i do renovations and the painting part is a grind.
have used a wagner pump action roller and it saved a lot of time when donng a whole flat white single handed. i’d say about 60% quicker. but it is heavy and knackers my shoulder.
interested in the electric powered roller but they seem to have stopped making it and it was a pain to clean.

so then spraying. seem like airless is the only way to go if wanting to spray walls.
i’ve done a bit of spraying with a compressor powered HVLP gun so i have an idea about speed of coverage and effort involved. tho i’ll admit it can knacker my shoulder too

so anyone out there have an airless and think it’s worth it? or isn’t?
i’m well aware of time needed for masking etc, but for example, in the current project there are a few small windows the floors are getting covered later on.

i’d be looking at the cheapest wagner : Wagner HEA Control Pro 250R

Following a bit of a theme from the track saw thread….

Search for 10minuteworkshop on YouTube. Peter Millard (UK based cabinet maker) has done a series on spraying , utilising both Graeco and cheaper set ups.

He mostly sprays the cabinets he makes, but did do something where he sprayed the walls for a client’s room.

good pointer thanks. watched his vids before : )

I do all manner of renovations with paint having been my bread and butter for the last couple of years. Don’t have to stress about it like with kitchens, bathrooms etc.
I’ll do anything from 3000sq finished and furnished high end homes to studio apartments.
I have sprayed and back rolled a couple of projects when helping out a pro painter and the delivery of material was great but I fortunately didn’t have to deal with site prep or machine clean down.
I do have a Graco hand held and whilst the finish is superb, creating an on site spray booth and cleaning up afterwards is a pain.
I have a large for 1 man commercial job coming up this month and I think I will buy a mid level airless sprayer like a Graco x7 however on most other jobs I’ve been happy to grab the big 24″ roller as it lays down paint fast with a superb finish without the other faff!

no doubts about long term. i have and endless string of properties to do in front of me.

i know i’ll use it for other things. maybe not on bodywork, the HVLP is better suited, but for example i’ve been doing radiators today with HVLP and it was far from ideal as cold making paint too viscose etc etc. so yes airless would have been great and way faster.

and i didn’t suggest i don’t need it very often just now. i could use it fairly often.

Dirks, the small gracos look great. why go for the bigger thing? presumably just so you can dunk it straight in the paint and not have to refill?

i guess i’d be stuck between a small and a bigger unit. no problem lugging a big thing to site for use with buckets of paint, but the small could be handy in the workshop and around the place, and i wouldn’t want the big unit in the workshop

My mate has just had his house done. New build, painted white throughout. Finish is good but they did do a LOT of prep, which took a few days & made a LOT of mess. House was empty, so no bother with access. Spray went everywhere.
His verdict, be honest, given the prep they did a roller would have given just as good a finish, & probably just as quick. I think for new builds, on a site, it’s probably loads quicker. But for DIY, I’d stick with my roller set up.
It does seem quite the in thing at the moment.

yep, i’m not gonna crack it out unless i have a lot to do, or can make a piggin mess.
but also i don’t think prep takes that long. it just seems like a lot of work.

i generally have 3-5 rooms to do. i’d do them one at a time, using most of the same stuff for masking off/protection

I spray occasionally if it’s the right job for it and I can guarantee there’s no other trades coming and going, usually on empty property and new commercial and domestic work for misting and bringing ceilings to a finish. I don’t own the sprayer but borrow it off a mate I used to sub to, it’s not top of the range by any means but suits us for occasional use, think it’s a wagner power painter 60 off the top of my head.
Works really well if it’s cleaned properly and the piston oiled after each job (cleaning usually takes upto an hour at the end of the day). It goes through a lot more material than rolling and the overspray can be bad depending on the paint but if the job is right for it it’s a no brainer, you can potentially earn back the initial outlay over a few jobs.

well looks like i’m gonna get a graco ultra with a cable.
been obsessively geeking out about it as i always do.
tho the pot is only a litre, so will need fairly frequent re-fills, it otherwise seems just the job. will clearly be great for radiators , shutters etc, both of which i do a lot of.
cleaning seems wuick and straightforward, not worse than hvlp gun, maybe quicker.

bloody peter millard’s fault. his vids totally convinced me