 has some limits when trying to
spray lots of paint. For the average home spraying, the XR5 may be
adequate. But I like to buy more than I need for that once in a while when
you need to push the envelope.
As mentioned before, renting would run you about as much as a new one, so
might as well get one, and have it in reserve.
IMPORTANT: Read the instructions, and when you put it away, do it right.
But if you put it away according to directions, it will work first time
every time. They ain't rocket surgery, but they do have a few nuances, none
hard to learn.
This may be a little long. I can't say enough about an airless or how happy
I am with my Graco. I once sprayed 3200 sf of block wall with one helper in
less than four hours, and that included drag out, spray, clean, and put
away. I probably would have had a coronary by rolling it on there. And
today was a breeze. Monday, we will mask the walls on our casita, and
squirt the ceiling. Total time, about an hour.
HTH
Steve