When considering painting your house, several options are presented to you. You may have to make a decision between Spray Painting your house versus a Spay/Hand Paint Application Combo. At Stellar Painting & Remodeling our goal is to educate our clients. So today, with more that 20 years of painting experience – here’s my humble opinion:

1. What is the real goal of applying paint to any surface, no matter what the technique?

Answer- The even and consistent application of mil’s/thickness of the coating to especially large surface areas such as Lap Siding to the Perimeter of your Home. This is especially important to the bottom edge or lip of your siding as the mission here is to seal the porosity and prevent any further moisture from wicking up into the board which causes the swelling, delaminating and warping you will often see.

2. What affects the ability to apply paint evenly?
Answer- It is very difficult to apply Paint evenly by hand across a large surface area for the following reasons:

• The back and forth action of going to the paint bucket to re-load the brush or roller. It would be impossible to load the brush or roller the same each time.
• Different amounts of Hand Pressure when applying the paint. This would just be a natural occurrence, as it would take a perfect robotic stroke to maintain the same hand pressure.
• Basic Human Fatigue- Again, this would also contribute to the difficulty in applying paint at a consistent pace, pressure or thickness.
• Up and down / Side-to-Side Ladder Work and all the movement required here would also make even distribution of a coating by hand very difficult.
• Airless Application-If the Applicator is consistently more than 1 ft. from the surface making for inefficiency.
• If the wrong size tip is used as the tip dictates the volume and a tip that is too big can contribute to paint waste and unnecessary over-spray.
• A Poor Power Source can cause inconsistent performance.
• Lack of experience with the equipment can create some inconsistent results.

Stellar Painting & Remodeling conclusion- It takes skill to use either technique. However, properly used, an airless compressor that puts out up to 1 GPM at 3000 PSI can more evenly and consistently distribute the paint across a large surface area and most importantly to the bottom edge of the lap board.
This technology is a successful multi-million dollar industry that was developed to provide a more efficient and productive way to apply coatings versus the hand painting technique used by contractors for so many years. We are after all in the 21st century. Why not use the technology available today to produce a beautiful end result.

3. What are the best surfaces to hand paint?
Answer- Trim, gutters, down spouts, roof caps and to some degree some doors and shutters.
These are smaller surface areas that paint can be more evenly distributed across with an a more even application of thickness versus across a 30 ft. x 30 ft. side of your home.
By the way, for the best results most all-metal doors should be sprayed and not hand painted period.

4. What about spraying and back-rolling? Are they an Effective Combination?
Answer- These two techniques combined, are often practiced by novice contractors when painting siding. One important thing to consider when painting siding is that it is very difficult to roll as the paint has a tendency to drip and run as the roller is pushed across a very uneven and lapped surface. Altogether, this combination isn’t the one you want practiced on your home. Here’s why; imagine your contractor spraying a beautiful coat of paint on your siding while another painter is standing right behind him ‘back-rolling’. Essentially, removing thickness of paint that the first painter just applied or ultimately removing a layer of protection on your house!

5. Won’t more time and care be taken when my House is Hand Painted?
Answer- Not necessarily, No question it takes longer to apply paint the old fashioned way. However, many times this added having multiple painters on a home compensates time. Often 6-8 men at a time. This can make for inconsistent results as the job becomes difficult to manage.

6. Should Hand Painting a House Cost More?
Answer- Sure, it just takes longer to do it. However, we believe it is a niche in the market being tapped in order to charge more and just to be different.

Be careful, as no matter how paint is applied anybody can make a paint job look great for a couple of years or just after completion. The overall even application of paint will dictate the mid-term and long-term life. Other factors for life of a re-paint- Quality of prep, Quality of Paint, Non-dilution of Paint, Pre-existing condition of House, Exposure of House or Portions of House to Altitude and UV. A House in good condition when painted will last longer no matter how the paint is applied.

Make sure information being passed along as fact in regards to hand painting has some legitimate source to back it up. I.e. Hand application applies paint with more pressure or pushes the paint into the surface more versus 3000 psi and up to 1 gpm. Pretty hard to believe!