Paint sprayers

[kalmatthew]

Talk to me about paint sprayers for inside the house they seem to be all the rage at the moment and all over YouTube diy channels. I'm having a number of rooms skimmed so what I'd planned to do over a year or so will now need doing in a much smaller time scale so the labour saving is attractive but I'm worried it might be hard to get a good finish and easy to make a mess!

 

[Chilli.s]

Possibly require a respirator or at least a very sophisticated mask. paint spray is dangerous.

 

[Saunders]

My daughter uses one for doing cupboard doors and things that can be taken outside to paint, and also did my bookcase with it; she is quite good at getting a consistent finish.
I wouldn’t try it myself, I reckon it would take me longer to get good at using one than it would to paint the walls with a roller.

 

[danny la rouge]

Talk to me about paint sprayers for inside the house they seem to be all the rage at the moment and all over YouTube diy channels. I'm having a number of rooms skimmed so what I'd planned to do over a year or so will now need doing in a much smaller time scale so the labour saving is attractive but I'm worried it might be hard to get a good finish and easy to make a mess!

Friends of mine did it in their living room recently. It was their first go and it came up really nice. A mutual friend who is a painter and decorator advised that the trick is to not try to do a heavy coat to speed things up. Keep it light and go over it once dried. It’ll still be many times faster than a roller even if you have to do several coats.

And, yes, a good mask.

 

[Saffy]

We're still finding little dots of blue paint 2 years later, despite having the whole house look like a scene from Dexter.

The finish is brilliant though for furniture and fireplaces. We sprayed the kitchen cupboards and a couple of dressers. Getting the correct mix of paint and water is the thing which makes the difference.

To be honest though, I find for walls I can get just a good a finish with a decent roller.

 

[Boudicca]

I bought a paint sprayer, £30 from Aldi, but haven't used it yet. It was mainly for my rattan garden furniture as the Wilko cans I used to use have gone up a lot in price.

Previously I thought I needed a compressor - are the electric ones up to the job?

 

[WouldBe]

This house was decorated with a sprayer by Barrett's just before I moved in. They sprayed everything, sockets, light switches, uPVC window frames, even over the bulbs in the downlighters in the kitchen.

I want some of that new Dulux paint where you open the can and it applies itself.

 

[Saffy]

Previously I thought I needed a compressor - are the electric ones up to the job?

Ours was an electric Wagner one. It worked really well with a good enough finish for us. We've used it since to spray the garden fences.

 

[kalmatthew]

Friends of mine did it in their living room recently. It was their first go and it came up really nice. A mutual friend who is a painter and decorator advised that the trick is to not try to do a heavy coat to speed things up. Keep it light and go over it once dried. It’ll still be many times faster than a roller even if you have to do several coats.

And, yes, a good mask.

This is really intresting. I'm tempted to rent one for a weekend and give it a go in one of the rooms that isn't being skimmed (I'll feel better if I make a complete balls of it and have to take a disk sander to it to remove runs!)

 

[A380]

Just get a lawn sprinkler, stick it in the middle of the room and pump emulsion through it. What could go wrong? Might be an idea to put a bit of newspaper down over the carpet and furniture; you know, if you are a perfectionist.

 

[dessiato]

I've been looking at sprayers, we've a lot of painting to do. I'll watch this thread with interest.

Aldi have an electric one on offer at about £40 at the moment. I'm tempted.

 

[Looby]

I’ve used one outside on our shed and fence, I think it’s Wagner. It was amazing and the finish is great but my wall is blue striped and most of our grass and plants too for a while.

Because of this I haven’t been brave enough to try it indoors. I think it would need to be a totally empty room for clumsy me.

 

[Saunders]

I think there may have been a mr bean thing where he blew up a can of paint to decorate his room; it’s been ticking away in the back of my memory all day since reading this thread

 

[WouldBe]

I think there may have been a mr bean thing where he blew up a can of paint to decorate his room; it’s been ticking away in the back of my memory all day since reading this thread

There was. He stuck a firework in the paint.

 

[Epona]

Possibly require a respirator or at least a very sophisticated mask. paint spray is dangerous.

This, just use a roller and cut in with a paint brush. You don't want to be inhaling paint.
(Have worked as a painter/decorator and any job involving spray eg. radiators or metal was always full PPE including respirator mask. Don't underestimate how hot and uncomfortable that can be when making a decision about how to do this job - basically if you can do it another way then don't do it this way).