Painting a whole house

[dttheliman]

So there has to be an easier way than the old standard roller and 2" brush, Just about to move to a well appointed house with very weird paint colors, every room looks like a rainbow exploded while eating skittles , green and orange ceilings ... purple walls etc , gonna need a shed-load of kilz and other paint , My question is that I see some battery powered paint rollers and various spray units on the market and don't know anybody who has experienced one - just wondering about using one or either inside, speed ease of use etc and the mess factor - (not cleaning the equipment ) but overspray , drips etc. can anyone shed light on this. and what is recommended - the house is over 4300 square feet and every inch needs painting.

 

[bob15]

I bought a Wagner 9150 about 7 years ago and love it. Here is a link to something comparable from the same company I bought mine from:

http://www.gleempaint.com/spraytech-1620-recon.html

This is not the el cheapo HF special either.....

bob

 

[Ray-CA]

Several years ago I had to paint a long hallway and the living room, including the popcorn ceiling. We rented an airless sprayer, masked off the areas and shot the whole thing in about 30-minutes. It actually took longer to mask the area or clean sprayer then it did to paint. One thing we didn't do (didn't know about it) was to back roll the painted walls to even the spray pattern out.

Ray

 

[dttheliman]

Thats what I am thinking - how much mess does it create when you are using it inside ?

eta: any one have any ideas on pumped rollers like the Wagner line

 

[Falcon67]

We had that issue - by the time we researched all the available options - sprayers, pump rollers, etc - we just gave up and rolled the hell out of it. I had a Pro friend quote $2 a sq/ft, so we used that as a saving basis. Painted before we moved, took not quote a week. House needed all carpet too, so that saved on drop cloth. Used premium Kelly-Moore paint, only the blue room with neon green trim required two coats. Granted - we're 1660 sq/ft, so you have a much larger issue. From my Pro friend - spraying just requires that you mask the hell out of everything first. Then, it goes pretty quick. Spray is about the only good way to do doors in any kind of decent time. The airless sprayers don't make a huge mess, but there will be plenty of overspray. And you'll need paint suits, head socks, gloves and very good masks. A good sprayer can hold a pretty decent line from what I've seen. For that much house, I'd go airless and buy some stock in the 3M masking tape division. Blue does well, use the green frog tape for anything critical like cabinets and woodwork.

 

[flmikej]

If you use a good quality roller and a 5 gallon bucket with roller screen it goes much faster than with one of those paint trays (and it will save you from saying a bunch of bad words I HATE PAINT TRAYS)oh ya Dont use big box store paint go to a real paint store ie sherwin williams or any store that olny sells paint.If you wanna watch a big box store manager squirm ask them what paint that corprate spec'd out for there store just a hint its not theres.

 

[ilovevocs]

I have a friend who is in the rental business. He goes into a house, tapes off the floors and case work, and sprays everything white, walls and ceilings all on the same shot. I feel like this particular "style" of painting is conducive to airless spraying. Just painting ceilings white, color walls, trim work, ect your better off rolling and brush trimming.

 

[seagravedriver]

Rent an airless. Good rollers are will do well, but once you are masked, airless is awsome. And airless still move a lot of prodcuct, and very high pressure, and if the tape is not secure, it will lift and flap in the wind.
You can also get extensions so you can, depending on machine quality and skill level, do a lot without ladders. Oh, smear petroleum jelly on your face, and other exposed areas of skin, as the pain will come off easier.

 

[ed_v]

Pay somebody else to do it!!!

I am the biggest tightwad diy'er you'll ever meet. I don't pay anyone to do anything for me..... but I HATE painting!!!!

Best of luck to you sir on your endeavor. I'd rather be shot in the testicles by a rocket launcher than paint a whole house!!!

Ed

 

[ilovevocs]

Pay somebody else to do it!!!

I am the biggest tightwad diy'er you'll ever meet. I don't pay anyone to do anything for me..... but I HATE painting!!!!

Best of luck to you sir on your endeavor. I'd rather be shot in the testicles by a rocket launcher than paint a whole house!!!

Ed

Lmfao!

 

[jordan369]

I painted my house with the help of my wife and dad. We used 3/8 nap rollers and brushes. Sure it was time consuming but it turned out great. Spraying would have been easy AFTER masking off everything. Masking takes more time in my opinion.

Mike

 

[dttheliman]

Thanks guys appreciate the insights , just not my favorite job, well actually I freaking hate house painting, and my sentiments echo ed_v's ..... however its getting near summer vacation time so maybe I can find some semi-slave labor ...... LOL

 

[240sxguy]

The worst thing I have done is have "freinds" help paint. Most of them just screw around and do a janky job. I am pretty picky and want it done right, so I do it myself. It's a laborious process that's for sure. I would at least spray the primer. Just a warning, if you spray kilz wear breathing protection. I can't even imagine how difficult it will be to breathe. I sprayed latex primer to cover up purple walls and it was foggy. I used a lot of kilz and the vapors are pretty strong. I can't imagine being in a could of that stuff.

That said, my Wagner power painter is great and has paid for itself over and over.

Evan

 

[Matt M PA]

I HATE painting! But...I painted our whole house before we moved in, and painted the inside of my garage before moving things into there as well.

I bought one of the power roller Wagners where you snap a lid onto a gallon pail of paint. I thought it worked great..and made it go much faster. you still need to cut in around windows and such. Which, *****.

When I did our house, I used that power roller too. I used an off white for the walls and white for the trim. The best way I found to do panel doors and louvered doors was with Krylon.

