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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 10:43:43 :
In Reply to: OT....Wagner Airless Paint Sprayer posted by Paul (in NY) [12.64.158.75] on Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 09:58:50 :
I tried using a sprayer like that to paint my first house, 30 years ago, and ended up giving it away. The main problem is sprayers of any kind are terrible for irregular surfaces. My 1915 house had cedar shingle siding on some parts, 4" bevel siding on some parts, lots of window trip, roof brackets, etc. The sprayer puts most of the paint on the things that stick out the most, which means that by the time you get enough paint down in the corners, the edges are dripping.
On a paint job on an old house, applying the paint is the easy part of the job anyway. For a good paint job, it's the prep that takes all the time. Prep means scraping all loose paint off, possibly pressure-washing to get more loose paint plus all the dirt, moss, mud wasps, etc off, maybe scraping some more, then replacing or patching all missing or rotten boards, then priming all bare wood and any old glossy finishes with oil primer, and then finally applying the latex paint. If you scrimp on prep, you'll have to re-paint within a few years.
With a sprayer, if you want to paint the trim a different color, or you don't want to paint over your windows, you'll need to mask them off. There's really no substitute for a regular old paint brush. With a brush you can get plenty of paint in the corners and cracks, and you can do the trim and window frames without having to mask anything.
A sprayer is really only good for large, smooth areas. You can do those just as quickly and easily with a roller. In fact, you can do them more easily because you can put the roller on a pole and reach farther. For some reason, people don't think about using rollers to paint the outside of a house.
In my opinion sprayers are only good for those who want to put the quickest, cheapest, possible coat of paint on a house so they can sell it. Painting a house is no fun. If you can hire someone to at least do the scraping, you'll be better off. If you hire someone, anyone you pay by the job, rather than by the hour will scrimp on prep. Prep is everything with an old house as well as with a truck, so it's worth getting it done right even though you'd rather get to the fun part. My current house was also built around 1915 and needs paint badly. It has lots of details, lots of small things that need repairing, and I'm still putting off on doing it, because I hate that sort of work.