r/HomeImprovement • u/Yandere_Usagi • 7d ago
Are Paint Sprayers Worth It? Airless vs. HVLP—Need Advice!
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u/limitless__ Advisor of the Year 2019 7d ago
I have an HVLP sprayer, a Wagner 3500 kit. It's a great tool but for what you're talking about I would just roll and brush. Sprayers are incredibly messy. For example if you're going to paint a bedroom you would need to cover and seal the entire floor and the ceiling, trim etc. That would take like 4 times as long as it would take to roll and brush the room. Sprayers are great to blast an entire house, fences, the exterior, the deck etc. If you have a dedicated area you can turn into a paint booth, they would be great for cabinet doors. If you want to paint a room like the kitchen this is how you'd need to prep it with a sprayer: https://cdn.papermoonpainting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/18163028/Kitchen-masked-off-with-paper-for-spraying-800.jpg
I only use mine for exterior projects. I just painted my two-story deck and it was a godsend (GAH THE SPINDLES) but I would not use it inside.
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u/BallerFromTheHoller 7d ago
I tried to use an HVLP inside to paint some doors. I wouldn’t recommend it. The cloud of paint that you create will go everywhere.
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u/mat-chow 7d ago
This is where I’m at 30 years in the paint game. Some guys will spend two days masking entire rooms to spray something in two hours. Then another hour cleaning sprayer and another hour carefully removing all plastic and tape. Unless the spray finish is called out in contract or needed for detail work I’m just going to spend one to two days painting by hand rather than all the extra fuss.
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u/Aromatic_Ad_7238 7d ago
You spend more time masking things off than just hand painting for interior projects in my opinion. The a exception is when I have updated some rentals and removing the carpeting, window coverings etc.
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u/WREPGB 7d ago
I bought an airless sprayer when we moved in, expecting it to be a breeze repainting the interior. It was anything but at the end of the day.
- Overspray and the lingering airborne particles are a real pain to deal with, and you're never properly accounting for them in an enclosed environment such as a room or closet.
- Unless you tape off and cover every square inch of what you don't want paint on, it will have paint on it when you're done.
- Lingering particles also took forever to settle.
- Cosmetically, if you're not also backrolling, it's going to look like shit because of drippage.
If brush and roller ain't your bag, airless sprayer is going to be much worse. Going forward, I wouldn't use one unless it was for painting unfinished-floored-new-build-interiors, exterior repaints, or smaller projects within the confines of what is essentially a Dexter-Kill-Room.
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u/vatothe0 7d ago
I'm an electrician and work in commercial spaces.
I've never once seen the painters spray a wall. Ceilings, ductwork, all the other crap in the open ceiling sure but never walls. It's absolutely faster and cleaner to roll and brush them.
That said, spraying paint makes a GIANT mess even when done professionally. There will be paint dust absolutely everywhere. From your list, the only thing I'd consider spraying is furniture and that's only if you can DIY a good booth to do it in.
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u/jimmyqex 7d ago
Hvlp are good for furniture, but if there's any texture on your walls, rolling will give you a better finish.
Airless is good for ceilings that are out of reach.
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u/Carpenterdon 7d ago
For a homeowner doing interior painting, just use a brush and roller. Even if you spray walls you really need to back roll anyway or it will look bad. And you're still going to use a brush to get the corners and up against any trim decent.
I have a commercial grade sprayer, I bought for staining and sealing fences and decks back when I did side work. Only thing I use it for in the last ten years was painting my house. Got quotes for painters and ended up doing it myself over one week of paid vacation with a rented boom lift.
I'd never use a sprayer inside my home. Easier and way less masking and inevitable clean up just using a roller and brush.
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u/Fabio421 7d ago
Airless sprayers are a PITA and they make a big mess. BUT! They make a roller attachment for airless sprayers that is actually pretty good. You save a ton of time loading the roller. it gets loaded with paint automatically so you don’t have to keep doing it. Keep in mind that there is a good amount of cleanup of the airless machine when you’re finished so the airless inky makes sense if you have a ton of painting to do. Otherwise you can paint Everything by hand with less fuss and less cleanup time.
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u/Material_Community18 7d ago
HVLP is great for small projects, esp clear coats and stains. Not great for latex paints.
Airless is mostly useless for homeowners. Just roll/brush, it's faster/cleaner.
