I am having a small home built in the very near future and will be doing most of the interior finish work, in an effort to save some money.
When I painted in the past I always used brushes and rollers. I was thinking about purchasing a spray paint unit for the application this time.
I will be using strictly latex (water base paint).
Will the end result using the spray paint unit be as good or better than a roller ?
If so, could I please get some recommendations on a unit to purchase ?
Thanks

HVLP & a compressor that can keep up with it, I would think would do a great job, and probably in a lot less time.

I've done a few furniture pieces with my dad's & it does a great job with very little overspray.

I have painted the interior of two houses, the exterior of several buildings, an apartment over the barn, and just finished painting the interior walls and ceiling of a horse barn that I am converting to a woodshop, all with a paint sprayer. I am using a Graco gun sprayer (Lowe's), and have a 40" extension for high ceilings. It works extremely well and I am very happy with it, and really like the way it flushes for cleanup. I would avoid the little handheld jobs like Wagner makes, I have never had good luck with them. I confess I no longer have the patience to fool with rollers and brushes.

If you use a sprayer you will need to mask everything tightly and put down drop cloths everywhere you don't want paint. You will get drift overspray on everything including yourself-some of the paint dries mid air on the way to the target and drifts on everything. You will also want to wear a respirator or mask and spray sock over your head, and eye protection. I have a pull down face shield so I don't get paint all over my face and glasses. If the ceiling gets different paint than the walls it will have to be done with a brush and roller after the walls are done. I just painted everything the same color white. Practice on some scrap drywall or something to develop your spray technique. Keep gun moving. You will still have to do some touchup with brush and roller or brush after spraying.

In my opinion you get a nicer more even coverage with a sprayer. You are going to use more paint than with a roller, and have to deal with the overspray, but you will finish in a fraction of the time. (In my case in the horse barn with 20' ceilings a roller was not possible).

Hope this helps.

Hayes nailed it. The house needs to be empty and everything not being painted needs to be covered. The prep time, taping everything off,is much more extensive and time consuming than with a roller, but you will get better results faster with a sprayer. You only have to tape off once, and then can spray 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint quickly. I painted last night and it took me an hour to put on one coat of paint. I went to the store and got some replacement parts for my sprayer that went missing, put on the last coat in maybe 10 minutes.

I spray as much as I can, unless there is so much furniture or stuff in the room that masking it would take more effort than rolling.

For me it depends on the texture. I like to spray smooth surfaces and roll rough textures.

On the inside, I'll tape off what's not getting painted and spray primer. It doesn't take long to spray walls, ceiling, and trim with primer.

I then spray the trim with a semi-gloss.

Tape the edges of the trim and tops and bottoms of crown. Paint with a brush next to the tape and roll everything else.

Wood ceiling and wainscoating gets sprayed as well. It's fast, easy, and gives such a smooth finish. I'm not good at tipping with a brush.

Next to my Dremel with the three foot bendable wand my Grayco sprayer is the shit!

Now would I go to the trouble of moving a buncha furniture and masking off windows to spray a room- no.

But if it’s a new home with nothing to move, he’ll yeah, I spent more time masking off windows in a room than it took me to spray it. But to have rolled it would have taken twice as long.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MikeinNC,

Brush and roller. I have seen amateur users make a huge mess and ultimately take longer trying to learn and spray their first time. Modest sized house anyway... I vote stick with what you know.

I use an 18" roller and it goes pretty dang quick and I usually cut in without taping out anything, making sure to paint wet on wet.

A few years ago I volunteered to help paint a house for a charity. I rolled two bedrooms by myself while 3 other volunteers prepped and sprayed one bedroom. The sprayed room looked so bad I was asked, and did, come back and repaint that room too.

Did they know what they were doing? Don't think so... and that's my point.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
If you use a sprayer you will need to mask everything tightly and put down drop cloths everywhere you don't want paint.

Given the op is dealing with new construction, if he works with the contractor and paints at the right time before any of the flooring goes down, he can skip all the drop clothes.

quote:

If the ceiling gets different paint than the walls it will have to be done with a brush and roller after the walls are done.

Actually, I've shot the ceilings first, then used a shield and shot the walls later, and then trimmed out the ceiling/walls last with a brush. Worked great and really sped up the process.

quote:

In my opinion you get a nicer more even coverage with a sprayer.

Agree completely. I far prefer to spray any big job(s) for the time savings and the final look.

I can't speak on the ease/difficulty of operating a spray setup, but in the past, I have always painted my houses, interior and exterior, with brush and roller and was satisfied with the job. But in my present house, before we moved a stick of furniture into it, we had the hardwood floors refinished and then had the entire interior repainted by a top notch professional crew, our first time hiring one. The job they did compared to my old brush and roller is night and day, the spray job they did was immaculate, just an awesome job. It was worth every penny. IMO, the spray result is much better than the brush/roller one.

I never used a sprayer but if I was doing a house from scratch it would be on the top of my list. I HATE painting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS2yJqaFuAs dude paints a room in 9 minutes!!!!

Sprayer no doubt. The prep takes longer but overall you will save lots of time get in places hard to get with brush and roller.

I would rather hit my hand with a hammer than paint. But....I finished my basement and 3 car garage. I used a Graco sprayer from Home Depot. I sprayed two coats of primer and one of color with no problems. The task is in covering those things that don't get pain. Once everything is masked, spraying goes really fast. I put about 30 gallons between the 2 projects.

Good stuff. Thanks y'all, I appreciate the responses.

If you've ever brushed and rolled bare drywall, you'll know why the pros spray and back roll. Painting sucks. It sucks worse if you take the slow road. It sucks even worse if you do it wrong.

Also, do yourself a favor and get an 18" roller. Be sure to get a full body drywall primer. The home improvement stores sell drywall primer but it is garbage. You want something with enough body to seal and build. Ask me how I know.

I'd have the builder do it, as they will most likely do a much better job and that is what you want on a new house...they'll sand the drywall properly in places it's mudded etc.....….how much are you really going to save by doing it yourself in the grand scheme of things.

If you insist on doing it yourself, I'd use Benjamin Moore and make sure to prime it with 2 coats and 2 coats of paint since it's never been painted before.

I forgot to mention that I have a Graco sprayer as well. It wasn't hard at all to learn to use.

Spray for sure but I've found that you need at least 2500 psi to spray latex without trailing. I have an old wagner 404 and a Graco battery operated, they both do well. Nozzle spray tip is the key to a good job.

You CAN achieve equal quality results either way.
I do both but know (for me) it depends on the size of the paint task at hand.
If you have a large area, also hard to reach area like tall walls or ceiling then spray is the way to go.
It is much MUCH faster to paint HOWEVER there is more pre prep time with masking and drop cloths and the cleanup takes much more time.
Overall still the way to paint in those scenarios.

In shorter smaller jobs then rolling the walls and brushing the cut in and the trim is the way to go.

Still either can be equally done well.

If spaying use a Graco airless or similar.
I only recommend HVLP if doing fine trim work and definitely NOT for latex and/or walls.

In regards to today’s exterior modern paints, I was told that they are designed to be sprayed on not brushed on.
I asked the guy who was painting my house to spray a small board I was replacing for me, and I couldn’t believe how thick it went on without running. Easily as thick as what two coats would be if using a paint brush.