Airless Sprayer or Rollers and Brush?

FyrFyter33

New member
I pressure washed decent sized deck today, 600+ square foot, and it was nasty. The end results look good so far. I have to go back in a few days and stain it. I am not real familiar with wood, I have only done a handful of decks in the last 5 years only because I'm not familiar with them. I am slowly working my way into wood jobs. Is it easier to use an airless sprayer or just brush and roll the stain on? Do you use foam pads also? What is the advantage of an airless sprayer if you have to go back and roll what youve spray to "even" it out?

Answers and any other tips before Friday would be greatly appreciated!

Chad
 
I choose not to spray but I use a pad and pump up for the floor. Because I sell the fact that I brush in the rest of the stain and I can get hundreds more per deck. If you was to take a poll of the normal homeowner they would most likely say that stain needs to be applied by brush to " really work it in". I have a system that works for me and I get 90% of the decks done within a day. Everything I use to do a deck, brushes, chems, plastic ,tape, etc is billed to the job at $80.00. I list those as supplies.
 
I don't like the mess, all the extra prep, and cleaning up the airless afterwards. If I did more I might get a surflow set up. I use rollers for the deck, sponges for the rails and a painters mit for the spindles. I have a piece of laminate I use as a shield against the house then cut in around there, then I do the rails, spindles then the deck, go to lunch come back and second coat on the deck, let dry again if good collect, if not then one more coat.

I give the customer the left over stain and color name so if they want to touch up they can. Too much trouble trying to fit in maintenance in my area dealing with the weather.

Then I just take the applicators and throw it all away afterwards. Charge to the job as disposables. The painters mit was the best thing I came across, just dip your and and smear on the spindles and odd shapes, not so many drips, holds more than a brush, cheap and faster.
 
If their are a lot of spindles we'll spray them and then roll and brush the floor.
 
I don't like the mess, all the extra prep, and cleaning up the airless afterwards. If I did more I might get a surflow set up. I use rollers for the deck, sponges for the rails and a painters mit for the spindles. I have a piece of laminate I use as a shield against the house then cut in around there, then I do the rails, spindles then the deck, go to lunch come back and second coat on the deck, let dry again if good collect, if not then one more coat.

I give the customer the left over stain and color name so if they want to touch up they can. Too much trouble trying to fit in maintenance in my area dealing with the weather.

Then I just take the applicators and throw it all away afterwards. Charge to the job as disposables. The painters mit was the best thing I came across, just dip your and and smear on the spindles and odd shapes, not so many drips, holds more than a brush, cheap and faster.

Jon, I've never seen a painter's mitt. Is it an Internet only sort of thing, or did you find it in a store?
 
Shane, thanks for the link. Do you use them?


No prob Ted..

I haven't had to use them yet but will keep them in mind if I need them. I spray everything I can with the shurflo and back pad or back brush with a 6" deck and siding brush.

With Shurflo's you can turn the pressure switch WAY down to minimize the overspray and with a small tip spraying railings are a breeze.
 
Watch out with the painters mitts. Put a thick rubber glove on underneath in case you get some rough wood. We used those years ago and had to get a few splinters out.
We spray half the decks and brush out or use painters pads depending on job.
 
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