# Airless Sprayer for interior use



## Brushjockey (Mar 8, 2011)

My opinion is not about the sprayers, but about the sprayer. Have you had any training, experience spraying? 
You can make more problems in seconds with not knowing what you are doing with a sprayer than in hours with brush and roll. Lots to know.
Are you able to do this?


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## wally2669 (Nov 7, 2011)

I never used a sprayer before.


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## Kader516 (Nov 5, 2011)

I agree, it is all about the sprayer. You can try it if you practice. Stay consistent. If you hadn't sprayed before the Titan is a bit cheaper but they both for your use will spray the same. Why not rent one if this is all you are using it for.


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## Brushjockey (Mar 8, 2011)

Why not learn how to paint first. Every one wants a shortcut. Do it by hand. Really.


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## wally2669 (Nov 7, 2011)

who said something about not knowing how to paint. If someone would read my initial question it was about the sprayer not what technique I should use. If you don't know the answer then don't reply .

I guess some of you feel the need to comment about anything and everything that's why the above post have written.


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## Brushjockey (Mar 8, 2011)

99.5 of the DIY that come here and ask about spraying are looking for a shortcut without a clue. maybe you're the .5 who isn't . Who knew?
Look and see if you know what i'm talking about. 
Masking, follow through, paint viscosity, etc.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

wally2669 said:


> who said something about not knowing how to paint. If someone would read my initial question it was about the sprayer not what technique I should use. If you don't know the answer then don't reply .
> 
> I guess some of you feel the need to comment about anything and everything that's why the above post have written.


Wally, relax, these guys have years of experience and are trying to save you not only some $$$ but some headaches as well. If you don't plan on doing LOTS of painting, a sprayer may be overkill. A brush and roller will do wonders for you without hitting you hard in the wallet. You really don't save any time when you factor in masking off windows, trim, carpet, furniture, etc. and then cleanup takes up even more time. If you are set on getting a sprayer, don't spend a lot on one now........buy a reasonably priced entry level unit. Titan is a decent product......go for it.


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

wally2669 said:


> who said something about not knowing how to paint. If someone would read my initial question it was about the sprayer not what technique I should use. If you don't know the answer then don't reply .
> 
> I guess some of you feel the need to comment about anything and everything that's why the above post have written.


Neither of the sprayers you mentioned are ones I ever used, so I cannot comment on which would be a better buy.

I will, however, join with the others who have suggested you roll the paint on your interior walls. The over-spray of airless sprayers is horrible when you're indoors. Plus, after doing all your masking, you don't save all that much time.

Those are my thoughts. You are, of course, welcome to do whatever you wish.


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

Gymschu said:


> Wally, relax, these guys have years of experience and are trying to save you not only some $$$ but some headaches as well. If you don't plan on doing LOTS of painting, a sprayer may be overkill. A brush and roller will do wonders for you without hitting you hard in the wallet. You really don't save any time when you factor in masking off windows, trim, carpet, furniture, etc. and then cleanup takes up even more time. If you are set on getting a sprayer, don't spend a lot on one now........buy a reasonably priced entry level unit. Titan is a decent product......go for it.


Airless Sprayers can be rented, too.


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## firehawkmph (Dec 12, 2009)

I have a Titan 440 that I bought about fifteen years ago. I have never used it in a house that was already finished. I used to use it to paint new house interiors before finish floors were installed. It does take time to mask off even in a new house, let alone an old one. When I work in existing houses, I brush and roll. I find it actually quite relaxing at times. The airless sprayers can deliver quite a bit of paint in a hurry. If you are shooting walls and ceilings, you should have a second person to backroll the walls to give them an even paint roller texture. It takes practice and some training to get the feel for what tip to use for a given type of job, how quick to move, how far away to spray, etc. Just my .04. (inflation)
Mike Hawkins


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## jsheridan (Jan 30, 2011)

Hey Wally, welcome to the forum. Don't take things personally. We're here to help people, not knock them down. You're new here, we're not. This topic comes up about once a week. Whether you have any or not, some come here with no practical brush and roll experience, and think that spraying is an easy solution. Not so. I've been working this stuff for twenty-five years and personally never sprayed an interior on an occupied repaint. Reason: it's not effective nor efficient, especially if you've never sprayed before. Spraying paint is not something you just pick up, as there's a lot to learn. It's taken me years to realize that I'm finally mastering a rattle can of spray, let alone a real sprayer. As brushjockey said, you could be in real trouble real fast if you don't know what you're doing. Take the advice, it will be unanimous, and just on this thread alone, you might be listening to about 100 years of combined experience. Good luck, and nothing personal.
Joe


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

jsheridan said:


> We're here to help people, not knock them down.


