OK, so I've gotten to the point where the 2400 sq. ft of drywall is hung and mudded in my basement. Now, the dreaded painting comes.

I've gotten quotes for professionals to do it - best quote came to $1450, paint and labor. Using Sherwin-Williams 200 Hi built primer (sprayed then rolled) and 2 coats of Sherwin williams promar satin, rolled.

So, I started looking at semi-professional sprayers... One that has caught my eye is the Wagner Paint Crew.

Is it worth the time and effort for me to do this myself? I'm guessing in paint alone I'm at $600-$700 bucks (guess, need to confirm).

Have any of you used a sprayer, specifically this one?

Would I only be able to use it on the primer (since it would all be the same paint?

How much overspray would there be, would I be unable to use the sprayer for the walls (if cieling was sprayed first with the final coats?)

Any thoughts/suggestions welcomed... if it does make any difference. I am on a slow period for work now, so doing this myself wouldn't be a huge time burden..

HELP! :)

It also depends on how much you like/dislike painting :)

The hard part about spraying is the preparation and cleanup. If you have never sprayed before you will also need to develop a good technique - which isn't too hard. Cleanup is a pain as it takes some time.

All that said, I bought the Wagner Paint Crew Plus as it also comes with the roller attachment (the attachment can be bought separately for around $20 as I recall) so the unit can also be used for rolling the walls for "final" painting. I bought this after spending 4 hours in a stairwell and mud room doing the priming and still had 3 other rooms to complete. After all the prep the rest of the primer only took a few hours. I also sprayed then manually rolled the final coat in the mud room and stairs. Because of the size of the rooms I was doing and the number of different colors being used I opted to manually roll the rest of the ceilings/walls instead of dealing with the cleanup hassles.

The killer in painting though is doing all the trim. It helps to paint it prior to installation and then only touch up nail holes. Otherwise, buy one of the special trim pads or do a lot of masking.

My thoughts for this project were to:

1) Mask up the room
2) Spray the primer on cieling / walls, and back roll it
3) Spray and back roll final cieling coat (x2)
4) Spay and back roll walls, taping and hand cutting the cieling line, and spraying only ~1 foot to cieling and using a paint filled back roll to get close (to eliminate the over spray.)

Given how the sprayer works on the Paint Crew/Paint crew plus - is the above plausable? Or is there no way the spraying of the wall final coat (x2) could work.

Walls and cieling will be 2 different colors.

Here's my process when I did my home:

1. mask the area (minus trims)
2. rental a commerical spray system from HD.
3. spray away, including trims.
4. do cleanup and paint the trims.

it's all doable and will save you at least 33% or more.

Make sure to take wide tape. and for big jobs, paying a little more to rent the commerial spray will pay for it's self.

I used an airless paint sprayer for my basement.


Dougs home theater (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=999923)

I will always recommend DYI. That said, when it came time for me to prime/paint, I decided I would spray the primer (kilz2) with my wagner. Ehhhnt. Wrong. That only leads to serious frustration... and a clogged wagner.

Unless you have something better than a wagner, your best bet is to roll the primer and save the wagner for the top coats. (btw, my wagner is the $120 model from Lowes - not sure if it's "Semi-professional" but it certainly wasn't the cheapest. )

Rolling the primer didn't take as long as I thought because there is no trim and no flooring, thus no concern for making a mess. It actually only took a handful of hours to do the entire basement. (not 2400 sq ft, but maybe 1400)

For my top coat, I used Walmart Colorplace paint, which was wayyyy cheaper than Sherwin and not much of a dropoff in quality. I've been happy with it.

Just did this, and with a Power Plus from Wagner. I've got close to 1,500 sq feet, here's EXACTLY what I did:

1) Vacummed the drywall dust as much as possible off the walls, ceilings with a shopvac

2) Purchased the basic primer from Sherwin Williams (think I bought 5 gallons). Sprayed the hell out of it with my Power Plus on walls and ceilings. Then, went back and rolled it in to get an even texture across the walls. E.g., Did a wall with the sprayer, then grabbed my roller and rolled it in smooth and even.

3) Purchased their white ceiling paint and sprayed that on the ceilings (did some rolling where I had done some extra spray) - NOTE: I think I could've stuck with the another coat of primer, and that would've sufficed vs a white flat ceiling paint from SWilliams.

4) Then, put the roller head on the wagner and rolled the various walls up to about 2-3 inches to the ceiling. I then cut in corners and other areas - I didn't cut in the ceiling. This includes where I painted under the soffits throughout the basement.

5) Then, I'm at the next point, where I'm going to hang crown moulding and baseboard to cover up the ceiling and floors (along with the door & window jambs). In this way, I minimize any cutting that I have to do - yay!

I had to use 2-3 coats of paint from SWilliams to get a good look on the walls - it came out great.

