Paint rollers have less prep work and the tools are less expensive, but it’s very labor-intensive.
You may wish to use a paint sprayer for any of these conditions.
This canvas lends itself well to paint spraying.
The Spruce / Margot Cavin
The hopper gun is attached to a compressed air hose.
Paint sprayers have the ability to work into the narrowest crevices, laying down a thin coat.
By contrast, brushing or rolling detailed surfaces can result in pooled-up paint and drips.
Keep in mind that all of the detail work needs to be thesame colorto warrant using the paint sprayer.
Otherwise, using a brush is the best way to paint detail work of more than one color.
This method is flexible, cost-effective, and excellent at laying down paint with a minimum of coats.
Roller, roller cover, paint tray, and tray liner: these are your four mainpainting supplieswhen rolling.
Paint spraying is an all-or-nothing project that consumes your entire day.
If so, paint rolling is here to help.
Paint rolling allows you more leeway when the surface isn’t perfectly clean.
Rolled paint goes on thick on the initial coat.
Most surfaces only require two coats.
Problem surfaces may require three coats.
Painting professionals agree rolling paint produces a thick paint layer and excellent color consistency.
Paint spraying may seem easy at first, but it can be tricky to learn to do well.
If you have never used a paint sprayer before, now may not be the best time to learn.
Whatever you neglect to mask when spraying will get painted, like it or not.
Rolling vastly reduces the amount of masking you will need to do.
Tip
Professional painters have a clever technique that combines the best of spraying and rolling: back-rolling.
Paint is sprayed on the wall then is quickly rolled down, fusing the droplets together.
Use a Roller If You Are Only Painting Walls
Are you painting only thewallsand not theceiling?
This factor may tip the decision in the direction of paint-rolling.
When you roll on paint, it is relatively easy to exclude the ceiling.
There is no need to use masking film on the ceiling when rollingwalls.
A tape dispenser helps you create long, straight runs of painter’s tape on the ceiling.
When you use a paint roller, nearly every drop ends up on the surface.
The only part of the paint that goes away is the water content that evaporates.
Also factor in the cost of tools.
All roller items are inexpensive compared to the purchase and maintenance of a paint sprayer.
