Airless paint spraying

[vivienz]

@JSHarris has been kind enough to lend me his airless paint sprayer recently, as I've started decorating at the build following on from the plasterers, wherever feasible.

 

I will put some more info on the blog in due course, but wanted to put a note in here in case anyone was thinking about this.  I've got a lot of surface area to paint and it's particularly tricky in the upstairs bedrooms where the vaulted ceilings reach 4.7m at their high points.  Even with a scaffold tower, painting up there is challenging and I really didn't fancy doing it with rollers.

 

First off, it's messy, more so than the promotional manufacturer videos would have you believe, but no more so than many of the youtube videos I watched on the subject.  I wouldn't want to do it in a small room or one with lots of stuff in it, particularly for ceilings, as being able to move about with the sprayer seems to be fundamental to the technique and being able to keep the nose of the spray gun at 90 degrees to the surface being sprayed.  That said, for getting the white mist coats onto the plaster skim, it's nothing short of miraculous.  Masking takes a couple of hours, depending on what you need to do (large windows in my case) but once the sprayer is up and running, you can get a large room, walls and ceilings, done in half a day as it dries incredibly quickly.

 

I've stuck with contract white for the ceilings - it gives a nice opaque, super matt finish that I really like and makes the sprayer the obvious solution.  For colour coats on the walls, I'm using rollers.  This is for a couple of reasons - first the sprayer is a thirsty beast and it would cost a fortune if I sprayed the vinyl emulsion, and secondly I'm not sure I could mask effectively enough to retain the white ceilings without overspray from the colour.  It also means that I get some texture on the walls, making it easier to touch up any paintwork in the future.

 

If anyone has a new build with lots of bare plaster walls and empty rooms to paint, I'd certainly recommend a sprayer for the mist coats.  Do prepare to get messy, though.

[willbish]

Can't believe you are painting already!

There was a time not so long ago when you and I were having ground investigations done in the same week.

Here I am still waiting for some ICF blocks to arrive! (Anytime you want Logix ?)

 

So testament to your meticulous and methodical planning, the finish line is in sight. 

[vivienz]

Thanks! The whole house isn't quite ready for painting but I would say that the boarding and plastering is 85% there. The guys worked like crazy through January and the quality of the skim is fabulous, which has made painting so much easier. My plasterers are awesome.

More fundamental to the timings is that the decorating is the first time I've really been hands on and at times the build has been stuffed with teams working on it. Very different to a largely solo build!

 

[nod]

Sounds like you have been busy

 

We hired one from speedy £80 for a week Absolutely fantastic 

But like you say Messy 

We masked all the windows 

But that mist  goes everywhere 

Ok in a newly plastered house