Long ago, like in your grandfather’s day, when it came time to paint the house, inside or out, you had a single choice of how you apply the paint. A paint brush.
Then, around 1940, everything changed. Following it’s invention by Canadian Norman Breakey, the paint roller revolutionized how we paint our homes by making the process faster while also spreading the paint more evenly and avoiding brush marks.
Today, few people would choose a brush over a roller to paint an entire wall in a house.
But they have another option too. They might choose to spray paint the wall instead of rollering it.
There is an ongoing debate over whether spray painting or roller painting is best for interior or exterior painting.
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Here’s a quick comparison to get us started.
Preparation Time
Without having to set up the spray equipment, put paint in the reservoir, connect hoses and cords, etc., rollering has a much shorter preparation time. And if you include all the masking that spraying can require, it doesn’t even come close.
Application Time
All the time you saved in preparation will be lost in how much longer it takes to roll on paint. Regardless of the preparation time, you can paint a wall many times faster with a paint sprayer than with a roller.
Painting Accuracy
When spray painting interior walls you’ll need to make mask off everything you don’t want to get sprayed, like the ceiling, windows, door and floor. So rollers are more accurate, but you’ll usually need a small brush to do corners.
Spreads Paint Evenly
It’s tough to pick a winner here. Both spraying and rolling spreads paint fairly evenly, but both can run the risk of overlapping unevenly too.
Clean-Up
While it can take some doing to clean your roller brushes and equipment, it’s not nearly as bad as having to clean the spray gun, reservoir bottle, and everything else connected to the gun.
Many professional painters combine spray painting, roller painting and brush painting depending on the exact surface being painted. Starting with the brush, each method is faster than the previous one, but each method is less accurate than the previous one. That means spray painting is the fastest way to paint large areas where you don’t need so much accuracy, like an exterior wall; roller painting is good for interior walls where you need to avoid getting paint on other surfaces; and brushes help you do the detail work.
If you want to learn more about how spray painting can help your next project go faster and look better, visit the the full-service Spray Centre at our Dixie Rd. and Eglinton Ave. location. You’ll find complete lines of paint sprayers and equipment, from the leading manufacturers, including Titan, Graco and Lemmer, that you can buy or rent. Seminars are regularly scheduled to show you how to spray paint like a pro. And, best of all, our specialized spray paint technicians are available to answer all your questions and help you find the right equipment for your needs. Call or visit the Spray Centre today.
