hvlp spraying internal doors

I have 7 new doors being fitted in a few weeks. they come primed but will need a top coat.

I’ve only ever done doors by removing them and painting in the garden. finish by roller has never been great and something always happens….rains, fly gets stuck in paint, pollen gets blown on it….etc…

been watching youtube about hvlp. rutland have a relatively cheap one which gets good reviews.

are they easy to use as they seem. time seems to be spent on masking.

could of newbie questions.

would standard paint work? I have deluxe satinwood which the rest of the woodwork is painted jn

and this could be a really dumb question, do they need a compressor? I see no reference to one on the rutland page so do they just run off mains power?

If it’s the £69.99 one the spiel says powered by a 700w motor, and the base looks like an inflator. So it looks self contained. If it works it would be brilliant!

I have the Rutlands one and have done quite a few jobs with it including the base of this one here.

I think you can get very good results with it actually but like anything, there is something of a learning curve.

The paint I used on that above was Dulux eggshell, water based and thinned maybe up to 20% or so.

These are what you call turbine units. The posher units use multiple turbines to produce more oomph.
I’ve since upgraded to a Graco 5 stage turbine unit which cost over 1k but I still have the Rutlands one as a fall back.

The main difference I have found is that you have to thin the paint way more on the Rutlands as it doesn’t have the power or gun control to push thicker paints.

For DIY stuff though I think it’s a great little machine.

There is overspray and this can be quite a lot because of having to thin the paint so much but it’s not crazy if you set up your room well.

For me though, being doors,I think I would remove them personally as that amount of masking is pretty substantial.
It’ll probably be about 85% of the job time I’d imagine and heavy on tape and plastic sheeting.

Best way is to stand them up together in a sort of loose concertina shape and screw a batten across the top to keep each one in position then work your way along front and back.

You can do this inside in one room, but obviously you have to sheet that whole room.
Probably much easier than masking each individual door though.

I know what you mean about flies and stuff. I’ve had so many ‘final coats ‘ ruined by twatty flies and random bits of dust.
Painting sucks 😂

Practice makes perfect.

Wouldn’t a brush give a better finish than your previous method of roller?

You can do this inside in one room, but obviously you have to sheet that whole room.

Unleashing your inner Dexter

I have used brush on the trim and edges and mini gloss roller on the flat sections.

maybe it’s a practise thing but I’m never happy with the result.

thanks for the answers!

re thinning a water based paint. do you just add water or is there a specific thinner that would work better?

Have you tried a foam roller on the door flats. Spraying and/or removing them seems a hell of a lot of ballache.

re thinning a water based paint. do you just add water or is there a specific thinner that would work better?

No it’s just water. I believe some people use Floetrol which can slow the drying time to allow it to flatten out a little but I’ve never tried it.

The thing with hvlp is, the turbines create a good amount of heat. That Rutlands one does for sure, and that can sometimes cause your paint to dry quicker than it might otherwise do, and dry paint at the tip too.

Keep your tip clean with the odd wipe and strain your paint always. You can get a pack of strain thingys off eBay for not much.
The machines are very affected by crap in your paint.

It’s a good little machine though.

If you wanted to try before you buy, I’m in Warwick, or you could courier it if you wanted and return after (providing you only use water based and can clean a gun impeccably) 😊👍

I use Floetrol. Recommend it. Good stuff. Still need to water it down too though in my experience.

@kayak thank you very much for the offer, no where near and tbh by the time you cost a courier there and back it’ll be a good chunk towards just buying the Rutland one outright! I reckon I may try one door with brush and roller, and if I’m not happy give the Rutland one a go.

I’ve been using a mohair roller as apparently foam rollers cause too many bubbles with “gloss”.

Roller inside ….. Why take them out?

Flocked foam rollers for a powder coat like finish with little mess – with a decent self levelling alkyd type paint, not your local diy merchants best emulsion.
Trouble is they only come in 4″ so 7 doors racked like kayak (plus lifted off the floor) will take you a good few days factoring in drying time for multiple coats especially with extender.
If you’ve doors with details, panels, insets etc, may as well take the time and prep for spraying as whilst totally feasible to brush the reveals and roll the flats, it’s even more time still.

I did 23 internal doors during the lockdown Easter of 2021. I used a generic HVLP sprayer from Amazon, and Screwfix No Nonsense Satinwood for the topcoat.

We sanded down every door, applied Zinsser BIN to all the knots by brush, then did a couple of primer coats of 123 via HVLP. Then a couple of topcoats.

It took a bit of experience to get the formulation right, plus the technique of application. I definitely got better as I went along. We turned out back room into a giant spray booth. Each door was raised off the floor on screw in bolts, with a t-piece screwed into the top to hold it clear of the wall. That meant that I could spray each side of the door and rotate the door to spray the other side before leaving it to dry.

Be aware that the overspray can create a lot of dust. We used plastic sheeting to try to prevent this getting into the rest of the house but the reality was that it did.

Overall I am really happy with the finish. It is not quite a factory finish but it is definitely better than having painted with a brush.

https://www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/spray-tips

The big brands have tips on thinning and so on.

I’d find something to practice on first if you’ve never done it. Given you’ve just got to get an even coverage it’s unlikely to be that challenging.