For my birthday, my cousins power washed my house and driveways. The popcorn white concrete and splashy renewed brick made the exterior house paint look super dingy. It also forced me to realize how long I had been putting off painting the exterior.
Eleven years ago, I paid two painters to work on my two story 25 by 50 foot exterior .The job took two weeks and cost $2500. Everything was exta. Caulking, chipping, sealing was extra. I picked the colors from a paint thumbnail coordination card, yellow beige with blue trim. It was nice. and they dripped paint everywhere, the eves, the plants, the driveway even the trashcans had a tie dye look. I convinced myself that I cared and if I had tools and time I would have spilled less paint.
Fast forward a decade. So after mulling over this project for about 18 months I took the paint retains from the garage and bought 10 gallons of exterior and a gallon of trim. Pricey. I returned a month laterr I spent hours looking at paint sprayers. I had watched an infomercial on a do it yourself spray painters. This one is for thin paint like trim, this one is for small jobs, this was had consummable cups. I purchased one and took it home. The sprayer sat in the kitchen for a month, like a house guest that over stays.. Who was I kidding? This spray painter was almost $300 dollars. Was I really going to paint that much? Was this tool going to take up space in the garage? I read the manual. THE WARNINGS stood out, especially the type of injuries that would involve an emergency room. The deal was sealed. I took the paint sprayer back to the store And found myself in the back of the store looking at the commercial rental equipment.. The paint sparer I had purchased was for rent. in this case the sign was there but the unit was missing.. Another month passed by and I went back to the store I asked about the empty space for the paint sprayer. The clerk told me oh we don’t have that one we don’t rent that here. So I start looking at larger paint sprayers one fit a 5 gallon bucket of paint. When I went back to work one of my coworkers was an X painter. I asked him about commercial spray painters. I got the scoop, coverage, speed, overlap, weather, latex, semigloss. I could rent a 5 gallon paint sprayer for $80 for 4 hours. Fees were charged for improper cleaning racked up fees $200. As, the clerk took it off the shelf as I asked him for an instructional, safety lesson, the do’s and don’ts, and what could go wrong. How could I hurt myself. He helped me load it the vehicle and the clock started. I lay down tarps. I pulled out the Christmas extension cords. I uncapped the 5 gallon paint set it on the bottom of the paint sprayer, turned on the primer, switched to spayer.
After a few adjustments, the paint came out even. I did not use any practice boards, I practiced on the garage. Within 5 to 6 minutes, The pattern looked great. I was painting like a pro. It came out really nice. I did the trim. eaves, the whole garage. It came out so easy that I started on the back side of the house. If I had a tall ladder, I would do the second floor. ln 3 hours I had laid down 7 gallons of paint. I don’t know if I put it on the house or if it aerosolized all over the neighbors. I spent 45 minutes with clean up. At the 45 minute mark, I packed it up and took it back to the store. I admired my job. It was easier than I thought it looked professional.
The only thing I would have done differently is buy and use an edger. I would have had less touch up on the window trim.
