Painting a House with a Sprayer or Brush – Professional Tips for Exterior Painters

In a wooden house exterior painting project, it’s not just about choosing the color and type of paint, but one of the trickiest questions is whether to paint the house with a sprayer or brush. To help you decide, we’ll review the pros and cons of spray and brush painting in this article.

The known history of paint sprayers begins in 1887, when Chicago-based Joseph Blinks invented a hand-pumped paint sprayer to make paint application easier. Blinks worked at a large department store, and its basement walls needed painting from time to time. The surface area was enormous, and it took the painting team weeks to complete with brushes. The paint sprayer significantly sped up the job.

Later, in the 1920s, with industrialization, paint sprayers began to be used in car painting. Until then, cars had also been painted by hand with brushes. The use of paint sprayers in painting has become widespread, and today most painting of all kinds, especially in industry but also in construction, is done with paint sprayers.

Painting a House with a Sprayer

People often wonder whether you can paint a wooden house with a sprayer and whether it makes sense. In principle, you can paint a wooden house with a paint sprayer, just like almost any other surface. After all, paint sprayers are also used for interior painting and ceiling painting. However, the usefulness of using a paint sprayer for painting a wooden house is not entirely straightforward.

Using a sprayer does not eliminate the need for a brush when painting a house.

First of all, painting a house with a sprayer requires more skill from the user than traditional brush painting. In addition, you need to be especially careful with masking work to prevent paint from getting on surfaces where it doesn’t belong. The surface of a wooden house is porous, so the paint must be worked in with a brush anyway. Using a sprayer does not eliminate the need for a brush when painting a house. The reason why a sprayer is sometimes used is simple: especially when painting large surfaces with just a brush, most of the time is spent dipping the brush in the bucket. With a sprayer, paint can be efficiently applied to surfaces, saving time.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Spray Painting

The greatest benefit from spray painting comes in projects with many large, clear surfaces. In such cases, you don’t spend a lot of time on masking and protection. When painting small surface areas, as with larger surfaces, the actual painting work goes faster, but the time saved is spent setting up the sprayer and cleaning it after work. Maintaining a paint sprayer is extremely important if you want it to last a long time. The best benefit from using a sprayer comes, for example, when painting a long straight wall, fence, or other large, clear surface.

In summary, the main benefit of spray painting a wooden house is that it produces finished surface quickly. On the downside, it creates additional work in terms of masking and sprayer maintenance.

Advantages of Brush Painting Compared to Spray Painting

Traditional brush painting is still the most popular way to paint a wooden house, even among professionals. The surface of a wooden house requires that the paint be worked in with a brush anyway, so the most straightforward approach is to do the entire painting job directly with a brush. Using a sprayer is not the only way to speed up the work—there are numerous other methods. An experienced painting professional produces finished work in one go and knows how to effectively use the right tools in the right places.

Traditional brush painting is still the most popular way to paint a wooden house, even among professionals.

Professional Tip for Brush Painting

One easy way to speed up painting a wooden house is to apply paint on large surfaces with a roller instead of a brush. At best, a roller provides the same benefits as spray painting. A roller is a significantly more affordable solution than even the cheapest paint sprayer, and using it doesn’t require extensive experience. With a roller, even a DIY painter can save a lot of time. However, when using a paint roller, keep in mind that too vigorous rolling can create a mess. Also, when choosing a paint roller suitable for exterior painting, pay attention to selecting one that absorbs as much paint as possible.

We hope you found this article helpful. If you’re thinking about painting your house and need help with it, we at Väriset are at your service. Requesting a quote is naturally free of charge.

On the history of spray painting: Clark, Mark 2000. The History of Sprayguns. https://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/the-history-of-sprayguns/

Read also: Exterior House Painting: 5 Most Common Pitfalls – and How to Avoid Them

­