How to: paint a ceiling with an Electric Airless Sprayer

Ceiling painting is strenuous, drip-prone, and hard to judge if you are getting all of it covered. Most painters, professional, amateur, and otherwise, dislike painting ceilings.

 

here is how to make your ceiling painting project go as smoothly as possible:

step 1 : choosing the airless sprayer and tip

Most hardware stores sell handheld electric airless sprayers or cup-style spray guns, but you have to work from a ladder when using one of these unless the ceiling is unusually low, and you’ll be refilling the cup frequently. A better option is to rent a small airless sprayer from a rental outlet or purchase a small airless sprayer DIY type like DP-X6. The tip regulates spray volume and width. Make sure the aperture is wide enough for the paint you’re using — but not too wide — and the spray width isn’t too narrow, or you’ll have drips. Our standard tip size for DP-X6 is 517 10″-12″ fan width.

Step 2: preparing the ceiling

Before you use an airless sprayer, it’s vitally important to cover everything you don’t want painted. Unlike that from a can of spray paint, the overspray from an airless sprayer is wet when it settles. If you can’t take the furniture out of the room, cover every part of it with plastic. If you’re only painting the ceiling, you should also cover the walls with plastic, using painter’s grade masking tape to make a clean line between the wall and the ceiling. You can always cover the ceiling fixtures with masking paper, but it’s much cleaner to turn off the power to all the ceiling light fixtures, take them down and tape around the boxes.

Step 3: Painting

While spraying a large surface with an airless sprayer, you should hold the tip about 6 to 12 inches away. It’s best if you can spray in full sweeps from one wall to the other, but if you’re on a ladder or the ceiling is very large or irregular, you’ll have to work in sections. Try to feather the spray at the point where sections overlap by gradually moving the tip away to avoid uneven coloring. Before spraying, you should test the pattern on a piece of cardboard and eliminate uneven paint distribution by adjusting the pressure setting or the gun controls.

Tips:

You usually don’t have to thin paint before spraying it through an airless sprayer, but you should if you notice low spray volume or chunks of paint material. Avoid thinning more than 20 percent, or you may have drips. It’s just as important to cover your body as it is to cover furniture, and that includes your face and hair. Many professional painters wear ski masks, goggles and a respirator. Even latex primer will gum/block your equipment if you don’t clean up properly at the end of each day. Spray solvent/water through the machine until it runs clear, and spray gun / tip / safety guard / gun filters etc. need to clean with a softer brush.