Hello,
I have 100 feet or so of wooden fence to which I want to apply Thompson Water Seal (or similar). I looked at some spray guns at Lowe's and Wal-Mart yesterday. Can anyone make a suggestion?
I am willing to spend up to about $80, assuming the more expensive spray guns will make life a lot easier.
TIA,
Elle
they sell a tank sprayer for about $20.00 and holds about 2 gallons and there is less waste and no extension cord to pull along.
mike............
Cheap garden pump up tank sprayer, Thompson's is a thin liquid any excess will just run off and not leave drip marks. Best part is cleanup, empty sprayer dumped into thrash, done. Dave
If you're thinking about these Wagner power painter units that sell for less than $100-
SAVE YOUR MONEY.
They might work ok for painting a piece of furniture, but useless for much else.
As Jersey Mike said a simple pump sprayer will work for you.
Thanks for your quick responses, Mike, Dave, and 3rdEye. I'll start making inquiries.
I gather you mean that this is a hand-actuated sprayer: One manually pumps it to get the pressure necessary. But that's no big deal given the thinness of Thompson's Water Seal.
I saw another recent thread here that talks about water seals for docks. Thompson's apparently isn't thought highly of in this area. Is that the same for something vertical like a wood fence?
I'll look up water seals in Consumer Reports later today, per the dock thread.
"3rd eye" wrote
Yup, I'm sure they meant the hand-pumped sprayer. I use the same method for staining my deck. However, I'm cheap, and flush it with mineral spirits afterwards so I can reuse it.
Thompson's is barely more effective than spitting on the fence. Consumer Reports should have some decent ideas -- they did a pretty nice long-term test on stains and water seals a while back...
In my son's neighborhood, the CC&Rs prohibit treating the wooden fences. So everyone has the same weathered gray -- until it becomes necessary to replace the fence. --- SJF
"SJF" wrote
SJF, that sounds sensible. So I checked a few minutes ago. Fortunately (I suppose), my homeowners' association management said my neighborhood does not have such a prohibition.
I went to the library and checked CR. It appears it has been doing a report on "deck treatments" every summer time for at least the last several years. Thompson's was last tested a few years ago. It did indeed score at the very bottom of CR's tests.
Andy--Yes, I was wondering about whether the sprayer could simply be cleaned. I don't know exactly what I'm dealing with here; CR says the treatments they've tested extensively and that give good results are "alkyds," and so I understand don't clean up with mere water. (Some latex-based treatments are under study by CR.)
I'll find a garden pump sprayer this weekend and shop around for the best deal on the different treatments CR recommends. Certain brands of Cabot, Wolman, and Olympic did well.
Thanks again, all, for the direction.
I think you should be able to clean it with paint thinner. Clean several times with small amounts repeated several times rather than one large flush. The only trouble I ever had was with a small one (intended for misting potted plants?) which apparently used rubber, rather than neoprene gaskets. Not likely you'd run into that problem. --- SJF
if they are grey, its likely cedar. which doesnt need treating.
randy
xrongor wrote: ...
Possible, but not necessarily, and cedar will also weather longer w/ some protection--particularly horizontal surfaces such as the rails.
yes, but he says his association doesnt allow staining the wood. its very likely cedar. and yes. cedar doesnt hold up when it has water sitting on it. if you want a 20 year, do nothing fence, use redwood for the posts and rails, and cedar for the slats. if you want a 25 year fence, finish the cedar.
randy
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