In total, I likely spent $160 for the machine, then $600-$700 in paint. Otherwise, it would've been $2,500 which is where my quotes were coming in.

Now on to that crown and base which I'm going to paint/stain first, then hang it up - then cover up the holes and touch up in a way where I hopefully disguise the nail holes. I think you can get away with this more easily if the paint is lightly dried on the crown/base and you wear some gloves to minimize blemishes or fingerprints on the newly dried crown/base. Then, you quickly cover up the holes.

See signature for progress.

I sprayed my last basement. I'm going to roll this one.

My thoughts for this project were to:

1) Mask up the room
2) Spray the primer on cieling / walls, and back roll it
3) Spray and back roll final cieling coat (x2)
4) Spay and back roll walls, taping and hand cutting the cieling line, and spraying only ~1 foot to cieling and using a paint filled back roll to get close (to eliminate the over spray.)

Given how the sprayer works on the Paint Crew/Paint crew plus - is the above plausable? Or is there no way the spraying of the wall final coat (x2) could work.

Walls and cieling will be 2 different colors.

i used to be a professional painter. myself, i'd do this:

- spray and backroll the primer on all the drywall
- spray and backroll your ceiling paint. if your ceiling is a flat white, 1 coat is probably enough if you are spraying it but that's a judgement call.
- brush and roll the wall paint x2. even if you mask the ceiling out a few feet there is a good chance you would still have overspray past that. sometimes you can only see it when from the right angle or under the right light. not really worth risking it IMO.

I'll be ready for primer in about 2 weeks and will definately be doing it myself since I've done the sheetrock hanging/taping. I have a Wagner paint crew I bought for my last home and never used it (think it was ~$200 at Lowes), but was going to finally get some use out of it for this basement project.
What do you mean by "spray and backroll."
I guess I need to go down the basement and open the sprayer and read the manual.

You need to roll the primer on after spraying it - this will ensure a consistent texture across the wall. Otherwise, you'll see where it was taped/mudded, and then where there was smooth drywall. Just get standard roller, and then roll the primer that has been sprayed on the wall ensuring no roll marks.

Some great info in here.

The Wagner Paint Crew is $99 at Amazon, and has some great reviews (which is a shock, the wagers generally get a bad wrap). It's reconditioned, but most folks are saying the thing came new. We'll see. Worst case a quick return.

I definitely plan on spraying (and backroll) the primer (Sherwin Williams 200 Hide), and spray and backroll the cieling (white).

Could I get away with doing the walls (no trim yet) from the bottom, to like a foot or 2 off the ceiling and get away with filling in with the roller? Would it be noticeable, would this help abate the overspray issue?

I'll have the sprayer tomorrow, so I'll know how crazy the spray is. Glad to hear others have used it.

An interesting data point, Sherwin Williams sells the paint crew under a Pro Force name at their stores. Made by Wager. It looked identical.

Even better, since my builder used Sherwin Williams, we (as customers) get their pricing. 10 gallons of the 200 hide was $116.28 almost 50% cheaper than if I was just a normal 'preferred' customer... even used a $10 off coupon on top. Good deal.

I sprayed my last basement. I'm going to roll this one.

Care to give any reasons why?

I don't see how it is possible to spray a wall after the ceiling has been completed. Could be that you turn the dial way down to limit the amount of paint that gets sprayed out, but it sure sprays strong and will make a mess. Guess you could use paper and tape up the ceiling..... Too much work.

I tried to spray my hallway for paint purposes, and it really didn't look good - whereas the white primer and white ceiling paint was forgiving due to their color.

I'd recommend a roller attachment with the special rollers. My only complaint about this attachment was that you could attach a stick to it which would make it easier to roll. I was able to crank out some walls fairly quickly (5 min) if I was rushing and overusing the paint - I then was able to go back and even it out, and eliminate the rolling lines. Makes a lot less mess vs. sprayer.

Good luck, and get ready to be turned into a white paint ghost after using it for few hours!

and spray and backroll the cieling (white).


Why white? Is this not for a theater?


PS. I used to paint professionally too and never sprayed, always rolled/brushed. A lot less prep time and clean up time and the actual process isn't that much slower. Of course, I did everything freehand, so I never taped anything (saves on the prep time) and could do almost any color in one coat. Even did my HT ceiling with one coat of flat black and my living room/dining/kitchen in one coat of red/maroon.

Here's a couple of shots of the red I did in one coat. Just get a rhythm and it's easy:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/spartanstew/P1010080.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/spartanstew/P1010079.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/spartanstew/P1010077.jpg

"To Paint or Not to Paint (myself, that is)"

Unless you are drunk and going to a football game, don't paint yourself. It makes for embarrassing pictures later!

CJ

An update...

Got the sprayer, and did the primer coat in the basement (again, 2400 sq ft. of actual board)... in about 5 hours.. sprayed and rolled.

I'm VERY pleased....