You do not have to be an expert to choose a spray gun for walls and ceilings. Our article will make your destination easier.
Content
- Advantages of the spray gun over the brush and roller
- How to choose a good spray gun for painting ceilings and walls
- Mechanical
- Electric
- Pneumatic
- Nuances when painting walls
- Features of ceiling painting
- Conclusion
The implementation of uniform and fast painting has always attracted beginners and professional painters. Productivity and quality of work we’re able to increase at times a simple, but very useful device called a spray gun.
For its ability to produce effective spraying of compositions of various degrees of viscosity, the tool has gained well-deserved popularity and has received the widest possible distribution.
In this article, we will look at all possible types of spray guns, as devices for painting ceilings and walls, and highlight the most successful options for performing such tasks.
Advantages of the spray gun over the brush and roller
Everyone knows such famous tools as a paint roller or brush, whose operation lasted for hundreds of years and continues to this day. Over the years of the existence of these devices, they have received a wide variety of forms of execution and modification, while maintaining the unchanged essence of their principle of operation. The modern spray gun has a completely different paint system.
Which has the following advantages:
- Reduced tool development time. If to get a more or less even layer, a beginner with a roller and a brush will take several hours of practice, then the usual pulevizator for painting walls will give a very decent result from the first minutes of work. Of course, there are certain nuances and tricks everywhere, but it is much easier and faster to master the spray gun and get a smooth paint layer.
- Perfectly smooth surface. As mentioned earlier, experience equals quality. And if the practical use of the spray gun is allocated as much time as the roller and brush, you can seriously fill your hand and get a really worthwhile result. Only a special video can compete with this quality, but only in the direct hands of an experienced master.
- High painting speed. One of the most important criteria when processing large areas of walls and ceilings. The brush is not even considered in this regard, and the roller is 2-4 times inferior in performance to the paint spray, some models of which can cover up to 400 m2/hour with paint. However, in this regard, it is worth considering that you can apply a thicker coating with a roller and finish the work in 2 layers, when using a spray gun, it is desirable to do at least 3. Even taking this into account, in terms of time and physical costs, the spray gun wins in this work.
How to choose a good spray gun for painting ceilings and walls
The current abundance of spray guns offers us a wide range of models with different reliability, efficiency, and price. When deciding which spray gun to choose for painting walls or ceilings in your home, one owner relies on low cost, the second on performance, the third prefers quality, and the fourth wants to find a balance between the above factors.
Fortunately, today you can choose a tool for every taste and budget, it is only necessary to set specific requirements. Let’s take a look at each type of device in order and evaluate its ability to perform finishing work.
Mechanical (manual) spray gun
Self-contained paint sprayer that does not require connection to a network or compressor, and works only at the expense of physical pressure. It is a hand pump with two hoses: one of which is immersed in the container and sucks the mixture in it, and the arc spits out this mixture through the spray nozzle. The output pressure is low, and usually does not exceed 0.5 atmospheres, which significantly increases the grain content of the applied layer.
Despite the relatively low quality of painting, the manual spray gun has a very simple and reliable design, consisting of a small number of strong parts. It has a modification in the form of a nozzle extension (fishing rod), for which it is widely used in agriculture when spraying trees.
It is very convenient to use a mechanical spray gun for whitewashing the ceiling using an extension cord, which eliminates the need for climbing scaffolding or ladders.
If you need a more or less even layer of paint and varnish coating, it is not recommended to use manual paint sprayers. The difficulty of obtaining a uniform application is also due to the instability of the pressure caused by the need for constant pumping.
By the way. The mechanical sprayer requires 2 people to operate, where one pumps the mixture and the other directs the pressure to the desired location. In addition, this type of spray guns can spray paints and compositions only on a water basis. You can not work with lacquers, enamels and the like, with this tool.
As for the use of a mechanical spray gun as a garden sprayer or for painting utility rooms, where quality does not play a role, this tool is very good.
Electric spray gun
The widest segment of spray guns, including tools that are divided into 2 operating principles: air and airless. Electric tools can be both amateur and professional, with a price range from 1,500 to hundreds of thousands of rubles (paint stations). In order to determine the optimal spray gun for ceilings, walls and other surfaces, consider the pros and cons of each variation separately.
Air spray principle
A fairly balanced type of spray guns, with decent performance and decent quality of the painting. Electric air-type sprayers are very ergonomic and easy to handle. There are 2 types: with a remote compressor and with a built-in turbine (the most compact). They can work from the mains or the battery, which lasts for 15-40 minutes. Suitable for spraying all common types of paints and lacquers.
The cost of electric spray guns starts in the region of 2 thousand rubles and reaches 11-12 t. p. (WAGNER W590 Flexio). This type of sprayer belongs to the group of amateur, and is intended mainly for household needs, although some craftsmen manage to paint very well with such devices of the car body.
When choosing an electric pulverizer for wall painting, you should focus on the optimal power of 400 W and a capacity of 250 m2/hour or 600 ml/min. An additional advantage will be the presence of Teflon gaskets that do not deform under the influence of solvents.
