Real Estate Investor · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2013 · 301 posts · 112 votes
I recently signed a contract to purchase 3,200 sq. ft. duplex. In order to stay within budget I intend to paint the property myself. Given the size, I will be using a Milwaukee Airless Paint Sprayer ($249 at Home Depot!) rather than rolling it all by hand.
The ceilings, walls and trim all need to be painted. I've read a lot of various opinions on which needs to be done first and wanted to get the BP community's take on the matter. I currently plan on doing it as follows: 1) Ceiling, 2) Trim, 3) Walls.
This is how I do it, I mask all windows, cabinets and anything I don't want paint on, if the floors are out I don't mask the floor unless tile or concrete is going down. I take all of the doors out and mark each one on the bottom with masking tape so I know where it goes back. I take off all door hardware, switch plates etc. it makes the job look much more professional this way.
I paint the ceiling first, I take out all lights and replace them with a cheap plastic round closet light with bulb that hangs by the wires so you can paint under it, then mask the ceiling back 2' then take a paint brush and paint the ceiling color over the edge of the the taped off area. This will allow the ceiling paint to run under the tape and fill the voids making a super crisp tape line when you paint the walls.
Next I do walls and try to avoid spraying too much on the jambs but I don't mask them, it takes way too much time. If you have different wall colors see my masking tip above.
To paint the trim I do a fast masking job on places where the paint might drip but I cut the paint in with a brush so I don't need to mask. (anyone can learn to cut paint in with practice and it is twice as fast as masking) If a room has carpet I have a lot of left over 2" blind slats I shove under the base boards to allow me to paint them real nice without getting paint on the carpet. I use a 12" masking paper over them and many large canvas tarps for perfect results.
This is just a general overview but I hope it helps.
I just finished painting a whole house. I purchased a Graco airless spray gun as I plan to use it on many projects to come. I would suggest working from the ground up.
I would clean up trim, caulk, fill holes etc and spray this first. Make sure to do good prep work, it makes all the difference. Also at least 2-3 coats. You will want to mask off all the trim, I would then paint the walls, tape the walls off and do the ceiling last. After ceiling is done remove all tape. I could ceiling doing the ceiling first because most likely that will be white but then when you go to do the walls I haven't found a good way to tape off a ceiling.
I'm by no means in expect but this is what I have found to be easiest.
Is there a reason you want to paint the wall and ceiling a different color? If you can I would suggest picking a nice neutral color that isn't to dark that you can paint the walls and ceiling. This will save you a TON of time. You will only then have to tape the trim off. I did this on my last paint job and when we went to sell we didn't get any negative comments about the walls and ceiling being the same color.
@Sam Erickson Thanks for the tips! You're right, painting the walls and ceiling a different colors does add time to the job, but does seem preferable. The walls will be a pottery-barn-ish light beige, whereas the ceilings will be white.
I may revisit that color pattern to save time, though!
I've found spraying isn't really a time/money saver on most of my projects because so much time and materials goes into masking. The sprayer really shines when it comes to textured ceilings, though. I don't even consider using it if the floors are done already. When I do use the sprayer, I normally do the ceilings first with minimal masking (generally just a sheet of plastic over the windows, don't worry about overspray on the walls since you're going to paint them anyway). If the walls are dark, I'll spray a base coat of white/light on them too. Then I roll the walls and brush the trim, in that order. If you're installing new trim, lay it out or prop it against a drop cloth and spray it before install. You'll have to touch it up after, but the sprayer will save you time here. Generally, though, I've found that masking and dealing with overspray is just to time consuming to make spraying worthwhile on most projects. Let us know how it goes.
This is how I do it, I mask all windows, cabinets and anything I don't want paint on, if the floors are out I don't mask the floor unless tile or concrete is going down. I take all of the doors out and mark each one on the bottom with masking tape so I know where it goes back. I take off all door hardware, switch plates etc. it makes the job look much more professional this way.
I paint the ceiling first, I take out all lights and replace them with a cheap plastic round closet light with bulb that hangs by the wires so you can paint under it, then mask the ceiling back 2' then take a paint brush and paint the ceiling color over the edge of the the taped off area. This will allow the ceiling paint to run under the tape and fill the voids making a super crisp tape line when you paint the walls.
Next I do walls and try to avoid spraying too much on the jambs but I don't mask them, it takes way too much time. If you have different wall colors see my masking tip above.
To paint the trim I do a fast masking job on places where the paint might drip but I cut the paint in with a brush so I don't need to mask. (anyone can learn to cut paint in with practice and it is twice as fast as masking) If a room has carpet I have a lot of left over 2" blind slats I shove under the base boards to allow me to paint them real nice without getting paint on the carpet. I use a 12" masking paper over them and many large canvas tarps for perfect results.
This is just a general overview but I hope it helps.
The prep time is my primary concern, but in that I am using just two colors in the house (1 for trim, 1 for walls), I do think spraying will save some time.
