Spray Painting - Which Dulux trade paint?

[jonwestuk]

Hi,

I am renovating my house and have just completed plastering all the walls. I have now filled and sanded any blemishes and put several coats of diluted white emulsion on them using my Wagner Spray Painting Machine and I am ready to paint the colour.

I believe that it is best to use trade paint vs the standard retail stuff, however there seems to be a lot of options available to me and I am not sure which to go for.

I will have to dilute the paint to work with the Spray Paint machine so I am mainly interested in ensuring that the paint lasts on the wall (we get a lot of light so the less it fades the better), and that the paint works well when sprayed.

So the question is what paint would you use for my purposes (assuming I am not painting the kitchen/bathroom)?
Will all the different types of matt paint, eggshell, diamond, vinyl dilute well?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Jon

 

[dcdec]

Just use a brush and roller, its a lot easier. Seriously, it takes skill, spraying is a trade within a trade, in my years as a pro i have never felt the need. Forget the BS QVC spout out on a Sunday morning, the finish is dreadful and its painfully slow compared to air air assisted, HVLP or a roller, you often have to back roll sprayed walls as well.

 

[jonwestuk]

Thanks for the advice, having already completed 2 coats of paint with the sprayer though I am not finding it that difficult to do so I am keen to continue with the spray approach especially as it is so fast with such a nice finish.

I managed to complete 3 rooms, a stairwell and hallway all in 3.5 hrs last night. The trick I reckon is to not try and get full coverage and instead to do multiple coats.

So back to the original question, which is the best type of paint for my purposes?

 

[Rob0482]

Most things water-based will go through the paint sprayer fine, diluted roughly the same as you did with the white emulsion.

I've used water-based eggshell through an HVLP with success, as well as emulsions and vinyl matts etc, but I would definitely use trade paint as opposed to diy store versions as it is a lot more opaque, and will cover loads better.

 

[footprints]

I have one of those sprayers I bought in a moment of weakness thinking I would spray my loom chair, both the sprayer (in its box) and the chair have been sitting in the garage for almost a year now. When I get time says I

I am interested in how much thinning you have found you need for emulsion paints and any water based gloss you have tried, any advice from your experience welcome please

 

[jonwestuk]

I have one of those sprayers I bought in a moment of weakness thinking I would spray my loom chair, both the sprayer (in its box) and the chair have been sitting in the garage for almost a year now. When I get time says I

I am interested in how much thinning you have found you need for emulsion paints and any water based gloss you have tried, any advice from your experience welcome please

I will keep this post updated on my progress. The fortunate thing for me is that I am doing the entire top floor. So I have covered and sealed all windows and masking taped everything. The issue I have right now is that the nozzle I was using was for large areas with thick emulsion. Putting the 50/50 mist coat through it was okay, but the speed controls were not as fine tuned for that consistency (for this you are meant to use one of the high viscosity nozzles). Whilst I do have the appropriate nozzle, they are slower to paint with, so I figured that I didn't really care about splatter on a mist coat!

One thing I did find was that on my machine (Wagner W867) was that you could highly influence both the spread and the amount of coverage using the controls.

I now intend on doing the final mist coat/priming of the walls with it, and I will then do the final coat of the ceilings. Once this is done, I will try painting a wall that will be behind a built in wardrobe to see how accurate I can be with the cut in and whether I get much splatter on the ceiling.

I will get back to you all when I know more.

 

[Rob0482]

I have one of those sprayers I bought in a moment of weakness thinking I would spray my loom chair, both the sprayer (in its box) and the chair have been sitting in the garage for almost a year now. When I get time says I

I am interested in how much thinning you have found you need for emulsion paints and any water based gloss you have tried, any advice from your experience welcome please

It varies from paint to paint, so the best thing I can suggest is getting a couple of measuring cups and starting with something like 500ml paint, and 50ml water. Give it a test spray, and see how it behaves. Assuming you have a 1L cup, you have room to add more paint or water to either thicken or thin the paint according to how well it covers/sprays after a test-spray. Once you have a decent mix you can repeat the ratio in subsequent cups.

It's just getting that weigh-up between opacity and viscocity, as the thinner the paint is, the finer it will spray, and the smoother your coat - but it will also take more coats.

If possible, I'd err on the thinner side, and whack the heating up so that it dries fairly fast, and allows 3-4 coats to be put on one after another.

 

[jonwestuk]

If possible, I'd err on the thinner side, and whack the heating up so that it dries fairly fast, and allows 3-4 coats to be put on one after another.

Thanks, this was exactly what I was thinking. The speed of painting in this way means that I can afford to do 3-4 layers of paint. That way I can get a really good smooth surface.

