Painting with an air compressor

[Cobber]

Hi everyone.

My builder will drop off the weatherboards to me to paint before he puts them up. Im told I can use an air compressor to paint the weatherboards which will be quicker.

Has anyone done this before and will it look ok compared to a brush? I have no idea if it will work and am looking for some advice.

Cheers everyone,

Cobber

[durwood]

more info needed!

What type of paint?
what type of weather boards? timber and if so timber name
what gun do you intend using?

That will do to start with.

[Tools]

Spray them as a means of applying the paint,and then back roll with a nook and cranny roller.

Tools

[null & void]

You'll find the first coat applied with an air-compressor won't have enough paint to soak properly into the timber. I spent many weekends hand-painting the first coat on around 2,500 fence pailings and looked for as many shortcuts a possible.

Use the compressor on the 2nd+ coat.

[Cobber]

Thanks,

The weatherboards will be pre primed weatherboards. The paint will be a standard external paint for weatherboards....cheers

Cobber

[durwood]

Primed weatherboards will help a lot, you won't get the adhesion problems the guys are talking about as you really need to rub in the primer into the grain.

You can spray but you will use at least twice as much paint (50% goes in overspray) and you will have overspray all over the area around where you are painting. Hope you have a large yard or area to do the painting and you will need a bit of space to set out the wet boards while you do the next ones.

I would hazard a guess that a good roller and a wide paint brush will not only save you lots of material but be only a few minutes behind you in time to apply.

If your spray gun is not the correct one to apply the paint you intend to you may not only waste a lots of time and material but have a lot of messed up boards to redo. You may also have to water the paint down so much to spray you will have to do more coats than if you use a roller/brush. water also dries slowly so the paint may run/sag where it normally wouldn't.

House painters rarely ever use a compressor and spray gun they use an airless spraygun especially if the paint is water based.

You should do a trial with both spray and roller or brush ( you could use these both together to roll on the large flat areas and brush in edges or difficult areas such as concave oves if you have any )

Don't wish to be a spoil sport but those are some of the problems you may encounter.

[Cobber]

Excellent thanks for that. Finidng an area to paint on a muddy building site will be a challenge for sure but I will havw to set up an area maybe at the front.

What is the airless spray gun your are referring to by the way? You are probably right about wastage.

[durwood]

An airless spray gun is one which operates via hydraulic pressure. No air is used just the force of the paint out through a fine tip in the gun.

The same principal as a garden hose (water under pressure through a small hole - fine spray.)

Because there is no air the paint is forced into any grain/holes where a normal spray gun would have air hitting the holes first and bouncing back out stopping the paint from penetrating in.