Additionally, the walls are textured plaster, so to your point I'm hoping the sprayer will do a better job.
The 24" masking paper works pretty good for keeping the paint off the ceiling. But if you wanted to spend the time masking the whole ceiling you could use the cheapest thin plastic drop cloth and tape that to the paper then rip small holes every 4' and use 2" blue tape over the holes to hold the plastic to the ceiling.
I have never had a problem with overspray on a ceiling with the 24" paper though.
When you spray have some one back roll , spraying makes a smooth finish , unfortunatly , when you go to touch it up its hard , if you back roll it blends in . I have sprayers from cheap electric to a 5 hp gas powered for outside work . On interior , its generally faster to brush and roll VS tape, cover , spray , back roll . and clean up
I've found spraying big old fashioned casings and crown to be worth it. If you do it first you just have to mask off the windows, and not worry about overspray on the walls, since you're going to cut them anyway. Just bought a HVLP to try out http://www.harborfreight.com/high-volume-low-pressure-spray-gun-kit-44677.html. I've preferred a small air sprayer over a Ryobi quart airless, but the compressor for it is not portable. I would not try and paint a room with this, but brushing 5" wide detailed casings gets old fast.
From the top down, always. Over spray falls down, not up and thus the reason you start at ceiling, if not, you will have overspray dusting on walls and trim. You will still need to cut your walls by hand at the trim and ceiling but whole process is much faster then hand doing everything.
Tip someone gave about back rolling is a must too, gives a better finished look and allows for touch ups. Once you learn control of the unit, you will have very minimal taping and papering.
Biggest hassle with spraying is the cleanup of the units themselves.
I would do the ceilings first. And it is great that you have a spray because they are great for painting uneven surfaces. I am not sure the exact kind of sprayer that you have, but I would warn you about using shields. If you have a powerful sprayer, I would not even attempt to use the shield for wall/ceiling connections. You will always invariably overshoot or something, leaving the ceiling with richocet and unprotected error fire. Well that is just my experience anyway. So I would spray the ceiling and edge the first few inches down from the ceiling with a brush or edger. Then spray down to the trim. Masking the room initially was time consuming for me, but did develope some time saving techniques. Like when I mask the trim,I roll the painters tape all in one single piece leaving a portion of the adhesive side out and downward. Then I roll all in one piece the paper underneath the adhesive side. I can mask the trim in a matter of minutes. And if I have to protect the floor, I am make sure it is all covered with drop clothe, extending under the paper. Also as mentioned above, when you have over sprayed, I brush the over spray out. But I dont do it immediately, I let the intended coat dry a little then I smooth it over.
Its also important to consider added material costs. SPraying will use a lot more paint than rolling. For a rough estimate this calculator will give you an estimate for rolling or spraying, airless sprayers are about 40- 50 percent efficient if you use them well and you usually lay down a 4-5 mil coating to get good coverage. Essentially you will use about double the paint with the sprayer as each gallon will cover about 200 sq feet vs about 400.
I'm also looking to spray the interior of a 1,600 sqft house. Walls only, 1 color. Would it be worth it to pay someone to mask everything off for me? If so, what do you think a fair price is?
Practice with the sprayer in the closet.. Note I always paint interior of closets white I never use wall color on closets, they stay bright and easy to touch up if needed.. nobody likes painting closets.
Remove doors, tape plastic windows. remove faceplates and outlet covers.. put down drop cloths on floors. plastic on floors is dangerous.. or use rolled paper.
Ceilings first.. lower ceiling fixtures or closely tape and plastic wrap. Go down on walls about 2 inches so you cover well.
Done with ceilings you can border tape so wall paint doesn't overspray with the 12" paper type tape with sticky edge,,
Walls next, cut in the edges of ceiling and corners of walls, by hand, then spray, after sprayed have someone go behind you with a roller and with textured walls this will work well, wet the roller with paint first and then you'll hardly have to wet it again..
Trim and doors next.
If your painting the trim like in a whole house I usually would recommend doing all Ceilings and then the trim next.. especially if it's bare floors.. sand, prep and spray, first remove all door hardware, hinges, and back tape the windows so you first put a layer of tape around the edges of the glass, then you cut plastic and tape the plastic to the tape that's already on the glass. your not taping it to the wood or vinyl edge but basically sealing off the glass. Works great..
then you protect the trim from over spray from the walls,,
For me, spraying is about the look of the job. If it's my own house or a high end one, I spray the trim. On non-textured, interior doors and wide, smooth trim, it is easier to get an even coat with a sprayer. Rollers and brushes often leave marks. On my next build, I'm thinking of putting in the hard flooring and then installing the trim but putting down wax paper on the floor under it. I'm hoping it will make an easy border to mask the floor off with and be easy to remove after I spray it. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this.
Using the airless make sure to select the right tip size most latex type paints will be between 13 - 17 thousands. This is a good tutorial on using an airless as well.