Painting Exterior with Sprayer

[MeiersEnterprises 14]

I'm about to paint the exterior of a clients home with an airless sprayer. The house is two colors - the wall color and the eaves/trim. Do any of you have any advice for me how to do this with a sprayer. I'm thinking of spraying the walls first (painted stucco) then taping and covering the walls to paint the eaves and over hangs (which the underside has to be done as well). These overhangs are too time consuming to do by hand since they have exposed wooden beams. They would also be diffucult to cover if i did them first. I've used an airless once but only on a simple fence.

ANY suggestions would be very much appreciated!

David

[RyanH 14]

Best to paint the smallest area first then go back and paint the largest area. The guys who painted my house did it the other way around. Airless sprayer will inevitably get paint in unintended places (any wind can carry it) and you will get light spotting elsewhere. It's easier to go back and touch up by hand the smaller areas like trimwork than trying to touch up a large wall.

If I were to do my house (which I will most likely do in a few years) I will be painting the trim first with an airless (taping off the glass on the windows and gutters and shutters), then tape those off once they have dried and go back to paint the broad side of the house. Remove the tape, and I have any overspray on the trim I'll go back and touch them up.

[Don Phelps 85]

I painted ours with an airless in Feb. and sprayed the body of the house first, without concerning myself with the overspray on the trim, since it would be painted as well. Then went back and did the trim with a brush and smaller roller for the finishing touch. Turned out great, but it's a must to do it on a windless day.

[Dale 16]

David, First..pick a calm day lol.

An airless definately has its place but its not always the solution. Where you really could use it to your advantage is on the soffit & beams. I'd do them first to completion. Drape some plastic or sheets or have a helper shield with cardboard. You could per cut some cardboard shields to fit between the exposed beams..carry a small shield with you for the smaller areas and have at it. Depending on the roof or how picky people are I'd brush the fascia. Its hard to not have the up drafts pull overspray to the shingles. I've use a 3' aluminum shield before but thats just not wide enough to be all that efficient. Just my opinion. A lot depends on how you're going to stage the job. Have you used an airless before? Theres a bit of a learning curve. Outside of technique, use the right sized tip and just enough pressure to atomize the paint and get rid of the "fingers".

After that I'd put it away and roll the walls.

[MeiersEnterprises 14]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions.

My intentions were to paint the whole house with the airless but Dale brings up a great point. Now I'm thinking of painting all the trim and soffits/beams with the sprayer and rolling the rest. It's flat stucco so I could roll the whole house in probably 2-3 hours.

Ryan, the whole overhang, underneith the overhang (exposed beams), and about 6 inches down the wall needs the trim color so if i did that first, i'd have to tape those off before spraying the body of the house. That looks very difficult - i dont think i can go that route...

There is one area on the body of the house that has a million wires around the power meter. It looks like painted spaghetti. It would take 3 days to paint this by hand but with a sprayer, it would go rather quickly.

HMMM It's been raining here for 2 weeks so i guess i still have some time to think about this. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

[MeiersEnterprises 14]

Side note about this job:

I passed out pressure washing flyers with a doorhanger inside a plastic bag. They were instructed to fill out the doorhanger with their info and place on their front door. Since we were in the neighborhood, we would stop in and give them a quick quote.

This customer wrote that she wanted the house pressure washed because she was going to be painting. I gave a quote on the house wash and driveway cleaning.

I never spoke to this woman because she never answered her phone or returned my message. When i dropped off the quote, I included a cover letter telling about how i would clean her house and drive, and also that i would be interested in bidding on the painting of her exterior.

I didn't speak to her at all and 3 weeks later she called about the painting - we hit it off on the phone and spoke for 40 minutes! Went out to see her, gave her a price and got the job.

She tried to get me to throw in the driveway with the painting but i stood my ground. I almost threw it in - sure glad i didn't... She said she'll have to get me to do that another day. This is my first paid painting job although I've painted quite a few for free (my own, brothers twice, helped friends, etc.). It should be quite profitable if i can finish in 2 days with one helper. It's only a 3 bdrm one story so i'm shooting for a day plus a couple hours house prep work.

My point to this novel is that she said she called because I took the time to write that letter to her instead of just dropping off a page with a price. Seemed very personal to her and told her that i cared about getting the job and therefore would do better work.

Good stuff.