Painting new roughcast

[snozzer]

MY house has just been roughcast, and I have the wonderful job of painting it.

I was going to use Dulux masonry from the Dulix center as I get good discount from an old schoold friend working there.

My questions are, whats the best brush and technique to use, or can it be sprayed on (wind permitting)?

 

[Third_Eye]

Best using a heavy piled roller from Hamiltons. Use a brush for Cutting In.

 

[powerpainter]

Because it is new roughcast, you need to work the paint in with the mechanical action of a brush or roller, otherwise the spray will bridge the nooks and crannies and this can lead to the paint coming off in winter if water gets into them and freezes. You can spray it first then back roll it. The best tool is a special airless power roller that is fed from an airless pump and the paint comes out of the cover through perforations.

 

[Zampa]

Because it is new roughcast, you need to work the paint in with the mechanical action of a brush or roller, otherwise the spray will bridge the nooks and crannies and this can lead to the paint coming off in winter if water gets into them and freezes. You can spray it first then back roll it. The best tool is a special airless power roller that is fed from an airless pump and the paint comes out of the cover through perforations.

Would this be similar to the ones you sell at lion? (the home of power painting)

 

[powerpainter]

Yes, we can supply the pressure rollers for an airless machine

 

[Zampa]

Problem solved Snozzer...pay 2k for an airless spray unit and another 100 on the roller and pole and use that

 

[powerpainter]

Unless you are a professional painter, I suggest you hire the airless unit which should be around £ 120 per week with special rates for a weekend (we don't hire equipment as we supply the hire trade). Try to persuade the hirer to hire you the pressure roller; If you buy the pressure roller it will be about £ 320 plus VAT, depending on the exact setup. If you buy the right one, it can be converted to a spray pole-gun by swapping the roller head for a sprayhead, which is a fabulous tool for ceilings.

 

[Zampa]

How many times will a DIY er use an airless set up?...and the extention poles arnt needed for the average ceiling (8') anyway.

An airless is fine if your doing the whole house but setting one up just for one ceiling is a complete waste of time...they take about half an hour set up and the same to clean out and store away. he average ceiling would be painted in that time.

I wouldnt touch an airless if you dont know how to use one...in the wrong hands they can cause very nasty accidents...possibly fatal.

The type of 'training' you'd receive from the average hire shop ("stick this end in the paint and point that end at the wall and dont forget to wear a mask") would not be sufficiant either.

Oh and the last time I looked they cost £120 per DAY not week.

 

[powerpainter]

Hi Zampa,

Well DIYers do use airless because we get called by them from time to time, in fact in America many own their own airless rig to spray their houses. If you had ever used an airless pole-gun on an 8' ceiling you would understand why it is a good tool.

It only takes 10 minutes at the most to set up an airless unit, fill it with paint and be ready to spray, then no more than 20 minutes to clean it out and put it away; try it, you will see! Many professional painters do both jobs in less than 15 minutes; if you are using the same paint over several days, you can leave it in the system because it won't dry out. How much time does it take to get out a roller, prime it with paint and then clean it and the tray at the end of the day? Total 15 minutes?

You may be right about a single ceiling, but it won't be slower than a roller and much less hard work using a spray gun.

 

[Zampa]

Unless you are a midget, why would you need an 8 foot extention pole on an average home ceiling?

Granted they are more common in the States, the decorators there are far more spray orientated than we are here...the painting industry is onlt just waking up to the earning potential of a decent spray system.

If a DIYer was to use masonry paint then they would need gallons of solvent to fulush the gun and the system through.

Water based masonry also uses a hell of a lot of water to clean a system out thoroughly.

Allthough, yes in fairness clean up times are similar.

You also need virtually perfect weather conditions in order to spray outside, otherwise, as you well know...the overspray can travel a good hundred yeards coating everything in its path.

But no decorator would bother setting one up for a single ceiling, whether its quicker or not.

The H/S aspect is still a worry though...they are dangerous machines...the Graco 495 I had came with its own set of instructions to pass on to a paramedic!

So im not making wild assumptions about spraying or spray systems in general....I am speaking from experience too

In the right hands they are a license to make money

In the wrong hands they could not only be a waste of money...but could also be very dangerous...puncturng the skin etc..

I have found that some roughcast is too rough to take paint from a spray gun and if its applied at too higher pressure can cause a vacume in the valleys and crevices. Then you have to roll over it anyway...so a pressure fed roller is not always the answer.

ont get me wrong I know of the company and would say you are probably the best set up in the UK for spray painting and support...

But spraying or pressure painting isnt always the easiest or most cost effective answer.....especially to a DIYer

 

[powerpainter]

Hi Zampa,

I did not say you should use an 8 foot pole-gun, which I agree would be too long for most jobs. The usual size is 1 metre (39.4") which you will probably hold at 60 degrees with the trigger at your side about 1 metre off the floor. That way the spray head is about 50 cms above your head.

Its true that US painters are more into spray painting, they usually learn from their dad. But so do Australians.

If you are using a solvent based paint, you will need about 5 litres of solvent first time, but you make several flushes of about 1.5 litres and keep the last 2 to reuse the next time as the first flush etc.

I would say that water based masonry paint takes a little longer to flush than emulsion, but you don't need lots of water to do it, nor does the machine have to be perfectly clean, in fact you should leave the water (or solvent) in it to stop any residual paint drying out, but if you leave water in the machine for more than a day or so, you should add inhibitor to the last flush water.

As for the dangers of airless sprayers, you are talking about an injection injury. Fortunately they are pretty rare, but serious if they happen. What you may not know is that you can get the same injury from a pressure washer. To be frank, you have to do something stupid to get an injection injury. There are quite a few DIYers that hire airless equipment without problems, just ask HSS, Speedy, Hewden etc.

Whether airless spray is the right way for a DIYer depends a lot on their budget and time, but it is certainly the fastest way to apply paint, usually gives a better finish and often saves paint. But its not magic and an efficient masking machine with professional tape is part of the secret.

 

[Third_Eye]

I have found that when masonary paints are used via spray machines, then the masonary paint MUST be thinned down, therefore resulting in the loss of quality of the paint once thinned.

 

[powerpainter]

Hi Third_eye.

You should be able to spray most masonry paints with an airless sprayer, without having to thin them. You need an airless piston pump that will support a 23 thou' (0.023") spray tip (nozzle). But the paint must be the "smooth" variety, not textured with large particles such as sand. eg Sandtext smooth is fine but sandtex high build is not, because the particles will not go through the fine spray tip. You can spray textured materials, but then you have to pump it with a pump that can handle the particles, such as the Graco President 10:1 through a large nozzle, say 1/4" iD inside a special gun which injects compressed air to blast it into a spray.

 

[snozzer]

Okay,

So unless I spend ££ Large I might as well take it on the chin and get the brush out. I though one of those cheap screwfix sprayers would do the job, but alas no, Snoz has to brush.

Peeved of Werks

 

[Zampa]

You can use a a prodec roller sleeve made by Rodo...alltohugh other companies make them too...sometimes called 'lifetimer' sleeve, they have really thick pile and an inner core of foam...very good on some roughcast.