Minimum cost airless to spray interior doors

Jul 06, 2003 10 Replies

Any advice here?


6 interior doors with faux raised wood grain. Brush an roller gives additional texture I'm not happy with.

Used latex paint, right?

-- dadiOH ________________________

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I had 8 rasied panel doors to paint. I ended up using a nice Sherman oil based semi-gloss with a nice Wagner paint sprayer in the garage. Everything turned out fantastic!

Thanks Chris, and which Wagner did you use?

Thanks Trent, I had a great weekend! Good advice but I'm interested in a sprayer for future products as well.....

That's why you got the additional texture...latex doesn't flow well. There are additives to improve flowing but I doubt it will ever measure up to oil paint's characteristics.

With oil paint, the film shrinks and conforms to what is under it, assuming a reasonably uniform application of paint. If you start with a smooth surface you wind up with a smooth surface, discounting any dust that might settle on it. In your case, you would have wound up with the same embossed texture you had.

-- dadiOH ________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

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In that case, the more expensive ($400 or so on up) airless sprayers can move an incredible amount of paint. With lots of overspray. Perfect for something like a fence or block wall where you can just let it rip. When I painted the interior of my new house, I went through 80 gallons in three days. Would have taken many, many times longer with a roller.

The relatively inexpensive Wagner (around $100) works reasonably well for occasional use. Depending on what you want to paint, you might check out the HVLP sprayers...not airless but numerous come with a built in compressor.

-- dadiOH ________________________

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80 gallons?! On an interior? You have a 15,000 sq. foot house?

No, about 4500. Primer and two (mostly) top coats. And lots of overspray :)

-- dadiOH ________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

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I think I ended up paying around $100 bucks at Home Depot. I ended up thinning out a little to flow better. It's very messy so be sure you have everthing covered up. Out of the 6 doors I have to paint, I was done in a little over 20 minutes.

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