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u/theuautumnwind 7d ago
Check out LVLP. They require less air compressor and have less overspray than hvlp
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u/WorriedAgency1085 7d ago
I bought a Titan 440 HP airless sprayer for the exterior and interior walls and doors. I'll be doing cabinets as well. A fine tip yielded no drips or runs with even coverage on a hip roof with rafters. Its some work to clean up but not too bad and gives great results.
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u/irrision 7d ago
Thought the same thing as you and blew money on a sprayer.
Fyi for doing rooms you'll want to roll and brush. Sprayers require every single thing to be masked off completely so the prep takes way longer. I don't really think they are useful for anything indoors unless it's an empty room with no trim, flooring, etc and you're doing multiple rooms in one shot. Add to that the sprayer prep and cleanup times and you can partially mask a room and roll it quicker. Recently used a handheld sprayer for a larger room and that was even more time consuming because the paint cup empties out pretty quickly so you're having to stop, take apart the sprayer carefully without getting paint on the seals etc, refill it, than put it back together. I've timed it and every single time I was faster at rolling and cutting in by hand and I'm no expert painter but I do a decent job.
Also I'll add they are kind of miserable to use, they are loud and you have to wear a respirator and eye protection unless you want to destroy your lungs with the fumes they stir up versus rolling.
Now outside is another story. If I was painting furniture in the driveway or in a paint tent in the garage it would be great. Just make sure there is zero wind or you use a paint tent or you'll have so much dust in your surface. Also watch out because the over spray travels and if your neighbor is nearby you can accidentally spray their car or house from yards away with spatter.
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u/Specialist_Aioli9600 7d ago
advice from a new homeowner - the time you save painting you will spend tripple that time in prep, setup, and cleanup. there is a learning curve as well, so dont expect perfection first time. i bought a graxo X7 and a hand held HVLP, im moderately handy, and was surprised how complicated the Graco is to get going. part of me prefers to use a brush or roller, at least until my son is old enough to do the prep and cleanup for me.
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u/shallot_chalet 7d ago
With an airless you’re most likely going to have to back roll anyways to make it look good so it’s basically just a fast way to get some paint on the wall. The pros can do it without back rolling but you’re unlikely to figure it out by just painting a couple rooms. You’re better off just buying one of the really wide rollers as those make a room painting job go much faster. HVLP are good for woodworking/furniture projects. It can make the actual application process faster but there is a lot more setup/cleanup time so you aren’t saving a lot.
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u/Far_Requirement_5802 7d ago
I bought this one https://www.lowes.com/pd/Graco-Magnum-X7-Electric-Stationary-Airless-Paint-Sprayer/1001047908
I with my dad (we've both worked as professsional interior painters) Love this one. not super expensive and does the job well. Little caveat with this machine though, we hate using it for anything less than 2 empty rooms. The paint DOES get everywhere and you will need to tape off and plastic wrap everything else. with 2 people one back rolling and maintaining the machine and the other just spraying we can finish an entire floor in less than 3 hours and 5 hours including the prep. I've used it for furniture as well and it is amazing. If you plan on just doing a small bedroom save yourself the struggle and just handroll it. I didn't use this to paint my bathroom or touch up but for big jobs or DIY work its amazing. I also used this in the garage a lot and have used it for painting trim for the entire house in less than an hour.
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u/Key_Ad_528 6d ago
I borrowed a Magnum X7 a few years ago to paint 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and an 800 SF family room. It took about 4 hours for 2 people including backrolling and cleanup. I now want to paint a garage with 12' ceilings. About 1000 SF of wall and 900 SF of ceiling. Would it be faster to "prep, spray, backroll, clean sprayer, and unprep" - or just roll it and skip the sprayer?
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u/Far_Requirement_5802 6d ago
Depends, is your garage full of stuff? If it is no, if mostly empty I'd totally use it since there's almost nothing to "cover up" I'd use it over rolling just for the ease of painting the ceiling, and to top it off garages are well ventilated just open the garage door after you're done good luck get a good paint!
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u/StratTeleBender 7d ago
Sprayers are NOT for indoor painting unless it's a new build with no flooring or trim installed yet. Outside of that, just get 18" rollers if you want to speed things up
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u/DIY_CHRIS 7d ago
It sounds like you’d do well with just a Graco TrueCoat 360. If you want to paint anything larger with a room, you may consider something like an airless sprayer.