 

[wnstwolf]

Wow it was like yesterday I had this project. Last June we had decided to hire out the sheetrock work for our newly constructed home but take on the painting ourselves. Walls were taped, mudded, and sanded but unprimed and no flooring material or trim work was in place. 3k sq/ft house had to be primed and painted. We have a timber frame home so we did need to watch out for the beams.

Purchased reconditioned Wagner 9175 with assortment of tips and attachments from Gleem for $325. Purchased 3- 5 gallon pails of glidden gripper a bunch of plastic to cover windows, tyvek coverup, a nice respirator, and a case of beer.

Started on a wednesday morning with no one in the house but me and had till Monday before I had to go back to work. While the sprayer is a nasty tool as far as precise and perfect it is an amazing production tool. Stuck it in the 5 gallon pail and never stopped until the pail was empty. took a 10 min break and back to applying the primer.

What I did find was that best results were to apply paint with sprayer then back roll for nice texture. Wife came in on Friday and figured this out!! Perfect timing as we are now on top coat with Benji Moore product that was pricey and did not want to waste it. We finished mid day on Sunday with 4 different colors throughout the house. Of course after flooring, trim, and move in we had lots of touch up to do but 90% was behind us.

lesson learned:

needed 6 more gallons of primer!!! the gripper is thick stuff and the sprayer loved it. Just seemd to not want to be stretched and I was told not to thin it and one coat would work. if I thinned it I would need 2 coats so followed the directions from paint store. glad i did the stuff is great!

Sprayer was great since we had no trim up and no flooring. This would not have been the case if in finished house

Gleem is a great place to purchase and support products!

Back roll for consistent look

if your only going to paint one wall do not go sprayer route. this is for bigger jobs due to clean up. Next use for me is the main house garage and then the barn!!!

We were quoted $2.45 sq/ft from bidders. is wall sq/ft not house sq/ft with 10' ceiling height things added up quick. Lowest bid was $14k no trim work

Beer paint tools all in $6,200
4-5 days labor and maybe 2 months of lung use taken off my life and way too much paint on the tyvek.

I would do it again but with realization that house was not finished. if I had to cut in all the trim and ceilings it would have not been worth it and taken at least another 3-4 days..

Here is a pick looking into the kitchen after accent lights were installed. You can see beems and other items we had to work around but sprayer has variable width tips to keep fan pattern in check. By the time I got to the top coat I had this down pat..

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

I use the Wagner paint mate for interior painting, if you not going to spray, it will knock your time down by 2/3rds, and they are cheap to buy. I think Ive been using these for about 12 years ? There was a different brand before Wagner, I think it was called a paint stick, but dont remember who made it, just that it came in blue box.

Anyway, these may appear "gimmicky" but they do work well. Oh, and if you want to use it again and again, allot of hot water at clean up time goes along way. I **** water up into the reservoir and then push it out through the rolling pad dispenser. Then I take it apart and clean it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YU18A/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[DRP6833]

I use the Wagner paint mate for interior painting, if you not going to spray, it will knock your time down by 2/3rds, and they are cheap to buy. I think Ive been using these for about 12 years ? There was a different brand before Wagner, I think it was called a paint stick, but dont remember who made it, just that it came in blue box.

Anyway, these may appear "gimmicky" but they do work well.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YU18A/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Painted roughly a 10x19 wall in about 15 minutes with one of these!

 

[ddawg16]

I have an airless....

Depends on the job....when I painted the inside ceiling rafters of my garage....I can not imagine doing that with a brush and roller....

If you have a flat surface like walls and ceiling....rolling is good....no over sparay and easy clean up....

If new construction? Spraying is better because you can get the paint into all the cracks and crannys....

I will do airless when I get ready to paint the outside of my addition as well as all the new fress drywall....I will just tape off the floors and windows....shoot the primer...after it dries...then the final paint.....done....

 

[GarageEnvy]

I've had a couple of houses that I flipped that I did with an airless. Those are generally empty and everything is getting a universal paint coat. On an occupied house where you cared about the quality of the work and had floor coverings or other things to protect, I'd roll it. Otherwise the prep in covering, taping and protecting is too much time. The only indoor spraying at my own house was in the garage when it was new construction. It's basically an 1800 sf rectangle and I did it before the doors were installed. Cover the floor and blast away. My neck, arms and back thanked me for not rolling that ceiling. I did still roll a bit to even the coverage in spots.

 

[Herb]

Spend the time and mask off everything and then spray. A sprayed finish that is done well really looks nice. BTW, back rolling is for amateurs that don't know how to adjust their gun for the paint or conditions or don't maintain consistant motion. When people tell me I'll have to back brush or back roll I tell them that Rolls Royce used to paint cars with a brush but stopped that process for a reason.

 

[bseant]

I bought a Wagner 9150 about 7 years ago and love it. Here is a link to something comparable from the same company I bought mine from:

http://www.gleempaint.com/spraytech-1620-recon.html

This is not the el cheapo HF special either.....

bob

You prob have well taken care of this project by now but I can vouch for the spraytech sprayer from gleem. I didn't get it from there but it's a great sprayer. if using the right tip and pressure there shouldn't be that much overspray, but yes it always takes longer to tape then it does to spray.

 

[darkk]

We built a 2300 sq.ft. addition that includes a garage. We started with an airless sprayer. It makes a mess everywhere, and we painted the walls and ceilings with the same color from the same pail! It has to be back rolled and uses a tremendous amount of paint. If you are spraying and the ceiling and walls are different color or paint texture, then you will have to tape all the edges and possible the whole wall as well as the complete floor. Taping and covering everything was time consuming and a pain in the ***. Painting by hand, you only need to throw a drop cloth on the floor. I found it was easier to just paint it with a roller and brush.