How to Spray Paint Your House

When painting the exterior of your home, you may want to consider renting an airless sprayer.  Painting your house with an airless sprayer can save many hours of labor, produce a more consistent finish, and reduce the amount of paint needed to do the job.  However, if you decide to paint with an airless sprayer you will want to follow a few rules and tips.

 

First, when spraying the exterior of a home, you must take extra care in the masking process.  The concussion of air coming from the spray-tip is sufficient to push aside insufficiently secured paper/plastic masking.  In addition, the spray of the gun-tip may push well beyond the main stream of paint, thus coating unprotected areas adjacent to the targeted area.  For best results, mask completely everything within five or more feet of the areas you intend to paint.  In short, you should completely cover all windows, doors, decks, AC units.  Additionally, remove any objects, such as plants, BBQ’s, lawn furniture, etc. from the immediate area.  Rest assured, the time you will save by spraying, as opposed to brushing and rolling, will more than make up for the amount of extra labor you put into masking/prepping.

 

Second, you must back roll any and all trouble areas.  The reason that spraying your home can save on material is that you can use less paint to cover most areas.  Typically, a sprayer can achieve a better-looking coverage with less paint than a roller can.  However, in problem areas—places with raw wood, areas where the paint has peeled, cracked wood, etc—back rolling is necessary (look for our tips on Back Rolling).

 

Finally, it is important to maintain the proper pressure of your spray paint stream. Essentially, you want to have the pressure (psi) going through the lines of your sprayer to be just enough to avoid uneven paint lines from appearing.  Lines occur in your spray paint pattern and can leave visible lines in the finish.  Moreover, with insufficient pressure, the spray does not cover as consistently.  It is also important to avoid too high of a pressure (psi), as this will cause a greater amount of overspray, and waste paint.

 

If you are intimidated by the thought of renting an airless sprayer, don’t be.  With care and patience, anyone can learn to use a Paint Spray Machine successfully.

 

 

I hope this tip was useful and helps you produce a beautiful and professional finish on your home. Remember, a fresh coat of paint on the exterior of your home adds a great deal to the curb appeal and value of your home.