Spraypaint vs roller

[beer is good]

I am going to paint the outside of my house which is rendered brickwork previously painted by me 25 years ago using a roller. Yesterday I painted a fence using my shiny GMC compressor and a spray gun. Raced through it. So now I'm thinking of spraying the house rather than rolling. My concern is the spray won't put on as much paint as the roller, and I want two good coats on the wall (so I don't have to do it for another 25 years!) Does anyone know about the coverage of rollers versus sprayguns?

[durwood]

You will use a lot more paint spraying than you will rolling (or brushing.)

For a normal air driven spray gun you loose 50% of the paint in overspray.

You have to contend with the overspray then settling on surrounding areas.

To spray ( depending on your gun) you will need to thin the paint out this means that any one coat of sprayed paint will deposit less paint on the surface

You will also have to mask objects close to the spraying (windows,door,etc).

Its quicker but not better than rolling but a good guy with a roller would probably cover as much area in minute as a gun.

Any spraying done on houses is usually by "airless" spray a completely different method. It deposits the paint by forcing it through a small nozzle, as there is no air to blow back or atomise the paint all the paint is forced onto the aurface (same principal as a water hose)

So in a nut shell "bad idea".

[Jarrahrules]

I Agree with durwood. you need to tape up windows etc. Just roll it. Also when you spray houses you should back roll which means you need to use a roller to push the sprayed paint into the surface otherwise the paint will just stick to the surface and not penatrait. Sorry about the crap spelling.:B

Regards
Jamc

[manoftalent]

get yourself a decent roller head suitable for "rough" surfaces .....it'll make your job much easier and quicker ...well worth the money too

[Slobba]

our airless sprayers at full blast is 3000 + psi. the sprayer you have is for small jobs ( painting your trailer etc.....DO NOT USE IT TO PAINT YOUR WALLS.:oo:

get yourself a lambs wool roller sleeve, it will paint your bricks very easy...trust me on this

[keepontruckin]

With brush and roller the coverage is around 14-16 square metres per litre. With airless spray you get around 5-8 square metres per litre. I would use a brush and roller as the clean up is much easier as it takes a while to clean the airless properly.

[beer is good]

Thanks to those who replied to my query about spraying the house. As I was painting unpainted rough render I thought I would try the spray gun for cutting in as it was hard work with the brush. The spray using Wattyl Solaguard gave a spray about 2 cm wide and didn't put on enough paint, so back to the brush and then a 25mm nap roller to do the rest. The roller was really quick and you can put plenty of paint on. The only place I would use the gun again is in painting downpipes or copper pipes on the outside. I found them difficult to paint with a brush, but it was very quick with the gun, and the narrow brush width didn't matter, giving a smooth finish in no time.
Thanks again for your help - I am always amazed by how useful the Net is.