How To Tape For Spray Painting Small Thungs

Our Ultimate Guide to Interior Painting with a Sprayer! How to use a paint sprayer, why it's better than rolling and using a brush, the paint spraying tools and equipment we used, how to prepare to spray paint and more!

It's not often that Sean lends his vox to the weblog. He's more of the strong and silent blazon when information technology comes to blogging… but he (well, we) learned SO much while painting our cabin recently and realized just how much this postal service needed to exist shared! Our hope is that this guide will assist you learn how to employ a paint sprayer with conviction! I know it seems daunting, just it actually isn't once you know what you're doing. Go on in listen that we are DIY habitation renovators who are learning as we become — definitely non professional person painters. Permit'south dig into all the details!

All About How (and Why) to Employ a Paint Sprayer

Why nosotros chose to spray paint instead of scroll

At that place are quite a few benefits to spraying paint instead of using traditional painting methods. Spraying pigment is a totally different mindset than rolling or using a brush because most of the time and energy goes into properly prepping the space. That means using plastic, newspaper, and tape to comprehend anything y'all do not desire painted — and being very conscientious and particular oriented while doing then! For us, there were a few main reasons why we chose to spray paint instead of rolling:

Ceiling height

Our ceiling reaches 15′ high, and then using a roller would have been incredibly difficult, time consuming, and messy. Just retrieve of all the splatter! Plus, we'd accept to substantially build scaffolding in order to pigment our ceiling as opposed to standing on a ladder with the extended spray nozzle. My arms are tired just thinking about information technology!

The amount of expanse needing to be painted

Some other reason we chose to spray paint is considering we were basically painting half of the house the same colors and it'south a very open space. Spraying paint immune united states of america to efficiently paint this large space all in ane savage swoop.

An investment in future renovations

To us, this is a really large house. Information technology's a four bed, 2 bath and 2000 sqft. Nosotros have a LOT of painting to do… so investing in a pigment sprayer made sense for u.s. — especially since we also demand to paint the exterior of the cabin and the exterior of our shop space/garage. I encourage yous to consider how many other projects yous could tackle before investing in a sprayer. Information technology could also make sense for you to but hire i!

Is it faster to use a paint sprayer?

Honestly… I don't know the answer to this from our experience because we had so many debacles (a wind tempest knocking down a tree, losing power and plumbing for several days, etc). My approximate is that yes, it is really faster because it but took nigh 30 minutes to pigment the entire living room! The existent fourth dimension-consuming part is preparing to spray. That is where the actual investment in time is greater. Information technology probably took us 2-iii days to get everything taped off, masked, and covered in plastic. That includes all of our windows, skylights, the upstairs walkway/catwalk, doors, and anything else we didn't want painted.

But once yous've washed all the preparation, spraying is so much faster and way easier. I found it to be manner less physical because you're not constantly getting your paint in the roller, rolling paint over your head, etc. Considering that my sciatica was acting up during this entire project, I am really glad we chose a less-physical method of painting!

Here is a breakup of all the pigment spraying equipment, tools, and materials nosotros used:

Graco Magnum 257025 Project Painter Plus Paint Sprayer
Graco 243104 Pump Armor, ane-Quart
Graco 287019 x-Inch Extension Pole for Airless Paint Spray Guns
Multi-position ladder
Tyvek adjust
Full confront respirator
Dunn-Edwards Premium Masking Moving-picture show 48 in. x 180 ft.
Dunn-Edwards Premium Masking Movie 72 in. 10 90 ft.
Dunn-Edwards Original Orange Premium Painter'south Masking Tape
D-East Hd Clear Plastic Sheeting 12 ft. x 400 ft. 0.31 mil
Box of rags
ScotchBlue Precipitous Lines Multi-Surface Painter's Record — 1″, ane.v″ and 2″
Like shooting fish in a barrel Mask 12 IN. X 180 FT. Brown General Purpose Masking Paper
5 gallon buckets, at least iii
Putty knife
Razor bract scraper tool

How to prep for spraying paint

Patch holes and sand

As with any painting projection, you accept to prepare your wall surface showtime. Our walls were in pretty bad shape and had many dings, scratches, and damage. It took me most ii-3 days to patch all the holes, let it cure, sand it downwards, and and then patch more than etc etc. Only it is SO worth it, in my opinion.

Clean

Honestly, to me this is the almost important step. I am fanatical about getting a nice, smoothly painted wall. So if you don't accept the pace of cleaning right before you paint, yous volition end upwardly with hair, dirt, and dust stuck in the paint! I literally went over every baseboard, windowsill, and wall with a rag and all purpose cleaner right earlier nosotros painted… and and then also used the store vac on all of them + the ceiling!