Airless spray principle
A serious system for spraying paint and varnish substances in large volumes. It works on the principle of a manual spray gun, pumping the mixture out of a free-standing container and feeding it under pressure from the nozzle.
Unlike its mechanical ancestor, the paint spray gun has an average pressure of 120 atmospheres and a capacity of 1.2 l/min. The cost of such devices starts from 20,000 and ends in hundreds of thousands of rubles.
The airless spray gun has a very decent coating quality, superior to the air spray gun. It is recommended to purchase such a tool for professional finishing work, where it will pay for itself. For home use, this thing is very expensive, narrowly focused, and bulky enough to keep it idle.
However, if you have the means, space, and have the desire to perform a quick and high-quality painting of the premises, for 20-40 thousand rubles, you can find a fairly good installation.
Pneumatic spray gun
The most professional type of sprayers with advanced paint quality. It cannot function by itself and requires a compressor with a high-pressure hose to operate. In the skillful hands of an experienced craftsman, a good pistol can create an almost perfect layer of factory quality.
However, to achieve such indicators, it is necessary to properly prepare the surface, provide the compressor with an air filter, calibrate all the regulators, properly dilute the paint and apply it correctly. At each stage, there are a dozen nuances that require the same number of hours of practice.
Therefore, if you are looking for an ideal in the pneumatic type of spray guns, but you are new to painting yourself, stock up on a car of patience before exhausting theory and long practice.
Nuances when painting walls
A fairly popular method of finishing rooms, by applying paint on wallpaper or plastered walls, remains relevant at all times. When it comes to such work, especially at the amateur level, the most versatile spray gun for walls and ceilings is used as a tool, for spraying a wide variety of materials. With a careful and meaningful approach, even in the hands of a beginner, the tool gives quite a decent result.
You just need to follow the basic rules:
- The surface to be painted must be smooth, dust-free, primed, and dried.
- The sprayed mixture must have the optimum viscosity recommended by the manufacturer. Water-dispersed paints can be diluted with ordinary or distilled water, and enamels and lacquers, white spirit, 646 solvent, or special thinners.
- Before painting, it is recommended to adjust the tool by conducting a test spray on cardboard, newspaper and other unnecessary material. This is done to determine the optimal distance between the nozzle and the wall (15-45 cm), as well as to adjust the width of the torch with the supply of material. When you get a spot of the correct shape and saturation, you can safely go to the main surface.
- The painting should start from the corners and move towards the entrance to the room. When processing the main part of the wall, the torch is installed horizontally, and the painting is carried out from the ceiling to the floor, and vice versa.
- After the first layer is sprayed, we wait for the paint to dry completely, and then apply the next layer. Depending on the density of the sprayed material, for maximum saturation, it is recommended to make from 3 – layers.
- Each new layer is superimposed across the previous one. If the first application was carried out in straight lines from floor to ceiling, then the second layer is applied in horizontal movements, turning the torch 90°. It is not necessary to walk from one side of the wall to the other. It is enough to visually divide the room into meter segments and paint them in stages.
- The speed of movement of the spray gun depends on its performance, and on average is 1 meter in 5 seconds.
Features of ceiling painting
The most practical and popular way to give an aesthetic component to the ceiling is considered to be its whitewash, but in the modern era of possibilities, various mixtures of a wide variety of colors and shades are used.
When performing finishing work and using a spray gun for painting the ceiling, it is important to observe certain nuances that contribute to obtaining a more even and durable layer.
The choice of paint:
The concept is purely individual, but it has its own priorities in terms of practicality. For residential areas and hallways, the most suitable white water-based paint, which, if necessary, can be given any shade by adding a little paint color to the mixture. For the kitchen, bathroom, and other rooms with high humidity, it is better to use acrylic-based mixtures.
Surface preparation:
Exactly the same as when painting the walls. The ceiling must be cleaned, leveled, plastered, primed, and dried. Only this approach can provide a good final result.
The painting process:
The distance between the nozzle of the spray gun and the ceiling should be the same all the time, and depending on the model, it should be located within 10-40 cm. The speed of the tool movement should be uniform and be approximately 1 meter in 5 seconds (different for each model). It is most convenient to paint in straight lines, about a meter wide. Each new strip of paint should go to the previous one by about 1/3.
The number of layers:
Due to the rather thin application of the coating with a spray gun, when it dries, translucent areas are formed. On average, it is required to pass the ceiling at least 3 times (depending on the viscosity of the paint). When applying each new layer, the lines of movement should go across the previous ones. If in the first painting, the direction of the stripes was along with the room to the window, then the movements during the subsequent spraying should be directed to the width of the room, and the third, again along. Before each new layer, you should wait for the previous one to dry completely.
Conclusion
Finally, , we will summarize the final rating and determine the best spray gun for painting ceilings, walls, doors, and other surfaces. In terms of domestic use, in terms of price-quality ratio, electric air-type spray guns are leading, followed by pneumatic budget models, and mechanical devices for gardening and household needs complete the list. In parallel, but above all in terms of productivity, there is an airless paint station created exclusively for this purpose.