# Airless fallout



## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

Finishing up an 1,800 sq foot house. I’ll make it short.. bedrooms were all cut and rolled as usual. Main room is huge and wide open, connecting to the kitchen. Homeowner wanted satin finish (sw Duration). Keeping a wet edge to prevent flashing on an 80ft x 12ft wall is a task to say the least, especially when alone. So I decided to spray out the big room. I’m no novice at spraying, have logged thousands of hours. Sprayed it all out and it looks fantastic. The problem/question is every time I do that there is fall out everywhere. Dust in adjoining rooms and covering everything. Overspray is not a problem at all. Fallout dust is everywhere tho. Can this be stopped ? ( graco 390, contractor 2 gun, rac X 413)


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## sayn3ver (Jan 9, 2010)

That is overspray. It sprayed over, past or bounced off a surface, dried or partially dried and landed either in the room you were spraying or in the adjoining rooms. Or it landed in the room you sprayed in, then migrated as normal dust (dirt, dander, pollen) does. 

Easiest way is to make a depressurized spray area. Mask off the spray area separating it from the other rooms. Crack a window on the clean side to allow for make up air. Use a fan or vacuum or fancy HEPA filter to remove air from the spray area. 

Make up air will find its way into the depressurized area helping to prevent dust from migrating into the clean areas. Vacumn or mop up fall out after. Length of time after spraying. 

Running a box fan with filter attache or a commercial/professional air scubber helps too. 

Or don't spray paint to start?


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Yeah, the dust Is the overspray. That’s why we cover everything when spraying indoors. It’s easier to manage the dust if it’s on your drops than it is on the floor. Good ventilation while spraying helps. 
At least it’s just dust and not wet paint droplets. Unless your spraying bar joists or something that requires you to shoot paint directly into the air, pretty much all paints are effectively ‘dry fall. But dry means dust. 

I recently tried spraying a new construction job with a 516 FFLP tip. Ran the pressure at around 1,500 instead of the usual 2,500-3,000. 
It was almost painfully slow, but the amount of dust was greatly reduced. 

Edit: in referring to Graco fine finish low pressure tips.


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

Someone here turned me on to the idea of taping a 24"X24" filter to the back of a box fan.

I have to ask though, why didnt you just use an 18" roller?


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

Typically I use a 14 inch roller. I decided to spray because the size of the wall and the finish is satin. If you aren’t familiar with Sherwin Williams duration it dries painfully fast, very little open time. 
I’ve always understood overspray and fallout to be different things? 
Another theory/question is I have a tendency to get too close to what I’m spraying. It’s a bad habit I’m trying to break. The theory/question, would that be creating excessive bounce and therefore fallout?


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## AngieM (Apr 13, 2016)

ProLinePaintNC said:


> Typically I use a 14 inch roller. I decided to spray because the size of the wall and the finish is satin. If you aren’t familiar with Sherwin Williams duration it dries painfully fast, very little open time.
> I’ve always understood overspray and fallout to be different things?
> Another theory/question is I have a tendency to get too close to what I’m spraying. It’s a bad habit I’m trying to break. The theory/question, would that be creating excessive bounce and therefore fallout?


One of the advantages of the air assisted airless is it truly has greater transfer efficiency. The disadvantage is it weighs more than a front loader washing machine and you have to be an engineer to use it. With that said, we have to deal with a certain amount of bounce back because of the pressure required to atomize latex paint with an airless.

I've overanalyzed this problem in an effort to use my sprayer where most people say, screw this - I'm rolling it. And here's the conclusions I've come to (in no particular order) - 
1. Don't use blown out tips. I know they're expensive. But when they've had their useful life, do the hard thing and throw them away. 

2. Use the new graco fine finish low pressure (FFLP) tips. I give it 2 thumbs up. They last longer too because of their redesign. 

3. Use the right size tip for the job. Trim doesn't need a 517. The number on the tip coincides with the size of the fan and the orifice size (indicative of how much paint it allows out). 

4. Turn down the pressure to the lowest setting possible. Test your pattern until you get a solid pattern with no tails. 

5. Keep your manifold and gun filter clean. It'll allow you turn the pressure down so your sprayer doesn't have to suck so hard.

