Are you wondering whether you should spray or roll back your house’s exterior? Maybe you want to do the job quickly and without wasting any paint while also achieving great results? Well, then you have knocked on the right door.

We will help you understand the positives and negatives of both spraying and rolling and will also tell you the most viable approach for the best results. So with that said, let’s get started:

Spraying Paint

If you want to apply the paint as fast as you can and cover the entire area in a matter of minutes instead of hours, then spray painting is your go-to technique. You will use an airless sprayer to quickly go over the entire wall. However, fast doesn’t always mean quality. You should know the good and bad of spray paint before using it:

The Good

• Application is incredibly fast
• Can cover the entire area in one coat
• Smooth finish without any roller or brush marks
• Can easily penetrate into hard to reach places

Now by the looks of it, it seems like spray painting is everyone’s saviour, right? Well, no, not really. There are some negatives to using it too, let’s check them out:

The Not-so-Good

• Long preparing and cleaning times
• Coverage can sometimes be too thick at places
• Uses up to 3x the paint as compared to rolling
• Not good at adhesion
• You cannot paint on windy days for obvious reasons

Bottom Line

It can be quite challenging to apply paint using an airless sprayer if you are just stepping your toe into it. It requires a lot of practice, patience, and time to get better at and be able to apply your first smooth, even coat. People who are just starting to use airless sprayers can face issues like over-spray, runs, and drips, and frequent uneven coats, with some spots having thin while the other having thick coats.

Furthermore, spray painting needs 2-3 times more paint as compared to rolling because not all of the paint will go on your exterior wall. Most of it will be wasted in a hose line while some will fly away with the wind.

However, not all of it is bad. There are some strengths like its Ferrari-like speed and ability to reach places where a roller cannot.

Backrolling Paint

Back rolling is the old-school way of painting, but that doesn’t mean its uses and practicality are obsolete in present times. This method is slow and tiring and can also leave brush marks, but it gives the kind of control that an airless sprayer cannot. You can precisely cover the area you want without spreading the paint anywhere else. Let’s look at its pros and cons too:

The Good

• Excellent adhesion
• Even and seamless coverage
• Incredible control
• Paint gets into the corners and cracks better

Now you must be wondering, rolling is the way to go, right? Well, let me tell you something; it has its set of negatives too. Let’s see what those are.

The Not-so-Good

• Needs more than one coats
• Brush marks are a possibility
• Obstructions on the surface can make application challenging
• Takes a lot of time and effort

Bottom Line

Nothing gives the kind of control that you get with rolling/brushing. You can easily reach into tricky corners and paint uneven coats, which is very difficult to achieve with spraying. The brush gives you the control you need for detailed and precise applications. You cannot paint in straight or curved lines using a sprayer, but with roller or brush, it is a piece of cake.

Although it is very slow and can take a lot of your time and effort, it also offers better adhesion than a sprayer, which means you won’t have to see the paint chipping away soon.

Why use a combination of both?

You get way more benefits this way then you would with using either one of these techniques. By rolling the sprayed coating, you will be able to apply the paint more efficiently and without taking a lot of time. Some main advantages are:

• When you apply spray coating to drywall, the raised fiber can make it look uneven, by rolling onto them, you will smooth them out.
• You can quickly get the paint onto the surface by covering a big area. And then the other person quickly runs the roller over it to settle it down into the surface.
• The fast speed of spray will not compromise the adhesion because the roller will force it into the crannies and nooks of the wall and significantly increase the bond.

So you see, the combination of both is actually the most practical approach to applying paint to your house’s exterior. When painting with a brush or a roller, you have to work slowly because you can soak a very limited quantity of paint in it. However, that issue is solved with the use of airless sprayer, plus you can now cover large areas and be done with it quickly.