Airless Paint Sprayers

[Kathleen]

I have some painting to do. Interior ceilings / walls and exterior. Exterior is about 1/4 wood and 3/4 stucco.

I am contemplating buying an airless sprayer. The Titan XT 440 was recommended to me as a sprayer that can handle elastomerics. It's probably a couple hundred dollars more than other models I'd consider, but if it's really going to do the job I'd consider it. Do these high- end consumer/low-end contractor models work well?

Do you need to backroll stucco?

Is the GPM rating more or less a hard number? I know you can reduce pressure, but I assume there is a pressure range based on tip size and paint viscosity/solid content that provides an acceptable spray pattern. Does that mean that if I have a room that's going to take

2 gallons of paint with the XT440 (at .43GPM) I'll be done spraying in under 5 minutes assuming continuous flow? (And hours of prep and an hour to clean the sprayer) It seems like I'll be running with the gun.

How thick of a plastic do I need to use to mask things? Too thin and you blow through it. Too thick and it's heavy / more costly.

Are the paint mfg tip size ratings pretty much correct? Also, if they recommend a .018 tip and your choices are .017 and .019, which do you choose?

How long does it take for the overspray to settle and you can take the masking down?

I'm sure I have a thousand other questions, but I'd rather not waste everyones time with them.

Thanks, Dick

[ransley]

I have a Titan 440 that is 20 years old with about 500 gallons through it, it still is fine and no rebuild yet. Interior spray? how many rooms, whats the floor, Different tips for different products 17 oil,

18-19 latex. Have you sprayed before

[ransley]

Titan is high end commercial.

[Joe]

Consider Graco mid and upscale models. Widely sold and well respected, parts and service everywhere. If you are working with a real paint store, consider renting a couple of different machines out for a weekend spin each to see which one is your style. Some are slower than others, but more adjustable for different materials. And some big honkers really only should be used on production lines. Make a careful choice and good luck.

Joe

[dadiOH]

I only have one experience with them but will tell you a bit about that...

I bought one - don't recall the brand but low end - when I built my house to paint the entire exterior (stucco) and interior (heavy orange peel). The interior of the house has 5400 sq.ft., ceilings vary from 8' - 12'. There are about 4,000 sq.ft. of exterior wall not subtracting windows/doors of which there are many.

I gave up on spraying the exterior...the time to mask would have been much greater than cutting in edges with a brush and then rolling. Had I sprayed, I expect that back rolling would have been necessary.

Fortunately, the interior was already masked from when the walls were shot with mud for texture. The plastic the texture guys used was not a thin film but it wasn't heavy like visqueen either. Regardless, I can't see a sprayer blowing through a thin film. Not unless it was really stretched tight and you put the nozzle directly against it.

There is a *LOT* of overspray! Spray a walk in closet with white paint and it is like being lost in a blizzard; however, it takes little time for the overspray to dry. Maybe 20 minutes(?) assuming it isn't real thick and the humidity isn't high.

Even though it took me only three days to paint the entire interior, walls and ceilings, with a primer and at least one coat of finish paint I would

*never* spray the interior of a house unless it is bare - no rugs/carpets...no furniture...no trim...no cabinets...no doors...no electric outlet covers - because of the time to cover and mask.

Because of the wall texture, I found my best results to be by making one pass angled a bit to one side and down followed by a second pass angled to the other side and up.

[SteveB]

My experience and advice are the same. Unless it's new construction, or you can take EVERYTHING OUT of the place, the overspray will be on everything. One thing where an airless did a better than expected job for me was spraying over popcorn. We did it on rentals, and it sure is easier, and quicker than scraping the popcorn, even though that's no big job. It looks great, too, and hopefully, we'll sell them before the paint needs repainting or scraping eventually.

Steve

[Kathleen]

Thanks for all the responses.

dadiOH commented that the overspray dried after about 20 minutes. Is it safe to take the masking down at that point or should you wait considerably longer for all the paint to settle?

I appreciate all the advice.

-Dick

[dadiOH]

Opinion...

The overspray doesn't float around in the air like dust motes. It is heavy and settles rapidly. If there *were* itsy-bitsy floaters they would dry almost immediately so I'd think 20 minutes would be sufficient for overspray to have dried or set up even if you were using oil paint.

However, that doesn't mean what you sprayed is dry. You can pull the tape as soon as the paint is dry enough not to run. However, with some paints, taking off the tape while the dried film is thin and tender results in the paint edge tearing; OTOH, waiting until the paint is totally dry can result in edge chipping. Just have to try it and see...

[SteveB]

I have found out that the longer you leave the tape on, the more comes off with the tape. Even the undercoat. I pull tape shortly after spraying while the paint is still wet. Otherwise, the tape pulls off strips of the new paint.

steve