I have a lot of mist when I spray oil. I mean a lot. I have tried reducing and increasing pressure while spraying to reduce the amount of mist. I clean my tips. What can I do, other than mask and shield and tarp? Sometimes I get someone to hose the house down while spraying. I normally don’t spray in any wind, and we almost always have wind. The wind on the most recent job kept changing directions and I had to keep pausing spraying.
I use a graco sprayer, it is only used for oil. When not in use (and immediately after using it) it is flushed and filled with mineral spirits. I have it on a pole with a rotating head, used to be called stainman or i am stainman pole or something. I think I have a 517 in it, think it is racx.
I’m just a part timer, so I don’t go through pallets of stain. I have done a pallet of stain before and that was messy.
I mask pretty far around the home if there is any wind, tarps everywhere, carboard panels under fences. I absolutely hate the idea of coming back and washing someones house afterwards with a degreaser.
Yeah. This last fence job I tried several times adjusting it, didn’t seem to matter. You know what I mean when I say you can’t let the pressure get too low or it just doesn’t spray right/pump fast enough.
I’ve been using that 517, mainly because of decks. I was thinking about a wider pattern for fences but not sure if that would create more mist. Maybe jump to a 521 and make it thicker? I hate to waste a bunch of money on tips trying to figure it out.
turn pressure down and back brush/back roll (should be anyway )
really be on it with your shield, for railings I use a cardboard shield behind the railing and try to trap as much as possible, I pretty much never spray the top rail only the pickets, the top rail is just easier to hand stain and much harder to contain overspray from, its half an art form and half science
just say no to spraying…lol…I’m doing 1200 sq ft decking with an oil stain tomorrow and I’m not spraying a single bit of it. I’m fast as hell with a roller because I have to do almost zero property protection and then there’s zero cleanup. I also just find rolling to be more relaxing, put earphones in music on, roll away the morning and make $$$ with zero stress
Fences you need to put your shield up on top of the pickets with one hand like a little mini roof and sprayer in the other hand. Lots of overspray cascades up the picket and sprays off over it. You need to trap it before the wind takes it and it goes wherever (somebody’s car). Think what the overspray is going to do given the position you’re spraying and the geometry of the thing you’re spraying. If there’s gaps in the fence then you have to get creative with plastic or paper/tape/clamps or have a helper if the area around it is critical (house, cars, etc).
I hate spraying oil personally, I avoid it at all costs. Also I’m cheap and I hate buying mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean sprayer.
Thanks for the insights. I do a lot of rolling and back brushing, well to be honest, I’ve mainly just been using the brush on a pole (deck brush) for paint jobs (film formers). All the sherwin williams paints and most of the others I have used all say to back brush to work it in. I would say that almost every single deck that I have painted I have done that way, stained decks is about 40/60. If it is windy out I will always go with the brush. I just can’t see a way to stain a fence without spraying and be fast. I really wish I did more fence work, that is so profitable in my area.
This one is just horizontals, its a repeat customer and the railing assembly looks fine still so we defrayed some cost deleting that from the job. I would tactically spray the railing assembly if they wanted that but I sure am glad I’m just rolling horizontals tomorrow!
And its the same way for me with fences as it is you Qons, the material costs are so high that I don’t have room to squeak in my usual labor rates I want to get per day without losing bids. So, I have to take a hit on labor. I usually do them in the hopes I retain them as a customer and they use me for a house wash or deck staining when it comes up for them. I’m still making decent money on them and I try to schedule them during a little lull here or there if I have a few days off or something to fill in a gap.
The average person in my area doesn’t even treat their fence. The ones that want something done are willing to pay, and for some reason a lot of people don’t stain them (oil). Most just paint (film formers). I won’t paint a fence, especially those mass produced rough lumber fences because they are going to create callbacks. Every single one I have seen painted look to be peeling and flaking in about a year or two. That rough lumber just doesn’t work well with paint and you know the hackers aren’t back brushing.
Hey, are you using fine finish tips for balusters/spindles?
I’ve always just used the standard orifice tip for my graco sprayer. I have a couple tips similar orifice but tighter spray pattern but I usually don’t bother swapping. Honestly I’ve never really seen the need but I guess its like washing, there’s performance advantages to be had there probably?
What tips do you recommend as “must haves”?
I do spray a good bit of oil or hybrid oil really, but mostly I’m doing a ton of solid stains.
You’re issue is using an airless rig. I sprayed for a good while before being into fleet washing. I built spray rigs with piston pumps for wands and I used teejet valve bodies. Shot truck loads of Wood Defender at around 65 psi and used tips that didn’t atomize.
I think you’d be ok with acrylic (water-based) on fences as long as you do the right prep and set the right expectations. I’m guessing many guys don’t.
Emphasize to the customer that the new stain will adhere only as good as the current coat. So if the current coat is compromised, the customer won’t get as much life and it’s going to start looking rough sooner. All my customers understand that. I also tell them that in Missouri you’re going to get 2-3 years until it starts looking like it’s time to do it again.
On balusters I’ll usually switch to a 219 or 221 if I’m spraying acrylic. Same with oil. It does help in cutting down on the overspray.
I do the australian timber oil on new stuff pretty much categorically. I don’t really give an option for stuff that’s untreated, they can choose shades of the timber oil. I fully endorse that product, I’ve seen it hold up for 4-5 years on fences and still go strong.
For old stuff I generally clean with pretty aggressive pressure and push them up a level in opacity and I tell them that increasing opacity increases longevity of the protection. I either go semi-solid (cabot) if there was an oil based thing previous applied or I go solid stain (cabot) if there was a water thing on it before. People 99% of the time choose longer duration protection (ie solid stain) vs shorter duration protection which is fine by me even though that means I don’t see them for 5-6 years vs 2-3 years. The only time I don’t push opacity up a notch is if its just a really pretty fence and they have been on the maintenance cycle and it doesn’t look like crap yet. But those are few and far between.
When you’re spraying water based solid its stupid easy to control overspray. Just turn volume down and back roll, there’s hardly any property protection to do. I can literally spray pickets with no shield that are butting up against house walls by dialing in the pressure on the sprayer to just high enough to consolidate the fan but low enough to not cause much atomization.
My deck went good by the way @qons and @Dirtyboy - I’m taking a week off starting now for the first time since March!
I primarily use stain and seal or wood defender for oils. As you know, that is a flood the surface coating and let it penetrate. What I was talking about was the film formers on rough wood, requires back brushing according to every single product I have read.
I give the customers 3 choices, stain and seal, wood defender, or everetts stuff from NJ (water based penetrator), no one has picked everetts stuff (price I guess). I really want to use it. If they want a film former I usually push them towards sherwin williams for no other reason than product familiarity and support. I’ve used flood on a log cabin before, was surprisingly good but it required wet on wet application.
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