6. Keep your spray pattern perpendicular to the wall. I had a guy who used to spray ceilings with the same method as pressure washing. No! Learn how to start and stop without blowing paint into the air in an effort to avoid pile up. Takes practice which I'm still trying to achieve. 

7. Learn how to be a masking master. When you know what your sprayer is going to do, you can avoid over or under masking. If I'm doing ceilings and walls, I know how to perfectly mask that place so my masking doubles as a time saver when I paint the walls. When I'm done I can roll up all my masking, encapsulating all (ok most) the dust and get done faster with a better looking job than if I had rolled the ceiling. I'll admit, I'm terrible at rolling ceilings.

Disclaimer - these are my observations. Not an exhaustive list and possibly not the correct conclusions. It's worked for me but I'm still learning.


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## burchptg (Jun 30, 2013)

Like you, ProLine, I don't consider that overspray. Overspray is when you paint something you didn't mean to paint. What you call fall out, I usually call dryfall, but whatever, same diff. Dryfall is different because you can get dryfall on already painted surfaces and have the finish ruined, even though it is the same exact paint. 

To minimize it, you need to turn down the pressure. The higher the pressure, the more paint goes airborne. Just turn up the pressure until the 2 lines on the fan go away, then stop. Just as important, seal the room up where you are working. Don't let any air into the adjacent rooms. Open a window or exterior door once you are done to let the room ventilate directly outside. If you can't ventilate directly outside, then I'd roll it, regardless. It's not worth getting paint dust everywhere and having to clean it up. And you need to keep the room sealed up until the paint has a complete change of air. That means, even after you leave the room.

Does getting too close cause more dryfall? Yes! Back up! It also causes too much paint to build up and sag/drip. Watch the spray line after each pass. It should be straight and the same width from start to end.


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

Thanks for the answer... put yourself in the place of an untrained, know nothing at all about spraying, just learn as you go and no one to teach you. Seems you would think that the closer you get the less chance of overspray you have. Seems logical but it’s incorrect. Anyway 10+ years ago when I started spraying that was me and I think where I developed the get too close to things habit. If you back up to the correct distance you can actually see the atomization. Which is good, but to someone who knows nothing about nothing that was pure evil overspray and I had to get close to eliminate it. Faulty untrained thinking by admission. School of hard knocks has its benefits but also it’s problems, in developing bad habits early. I have to constantly remind myself to back up. So anyway the question was if being to close creates bounce and fall out/dryfall? Your the first to answer directly instead of like a politician. Thanks.. no offense to anyone else, I just prefer direct and to the point


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

Also I discovered fflp tips about 3 months ago .. since I’ve bought nothing but and am slowly fasing out all my other tips.. idk if you guys know, I just found out last week looking through graco website, they also have the big boy tips in LP not FFLP. Haven’t tried them yet and no one local carries them but it’s suppose to be like the 517, 1021 etc in LP version. I’m gna order a LP 1021 or 1023 for new construction prime to see how it goes.


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

Have not heard of the 1021 or 1023 tip size but if they are what I think they might be your 390 is not big enough to support a tip that size. I use a 1225 all the time and I have to use my 1095 for them. My 695 won't support them either.


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

kmp said:


> Have not heard of the 1021 or 1023 tip size but if they are what I think they might be your 390 is not big enough to support a tip that size. I use a 1225 all the time and I have to use my 1095 for them. My 695 won't support them either.


390 is rated to a 23... I’ve used a 21 fine but it has to be clean and new packing.. I have a 1095 I use for dryfall.. point was graco makes low pressure (LP) tip... not just the small FFLP


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

390 is my go to tho.. back problems = Carry the lightest equipment possible


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

Sign of the times, back, knees, ankle, know them all.


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## ProLinePaintNC (Jul 12, 2017)

Ehh... you know your a real painter when your wife says to you “ I wish you cleaned around here as much as you clean those damn paint brushes” true story.


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## Ubercorey (Feb 11, 2018)

I am a huge fan of fans : )

I put one in a window pointed out no matter what kinda work I'm doing.

Make sure ac is off.

Mask halls or doorways with the zip pole system.


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