Prime

In one case you're happy with the way your walls look and feel, you lot have the selection of priming. Nosotros did non prime our walls. Instead, we merely primed areas where we had raw wood (bank check out this post to acquire about the different primers nosotros used). Yous tin also employ primer over larger patches then that they match the texture of your existing walls. To do this, I highly recommend using a roller and so that the texture matches. Nosotros used the paint sprayer machine to prime number our dining room ceiling, but used a brush for other smaller areas.

Tape

We went through nearly 12 rolls of tape all told. Nosotros taped everything. To prep our wood and timber pieces, we first put down a line of tape as close to the edge of the drywall as possible. Nosotros used one" or 1.five" tape for this. And so nosotros went over that with either masking paper or plastic sheeting and used another line of tape to secure that to the original tape, virtually .5" in from the border. Nosotros used 1" or 1.5" tape for this, as well. This layered technique helped united states of america protect the exposed forest while also getting a clean tape line.

Nosotros did the same technique for windows and doors and specifically used masking paper for those parts since it was easier to work with than the plastic. You can use this technique for baseboards as well. As for the flooring, we did the aforementioned tape/paper trick, just and then taped a plastic layer on it too. For this, I highly recommend using a thicker gauge plastic and wider, heavier duty tape (the orange one linked above). We did this to cover the unabridged floor.

And lastly, y'all want to make certain to invest in actually good tape as to prevent seeping and haemorrhage paint. Oh, and get more rolls of tape than you anticipate needing!

Masking newspaper

Masking with newspaper was so easy, made clean up a cakewalk, and prevented wet paint from getting through. We used paper to wrap the timber beams in the dining room, for example. To exercise this, we cutting four' lengths of information technology and taped them on i past one using the technique I simply described. Then added another piece with a few inches overlapping. It was crawly for protecting the exposed wood!

Plastic wrap

To protect anything that is oddly shaped, nosotros used plastic. The sheeting was likewise expert for roofing furniture and the upstairs banisters. Only make sure to tape the edges together then that overspray doesn't sneak underneath.

Remove doors

We removed all of the doors in gild to get the best coverage possible on door jambs and frames. To paint them, nosotros ended upwards setting up an surface area in a spare room that is also under construction and painting them separately. Since we did this in the eye of wintertime, we did it within but would much rather have done it outside!

How to Use a Paint Sprayer

No matter which paint sprayer y'all ultimately utilize, always read the directions for that machine ahead of time! The Graco paint sprayer we ain literally came with a laminated one-folio manual that we kept on mitt at all times! This is an overview of the full general steps you'd follow to spray paint:

Prime number the sprayer: this helps the sprayer properly suck in paint instead of an air chimera
Submerge the suction tube in the pigment: one time yous've primed, adjust your prepare upward so that the gallon of paint is in a bucket and the suction tube is fully covered past paint. Keep an actress piece of wood in at that place to assistance tip the paint tin can on information technology'south side as you lot go through paint to keep it submerged.
Test that it's set correctly past spraying into the waste bucket a few times
Suit the pressure level command knob and test to ensure that the spray is even and without gaps at the edges.
Brainstorm spraying: our manual has a helpful analogy just basically you lot want to spray about 12" from the surface and aim to overlap each stroke past 50%
Clean up: run the car in the cleaning ready and then that the excess runs dorsum into the paint tin can and then run water through it to make clean the automobile. Dismantle the sprayer and wash each component after every use to forestall build upward of quondam pigment.
Storage: apply the pump armor to fully prepare the machine for storage. We haven't done this step yet because we're about to spray the chamber adjacent!

Helpful tips & tricks

And lastly, here are a few more tips to assistance y'all successfully spray paint in your home:

Have a helper — information technology was and then much easier when I helped Sean manage the paint sprayer's tube so he could focus on spraying
Practise thin, even coats to avoid sagging and drips
Be certain to allow the paint to dry according to the manufacturer'southward instructions on the can before taping and masking over it. Each pigment product has a different dry downward time.
Remember that paint typically needs 10-14 days to fully cure
When covering your floor, effort to go the plastic as smooth as possible. Nothing is worse than tripping when you accept wet paint on hand!
Pay attending to the temperature of your space. You may observe nosotros have a few heaters on while painting — that's considering we lost power and knew the business firm needed to exist at to the lowest degree warm in order to allow the paint to spray properly and smoothly.

Did we miss anything?? If you accept any additional questions, leave a comment and we'll exercise our best to respond!

Photography by Jojotastic.