29 days to go, the paint sprayer

Immaybe a rare human, in the fact I like to paint. Painting rooms isn't something I fear or dislike. Well, recently it's getting a little boring. When I started to paint the woodwork in our master bedroom, I couldn't believe how long it took me to do just one window. So, the lure of a paint sprayer finally won me over. I spent a few days trying to figure out how I felt about using a paint sprayer.

From my experiences paint sprayers are for very specific jobs. 

DON'T buy a paint sprayer to paint a room to just freshen up the color. 

DO buy a paint sprayer to stain decks, fences, and other outdoor wood things.

DO buy a paint sprayer if you're going to paint anything large outside with latex paint, like the entire exterior of your house.

DON'T be cheap with taping things off when you use your paint sprayer. 

DON'T waste your money on a detail sprayer.

The best use for a paint sprayer indoors is for a house you're totally redoing, or is new construction and doesn't have floors and carpet you could ruin. Over spray is serious, very serious. Like, wear a mask/respirator, goggles, old clothes and a hat serious. Tape, paper and plastic everything you don't want paint on. Tape it so well you feel a little redundant doing so, because you'll still miss a tiny part and paint will sneak in somehow. If you're painting woodwork, a door, tape a lip that over laps the back side of the door around the whole door so over spray doesn't sneak in to cover your closet full of clothes. 

I didn't make a tape flap on the back of this door and should have and should have expended my tape and paper further under the door. That is unwanted over spray all over the floor leading from the bedroom to the hall. 

Over spray after math. I was totally covered. Shoes, hair, teeth, nose hairs, everything. 

Be prepared to use a lot of paint. There is a paint volume control setting on my sprayer and it still blasted through paint with alarming speed. 

Do your research on your sprayer to make sure you don't need to cut your paint. That just is a pain in the ass. But beware too you're sprayer may not be able to handle thick paint like paint plus primer or oil based paints. 

I used the sprayer to paint the woodwork in our master bedroom and some of the ceiling in the master bedroom.

Would I use the sprayer again for an indoor project ever again? likely not. 

Things I liked about the sprayer....

. It was relatively easy to clean. 

. Painting the woodwork was super fast compared to painting it by hand with a brush.

. Using it to paint the edge of the ceiling where it meets the wall, was a breeze. (Note, I didn't care about white ceiling paint over spraying to the walls. The time it would have taken me to tape, paper and plastic off the walls to avoid over spray would have been just as long as edging the ceiling by hand.

. About as loud as a blow dryer

. Relatively light weight

Things I did not like about the sprayer

. The time it takes to cover everything you don't want over spray to get on.

. The amount of paint that lingers in the air during and after spraying

. Lack of precision 

. The excess paint it used

I will love this thing if we ever need to paint the exterior of a house or need to stain a fence or deck. But for indoors a paint sprayer is a waste of your money for the mostly typical home owner. Good old fashion roller and edging brush is much more manageable, time saving and cost efficient compaired to a sprayer. The amount of time you save spraying a room is a joke compared to the amount of time you spend prepping the room to not get drizzled in over spray. 

I'll try and update later the brand and model we bought for sprayer. I know it's a Wagner that we bought from Home Depot. We got a kit with regular spray nozzle and a detail nozzle. The detail nozzle wasn't even used because it isn't recommended for paint plus primer paints and requires you to cut your paint to use it. Peggy is currently sleeping on my hand, it's been a difficult falling asleep night for her, so she can keep it all night if she needs. 

I hope this helps you realize you totally do or do not need a handheld paint sprayer in your life. 

Master bedroom before Rick slapped a quick coat of polyurethane on the floor. 

I am finally getting really sad to leave this house. I knew it would happen as rooms became finished. The house is becoming what I dreamt it to be and I will never get to live and enjoy it.