Although the brush is still the tool of choice for most of us who paint or stain our own homes, airless sprayer systems are catching on fast. And fast is what it’s all about. Contractors have been sold on spraying’s speed and efficiency for years. To maximize productivity and offer competitive rates, they spray whenever possible.
But what about quality and durability? What does it take to make a spray job look good? And can DIYers master spraying techniques? To find out, I talked with painting contractors, coatings manufacturers and equipment rental dealers. I also made a hands-on comparison while staining a couple of homes. First, I applied ZAR Rain Stain, a water-base solid-color stain, by brush to a two-story home. It took nearly three weeks of spare time to complete the project. Next, I stained a slightly smaller house in one day using an airless sprayer and Samuel Cabot’s unique “semisolid” polymerized linseed oil stain.
You can rent an airless sprayer for $80 to $100 a day, but if you will be working for more than two days, it may be more cost-effective to buy a sprayer. For example, the new Wagner Paint Crew airless sprayer model 770 ($200) will provide the same out-of-gun performance as professional airless sprayers with a service life of 10 to 12 house paintings — more than enough to pay for the tool.
Preparing the siding
Before applying stain to either of the homes, I had to clean the siding. I rented a pressure washer (for $100 a day) to rinse away any loose dirt and film.
Working from a ladder while using high-pressure equipment does present safety risks. It is worth the extra expense ($15 a day) to rent a telescopic fiberglass extension pole so you can clean two stories high from the ground. Another safety consideration: Pressure washers and airless sprayers generate enough force to break through skin. Read the manufacturer’s safety warnings for both tools before you begin.
After power washing, let the siding dry for a couple days before applying stain or primer.
Brushing acrylic stain
For the home that I stained by brush, I chose UGL’s solid-color Rain Stain because the premium 100 percent acrylic formula would resist fading and peeling when used over the single coat of oil stain that had been applied when the house was built five years earlier.
Compared with applying full-bodied latex paint, brushing a house with an acrylic stain was a delight. The material was thinner, so brush drag was minimal. Still, the chunky staining brush felt awfully heavy by midday. I also had to be careful to work in the shade and between natural breaks such as windows because the coating dries rapidly on hot or breezy days and can form lap marks.
Despite these drawbacks, applying stain with a brush offers one key advantage over spraying. Interrupting your work is no big deal when using a brush because you can control your stopping point and avoid lap marks. This makes brushing better suited if you must nibble away at the project after work each day as I did.
Spraying oil stain
For the home that I sprayed, the homeowner and I chose Cabot’s polymerized linseed oil stain because the job was years overdue and much of the original oil finish had worn thin when he power washed the house. The semisolid formula offered just enough penetration and pigment to cover in one coat while retaining the rough wood texture. A two-coat system would have been required with a semitransparent oil stain, a solid-color oil stain or any type of water-base product.
A common misconception among is for one person to follow behind the DIYers is that spraying yields a poor fin-sprayer and vertically roll the wet sur-ish because the coating is not worked face from the ground using an extension into the surface. In fact, the coating hits pole and a long-nap roller. This method the surface with a force that could bruise is acceptable on rough-sawn cedar or bare skin. Besides, contractors and coat-redwood, but on smooth surfaces it can ing manufacturers agree that stain create an unnatural stipple effect. should be back-brushed (tooled with a I used the preferred method — with dry brush) while wet, so you brush the the help of two friends. We coated the finish either way.
Spraying just applies tools and equipment with WD-40 so the the finish to the surface more quickly. paint or stain wouldn’t stick, minimizing Professional painters use a number cleanup later. I manned the gun, mostly of back-brushing techniques. The most from ladders. One helper followed on a expedient — although hardly the best — second ladder, back-brushing horizontally along the clapboards with a natural-bristle brush. The other helper kept the spray pump supplied and the spare ladder positioned ahead of me.
After completing these two jobs, I’m confident that a DIYer can achieve a high-quality stained finish by spraying or brushing. With the right tools and guidance from a local paint supplier, you can do the work yourself, saving labor costs and taking the necessary time to get the best results.