I think I am getting the hang of the spraying, but I was wondering about a few things:

- Occasionally I get an air bubble on the wall. I think this is because I am painting too thickly or I am too close to the wall. Any idea which?
- I believe that increasing air volume also increases the area being sprayed, and also slightly increases the flow of paint.
- Increasing the flow impacts how much paint goes on the wall.

Does anyone have any further tips on spraying? Are there any online resources that you have found useful?

 

[wkdhd]

Not for emulsion, but there are a lot of youtube videos for cars. Watching people spray certainly helped me. This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9u_SlsFwBs is the best explanation for how to adjust a spraygun I've seen.

 

[ray.birch]

Appreciate that this is a fairly old thread resurrection, but the question seemed to fit best here. I'm using a Wagner W690 HVLP system with Dulux Trade Supermatt thinned for a mist coat. The issue I have is that the paint seems to be coming through as more of a spatter (although dries flat) no matter what flow/air pressure settings I use. Is this normal? The system was brand new (so no issues with cleaning, although I've since taken apart and tried again once all rinsed).
Is this specific to the consistency of a mist coat (and once I'm using Dulux Trade Diamond Matt the issue may go away), or should I be trying something else?
Many thanks!

 

[footprints]

Trade paint is thick and can bear thinning, try a small amount thinned say 5% or 10% and see how it goes.

 

[opps]

HVLPs need to atomise the paint. Heating the thinned paint and adding Floetrol will help.

Was the unit supplied with a viscosity cup and instructions to let you know how many drops per minute you should aim for. If not email Wagner and ask then. Do Wagner offer bigger needles and caps?

My HVLP is a Fuji so I don't think that my viscosity gun recommended readings would apply to your unit.

Personally, I was never happy with the finish I could achieve when spraying waterbased finishes so my HVLP is only used with thin paints such as cellulose and 2K.

I have never been convinced that spraying walls is faster than using a roller, but when sprayed properly the finish is gorgeous.

 

[SUFCDAN]

HVLPs need to atomise the paint. Heating the thinned paint and adding Floetrol will help.

Was the unit supplied with a viscosity cup and instructions to let you know how many drops per minute you should aim for. If not email Wagner and ask then. Do Wagner offer bigger needles and caps?

My HVLP is a Fuji so I don't think that my viscosity gun recommended readings would apply to your unit.

Personally, I was never happy with the finish I could achieve when spraying waterbased finishes so my HVLP is only used with thin paints such as cellulose and 2K.

I have never been convinced that spraying walls is faster than using a roller, but when sprayed properly the finish is gorgeous.

What system do you use , Fuji. Is it great for doors in 2k with little overspray ? Can you use say trade oil based eggshell in it (diluted) would the finish be good ?

 

[opps]

What system do you use , Fuji. Is it great for doors in 2k with little overspray ? Can you use say trade oil based eggshell in it (diluted) would the finish be good ?

My Fuji HVLP is quite old now, about 15+ years old. Over the years I have upgraded it to the non-bleed gun (non-non bleed guns blow out air even when you are not pulling the tirgger). I purchased a whip hose- it is a couple of metres long but the hose is much lighter and flexible than the standard hose. The whip hose is connected to two 25ft hoses- I like to have the turbine unit as far away as possible because of the noise. The longer hoses also help to cool the air before it gets to the gun.

Axminster sell Fuji but seem to be in the process of dropping it.

The closest in spec is probably the Apollo bambi 1500

https://www.spraydirect.co.uk/acatalog/bambi_pro_spray_1500-3s_sprayer.html

You will get overspray with any set up. A big advantage of 2K is that most of the overspray will be dry before it lands. 2K is however harmful, it contains isocyanates.

It will spray DT eggshell. I thin by 10% and add Owatrol. The overspray is sticky though. Ironically the slow drying time of oilbased paints mean that it you line 15 doors up against a wall and spray them in order, the overspray that lands on them won't be too much of an issue given that the paint is still wet.

If however I had 15 doors to spray with eggshell (on a building site), I would be tempted to to buy a handheld airless sprayer such as the Graco Ultra Max cordless. Technically the quality of finish will be slightly lower but the airless is able to deal with thicker paints, maening that I could apply waterbased paints as well (my 3 stage HVLP has got the grunt to work with wb paints- a 5 or 6 stage would be able to though). The speed of painting is much faster with an airless.

https://www.spraydirect.co.uk/acatalog/Graco-Ultra-Max-Cordless-Handheld-Airless-Sprayer-17P258.html

I wouldn't use any spray guns in a room with carpets/etc. Masking time would be much longer than hand painting.