No, not everyone is like you. 

Anyway, to the original question. The Titan sprayer would be a decent choice for you in general, but first some advice.

First, sprayers can be totally awesome when painting, for certain chores. I just painted a whole bunch of doors and shelving, front and back, and trim in an unoccupied house. I made door hangers so both sides of the door could be sprayed and dried at the same time. The speed with which this occurred was mind blowing when compared to hand painting it.

But note I said it was awesome "when painting". You do a surprising amount of "not painting" with sprayers, meaning set up and cleanup. Unless you're doing a huge amount of painting, set up and cleanup can very easily take more time than painting, and it's not necessarily fun work either. You also have overspray, and depending on what you're spraying (I covered with BIN first, which is not water cleanup) you need to cover things in your house, and your clothes and shoes and hair, and your lungs. Then you have the solvent and waste paint disposal. And you also have waste. You will burn about a quart just priming the sprayer, and at least another quart it can't use at the bottom of the inlet pail, so that's the better part of a gallon right there in cost. Not something to do if you're going to paint the walls on 2 small bedrooms, that's for sure.

And I definitely will be rolling the walls, not spraying (although I did prime and stain block some of the ceilings with the BIN while I had it in the sprayer.)

Before using a sprayer, you should strategize and determine the efficiency and fun factor of the work before deciding.

As for spraying walls in an existing house, this is not one of the best choices for a sprayer IMO. You would either have to do a lot of taping, or you can decide to just get overspray on the trim and then either paint the trim by hand or tape the walls when spraying the trim. Again, there will be a lot of cleanup time when switching from wall paint to trim paint.

There is also the issue of texture. Sprayed trim looks great. Sprayed walls do not have that roller texture that most people are used to. It's also difficult to get a really even finish on a big wall, as opposed to trim that is relatively tiny and can be covered in one non-overlapping pass. Having high hiding, quality paint helps as always, of course. And even this is assuming flat paint, which is the easiest to apply. I've never tried spraying a wall with satin or eggshell, but I've always assumed you'd have sheen consistency issues, unless you could somehow spray like a perfect robot. I could be wrong about that.

Take some time to think through the steps you'd have to take and the order that you'd have to do everything. You might find you want to spray some and hand paint and roll some.

As someone suggested, renting a sprayer might be a better first option. Buying a used sprayer would be a tough call because you don't have any idea how's it's been taken care of and cleaned.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

DrHicks said:


> The over-spray of airless sprayers is horrible when you're indoors.


Yes. Now, you can get around that a little by opening the windows in the room and setting up a fairly powerful window fan in a nearby room blowing out. But of course that has other problems. For one, you've got to have the second room masked and covered as well, so it should be a room you're painting as well. Second, if you're masking and putting plastic over your windows, how can you have them open?


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

jeffnc said:


> Yes. Now, you can get around that a little by opening the windows in the room and setting up a fairly powerful window fan in a nearby room blowing out. But of course that has other problems. For one, you've got to have the second room masked and covered as well, so it should be a room you're painting as well. Second, if you're masking and putting plastic over your windows, how can you have them open?


Just blow it straight outside. Keeps the danged neighbor kids off the lawn.


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## ryan5068 (Apr 28, 2010)

I just sprayed my ceilling in a new addition that looks wonderful. I was not concerned with overspray on the but I would probably never spray the walls. I use a spraytech 1620 apex 2. This is a great sprayer that cleans up in about 15 minutes. Whatever you do post some photos. Good luck


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## jho (Jan 18, 2010)

Home Depot held a special on the Graco X5 a while back, and I was planning to paint my basement ceiling in flat black at the time. Picked it up, had absolutely minimal experience spraying (but about 8 years brush/roll application experience), some helpful guidance over the phone with a painter friend of mine, and the outcome was far better than I'd expected. 

I know you're not interested in hearing the "how tos", but I'm going to anyway. lol My advice is if you have a painter friend with experience to talk you through it over the phone or to come by to show you how to get started, you won't be dealing with as many headaches. Getting the pump ready for paint isn't nearly as much of a pain as it is cleaning it up, which essentially for the sake of any future use is the most important part. Walls I found were the most difficult, especially any smooth surfaces. You have to keep a consistent follow through, otherwise you'll have runs galore. Also, buy lots of visqueen and drop cloths to cover anything you don't want to get overspray on. 

Obviously because I'm a noob in spray application, I don't have any experience with Titan, but I thought the Graco was a nice sprayer to work with. So I'd say go for it. It's your home, no better place to learn from your own mistakes. Good luck!


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