# Dryfall ceilings



## butternut

hey painters,

I have done some dryfall ceilings in car dealerships which has the corrigatted ceilings and truss systems and i was wondering if there is a way to eliminate so much wasted paint through the truss's? Ive used a .619 for everything usually but was thinking of down sizing for the truss's. What is your technique and tip size for the fastest way you do it?:notworthy:


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## [email protected]

The last one I did I ran two guns one one on a pole for the large flat area 917 and and the sec one was for trusses was 217


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## tonyk

Butternutt I have sprayed quite a bit of dry fall and would reccomend a 217 for a three foot barjoist at about three to four foot on center if trying to save paint. A new 419 would be my reccomended tip. For decent production and not to much waste on the joist. Tip when estimating bid joist as a solid member with two sides. lol


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## Dmax Consulting

I agree with Tonyk. They make the dryfall fairly inexpensive because the manufacturers know you are going to get a lot of overspray.


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## aaron61

What is your prefered way of cleaning before painting?


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## NACE

aaron61 said:


> What is your prefered way of cleaning before painting?


Depends on the spec. What is the environment? Is there any grease, dust, or chemical contamination? What are the expectations of the customer? How much electrical is there is power washing needs to be done? Lot's of variables involved. Is the ceiling new, bare and old, or previously painted? Dry-fall is designed to have a 6-10 foot drop depending upon the vehicle/resin type. It is designed to be productive and clean up quickly. Sometimes it has rust inhibitive characteristics. Because of its productivity characteristics, it is the nature of the beast to have a lot of overspray. It is not designed to intentionally cheat painters out of material. Corrogated ceilings, web joists, trusses I beams etc must all be estimated depending on the depth of the corrogation, and all as solid surfaces.


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## aaron61

Existing,dusty, cobwebs, some peeling paint, our prefered method would be high pressure air and I would never trust dryfall on a 10 ft drop. Nace, by the time you wrote out all of that you could have given your answers for those circumstances


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## NACE

I will make my answers shorter.


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## WisePainter

butternut said:


> What is your technique and tip size for the fastest way you do it?


Always used a regular 517 in a 2 finger gun, attached to 200' of hose fed by a gas/electric convertible Graco, turning the gun sideways along any narrower angle iron bits.
Go and blow, stand on the trigger and never let go.



aaron61 said:


> What is your prefered way of cleaning before painting?


Cheap labor with scrapers, compressed air, and elbow grease.

How else?


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## cspainting

What kind of psi is considered high presure air. I have a roof deck to repaint, that has extensive peeling paint. If presure washing is not an option, What size compressor and what kind of blow gun would be recomended.


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## Bender

Air isn't going to remove loose paint. You need to remove it by mechanical means (elbow grease)


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## nEighter

what are your stats.. location and who are you. Post a "get to know me thread".


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## aaron61

WisePainter said:


> Always used a regular 517 in a 2 finger gun, attached to 200' of hose fed by a gas/electric convertible Graco, turning the gun sideways along any narrower angle iron bits.
> Go and blow, stand on the trigger and never let go.
> 
> 
> 
> Cheap labor with scrapers, compressed air, and elbow grease.
> 
> How else?


We use to do this in the GM plants and factories up in Ohio. They called it a Chicago line. Big Deasle compressor outside long hoses going down to a crimped 4' copper tube with a shut off valve. Works great!!!!


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## CamillusPaints

And for those hard to reach areas try a 329. That is if you don't mind 70sq per gallon:innocent:


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## jmda

OK, we have a potential dryfall bid coming up. We have established a good relationship with a local plant manager and have painted there for the past couple of weekends.

We have talked about dryfall and I want to get a better idea of how to bid. I have heard .40 to 1 per square ft and gave him a ballpark number at about .55. He said we are first choice for the dryfall, but I need to be at least really close to the other bidders when the time comes. 88k+ is the square ft.


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## TJ Paint

jmda said:


> OK, we have a potential dryfall bid coming up. We have established a good relationship with a local plant manager and have painted there for the past couple of weekends.
> 
> We have talked about dryfall and I want to get a better idea of how to bid. I have heard .40 to 1 per square ft and gave him a ballpark number at about .55. He said we are first choice for the dryfall, but I need to be at least really close to the other bidders when the time comes. 88k+ is the square ft.


is this a question?


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## CamillusPaints

You better be careful bidding this job if you are not used to spraying ceilings. Some questions you have to answer before you can even begin to figure a price. 
Are you renting lifts. Is this new construction or a factory running production were the dry fall can float and contaminate $60000 worth of widgets. Do you need to enclose areas or is it all open?Do you need to repaint pipes (compressed air,natural gas, sprinkler system)........
I am not sure if you know this but make absolutely sure you cover each and every sprinkler head before you spray or you can forget about making a profit for a long time.


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## jmda

Thanks for the response, yes I am asking for some experience.

Sprinklers will have to bagged and taped. There are two lifts at our disposal to use, however I will need to rent a jlg to get over the machinery.

All the machinery and "widgets" will need to be covered

The colored coded piping will have to be repainted - or not if the plant manager can get his way - hed just like them white.


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## CamillusPaints

I don't think you could even come close to bidding this for .55 when that would almost be your cost per foot. Since you will be spraying over machines I am going to assume you will not be able to get to the ceilings in all areas because of pipes and drops while going over machines so their is a lot of waste from over spray. I am assuming also 20-24 foot ceilings.By the time you buy plastic and cover machines and parts and create walls it will be cost you a lot of man hours, not including pipes.. Then wait till the operators complain about the smell, shut you down or come back in the off shifts.I have done a a couple of hundred thousand sq ft in a manufacturing environment including all pipes and drops that are color coded to OSHA. Let me know if I can be of any help.


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