Should You Spray or Brush Paint the Exterior of Your House?

It can get quite confusing to decide whether to spray paint the exterior of your house or opt for the traditional method of brush painting. There are several factors that will come into play while deciding on a suitable technique. For one, the size of the house and the surface area that need to be covered will play a major role in determining whether you should spray or brush paint your house. The bigger the house, the more labor-intensive the project will become, and the more time you will need to invest in completing the exterior paintwork.

Secondly, your budget will be a vital factor as well, because spray painting consumes a lot more paint, requires more prep time, and special equipment as compared to brush work. This DecorDezine guide endeavors to compare spray and brush painting techniques to help you make a well-informed decision.

Spray painting is suitable for painting large houses as it allows for more area to be painted, thereby getting the job done a lot faster than brush or roller painting.

Brush painting is labor-intensive and requires each surface be to be hand painted one section at a time. Therefore, it takes longer to finish painting the exterior of the house using this method.

Bear in mind that spray painting requires masking-off of the windows, doors, and trims, so as to prevent accidental over-spray. All the areas that require to be painted with a different color, require special paintwork, or should not to be painted, need to be taped-off before beginning the spraying.

Although, this painting techniques does not require the prep work and masking-off needed in spray painting, it takes longer for the entire process to complete.

Since spray painting disperses/blows a lot of paint while the machine is running, the mist of paint can easily stain the areas and things near the wall or on the sides of the house. Therefore, you will need to cover over five feet of area around your house with tarp. Secondly, you will also need to be careful not to damage your neighbor's property.

On the other hand, it is highly unlikely to experience an over-spray while using a brush spray.

Another drawback of using a paint sprayer is that it cannot be used on windy days because it leads to paint wastage. It also dries out the paint really fast, which can be undesirable for those who wish to even the coat further with a roller brush.

Fortunately, you do not have to worry about the wind during brush painting.

Although paint sprayers allow the application of a more uniform coat as compared to roller and brush painting, spray-painted surfaces also tend to have a more foggy appearance that requires a double coat of paint to rectify the thin coated effect. Fortunately, the second coat can be applied within no time with the help of a sprayer.

Even though a second coat is often required while brush painting, the foggy effect created by paint sprayer does not appear in this traditional method of painting.

Although paint sprayers work great on large, wide, and open surfaces, these machines cannot be used for painting tight spaces and trims, both of which will require brushwork.

On the other hand, brush technique is perfect for painting the trims of the house and painting narrow surfaces such as windowpanes, sills, exterior siding, and for focusing on accent coloring.

Unlike brush painting, the chances of overlapping paint are far lesser while using a paint sprayer. Nonetheless, the skill of the painter also plays a crucial role in ensuring that excess paint in not applied over a surface.

However, overlapping is a major concern while brush painting, because it can give the entire surface an unevenly painted appearance.

It is not financially feasible for everyone to buy a paint sprayer that is strong enough to paint an entire house. For such a project, it is more viable to rent the machine on a daily basis, and return the sprayer when the job is done. Secondly, since more than two times the amount of paint is needed for carrying out this type of home painting, the cost of paint, tarp, and masking tape, has to be taken into consideration as well. Additionally, you will also need to set aside an hour or more for cleaning the paint sprayer after your work is done, or in case you wish to replace the color of the paint.

Brush painting consumes much lesser paint, and the equipment needed is comparatively much cheaper than paint sprayers.

Based on the aforementioned comparisons, you should opt for the painting technique that suits your needs and meets your budget and deadline.