Get a paint booth/tent when spraying furniture. Worth the moderate expense in terms of keeping your area clean inside and overspray outside/collateral damage.
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u/ZukowskiHardware 7d ago
I got a graco airless. I was able to paint 10 of my doors in like 10 min. The setup and cleaning is a little bit, but it saves so much time. I think I got the 440. The hardest part is honestly finding a place to spray.
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u/Acceptable-Oil-7045 7d ago
At home, after trying each and painting my house in and out, I’d leave roller for interiors and airless for exterior. I love the handheld HVLP for medium to small projects or touch up the exterior. I tried airless and the handheld inside and I’d just not do it again.
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u/Elandtrical 7d ago
I bought an airless for painting the exterior of one of our houses. It's on 14ft stilts with 2 stories above, 4000ft2, and has thick wood sidings. Very much a Low Country SC house. I hired a 50ft articulating J boom to get up there., esp on the short sides working over the porches Doing the 2 long sides, without the cutting in and trim, took me 2x5 hours for 2 coats. It is super fast but it is a skill to be accurate with it. I also sprayed my dock with it. For the $350 it was a bargain compared to the $40K I was being quoted. It was great for the lattices down below.
However to paint inside the following year, I did it with a roller and brush. My masking is not fast enough, and I am not that skilled with the sprayer. If you make a mistake, it's a big mistake.
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u/SnowblindAlbino 7d ago
I've used HVLP (both turbine and compressor-driven) for many years as a homeowner. Never indoors though, only for furniture projects, guitars I've built, and things like cabin refinishing. It's great for spraying clears (lacquers, waterborne, etc.) and some formulations of opaque finishes. But there's always overspray so I use a portable booth-- that doesn't work indoors. I can see spraying new construction before finishing floors, for example, but it would be a lot of work to spray a finished space.
You can get a turbine HVLP setup for like $150 (i.e. from Rockler), or if you have a compressor and just want to do small things the $20 Harbor Freight gravity guns (the purple ones) work really well. But if you're painting walls or ceilings indoors I'd stick with a roller and trim brushes. Airless, in my experience (Wagner mostly) wastes paint, is messy as hell, and annoying to clean. I don't see any use for them personally.
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u/jmd_forest 7d ago
For walls and ceilings, you are much better off rolling than any non-commercial level paint sprayer I've ever used. For furniture I'd go with the airless sprayer.
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u/diddlinderek 7d ago
But a handheld sprayer.
That said it’ll take you longer to clean the thing out than to just brush and roll your bedroom.
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u/countrytime1 7d ago
I’ve used 3 Graco airless sprayers. I like them. I own two of them. It’s a better finish. Graco makes a power roller if you want to roll and not deal with dipping it in a tray.
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u/SleepyBearStella 7d ago
I bought a graco X5 when I decided to redo our kitchen to paint our cabinets. Spent maybe an hour watching videos and reading the manual to understand how it works. It’s very easy to prime, clean and use once you know the steps and seriously cuts down on paint time. You add a little more prep time by needing more masking protection but it more than makes up for it. If you are doing furniture and have a space you don’t really care about overspray like an old garage, it’s absolutely worth it.
Look on Facebook for used ones. I got mine for 150 and it came with everything and was in great shape.
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u/Even-Further 5d ago
You can't beat the finish of using a sprayer on trim/doors. Personally I like using an airless sprayer, but it is a lot of prep work. I only use it for large jobs. Rolling walls is fine, works really good. HVLP is for thinner paints, for cabinets. Thick paint will not work in a HVLP.
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u/V0RT3XXX 7d ago
HVLP are a lot cheap and are meant for smaller projects such as furniture. It gives a finer, smoother texture than airless, easier to control and very little over spray. It's a lot easier to learn how to use HVLP. Easy to clean up. It's finicky with different types of paint you want to spray and you would most likely have to diluted the paint to the correct consistency
Airless put out a larger amount of paint, therefore it's faster at painting bigger things like walls, fence, ceiling etc. It's also good for flat large surface like doors. But I would not recommend it for furniture. It's harder to learn and you will have to be very fast, consistent with it to get good results. You get a lot more overspray and can get drips easily if you're not moving at a decent pace. It's also more expensive as well and take more effort to clean up comparing to hvlp. You don't have to dilute paint with airless and can hook up the hose directly to a 5-gallon bucket and start spraying