> I was wonder has anyone rented a power paint sprayer that can handle an
> exterior latex?
I haven't myself, but I've seen it done. Look for a big airless sprayer,
Home Depot has them for rent.
> How tight of a pattern can I get. What about over spray?
Faced with a similar situation, I paid someone else to do the job. They
didn't mask at all, just slid a thin piece of metal along when painting near
trim and such where overspray would be a problem. On the areas where it
wouldn't show (like the foundation behind the bushes), I'd say the overspray
pattern was no more than 2-3".
> Should I just suck it up and use a brush. Speed is my main concern, but it
> can't look like crap since I have to sell the place.
I might have been pickier if I planned to keep living there, but the buyers
seemed to like it. I went back by maybe 7 years later, and all they had
done was repaint the trim (which I didn't have repainted before selling) in
a different color.
> Any advice would be
> appreciated.
I've done just a very little bit with a "consumer grade" airless sprayer
(Wagner's largest, with the backpack although I only used the cup). I'd say
it will be quite a bit quicker to learn to use the airless sprayer well than
to paint a house by hand. I fiddled around for most of an hour before I
found a recipe that worked for me, by that time I was done. But I was only
painting a shed foundation. Adding just 1/2 cup water to a gallon of latex
seemed to help quite a bit; plus I found it was important to always keep the
cup more than 1/2 full. Even though the pickup tube was near the bottom,
the Wagner has a screen around it, and the paint level had to be well above
the top of the screen or the pump would suck air and start throwing blobs of
paint instead of spraying. Next time I'll use the backpack (which allows
you to put a 1 gallon can inside and suck directly from the can).
Randall
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