# Spray shield or cut in?



## sir paintalot (Oct 21, 2008)

Interior apartment hallway. Walls only. Stucco. I'm going to mask and spray the walls. Since the ceilings are not being painted, what do you think would be the fastest way to cut in the tops of the walls:

1. Run 9" paper gun on celing and spray(paper and tape is expensive masking ceilings is slow, hard to get a clean line on the stucco)
2. Cut in with brush(tedious and slow)
3. Use spray shield and spray (constanly cleaning the shield, dripping paint, how clean a cut line can I get?)

I only paint interiors and am really not liking the stucco. Just can't cut it in like drywall, very annoying and frustrating. Taking me WAY longer than regular drywall jobs.


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## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2008)

Sounds like the time it would take you to cut with a brush you could have painted the walls first and sprayed the ceilings as a bonus to the project and in the end came out ahead. In this case, I would of masked the walls with 99" film and sprayed the ceinlings. Rough surfaces are a beitch to cut in by hand... (like knockdown)....

Since your doing the walls only, I'll have to go with #2.

shielding interior? That doesn't seem right.

Papering ceiling? Maybe, if you fold down the edge of the paper... But prehaps 12" would work. Fold down the edge of the paper about 2 inches so that it blocks the overspray from extending past the paper, this will giude overspray to a more vertical direction towards the floor than continuing in a horizontal direction that goes beyond the paper where it would likely mark the ceiling. I hope that makes sense. Using a small tip is going to help limit overspray. Take as much precautions as possible when spraying your ceiling lines.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

why mask and spray the walls?

That space is too cramped and has very little square footage to masking ratio to be very effective for spraying.

Not to mention the ceiling. You would have to mask the ceiling off completely in order to spray, even if the direct overspray is only a few inches, the FOG will tag the middle of the ceiling where there is no masking.

Also it will be a b*tch having residents walking up and down the hallway and in an out of their apartments when you have the doors all masked off/sprayer going. 

If you have any of the ceiling paint or can get an exact match, you can put a lot of caulk in the corners, paint over the caulk with the ceiling color, then cut and roll the walls normally.

This is assuming that there is a decent line on the trim and base to cut to.
And if there is not, you still will not get a clean line masking without putting caulk in the corner first. ( and painting/priming the caulk prior to masking so the masking doesn't pull the caulking off. )

Even if you spray the walls you will have to caulk the corners to get a clean line masking, which means you will have to touch up the ceiling to cover the caulk.

As Jason suggested, painting the ceilings might be advantageous even if you pay for the paint. In the future if it is strategically advantageous to paint the ceilings, I would sell the customer on the fact that it will be easier to paint them, then not paint them.

In any case I highly doubt it's worth your time to spray the walls. With surfaces like knockdown, you can just FLY with your brush and your roller because you don't have to worry about brush marks or roller texture.

(You will want to run low-tack tape on the trim so you don't have to cut in anywhere with your brush on an uneven stucco/knockdown surface, unless low tack-wont stick to the trim, in which case use good quality regular tack 3m.)

Shielding the ceilings without masking them will not only bog down the actual spraying process which you usually want to eliminate as many variables as possible, especially in a cramped areas like a hallway, but it is highly likely that indirect fog will make it onto surfaces where it is not wanted.

Plus the backside of the shield will leave paint on the ceiling any way.

I would either caulk the ceilings, then touch up the caulk with ceiling paint, then cut and roll the walls. (You will want the touch up paint on the ceiling to be unnoticable for this approach to work.)

Or I would caulk the ceilings, then cut and roll the walls, then drop plastic down and spray the ceilings like Jason suggested.

Break a leg.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

OOPS. Could a moderator please delete this redundant post? thanks.

why mask and spray the walls?

That space is too cramped and has very little square footage to masking ratio to be very effective for spraying.

Not to mention the ceiling. You would have to mask the ceiling off completely in order to spray, even if the direct overspray is only a few inches, the FOG will tag the middle of the ceiling where there is no masking.

Also it will be a b*tch having residents walking up and down the hallway and in an out of their apartments when you have the doors all masked off/sprayer going. 

If you have any of the ceiling paint or can get an exact match, you can put a lot of caulk in the corners, paint over the caulk with the ceiling color, then cut and roll the walls normally.

This is assuming that there is a decent line on the trim and base to cut to.
And if there is not, you still will not get a clean line masking without putting caulk in the corner first. ( and painting/priming the caulk prior to masking so the masking doesn't pull the caulking off. )

Even if you spray the walls you will have to caulk the corners to get a clean line masking, which means you will have to touch up the ceiling to cover the caulk.

As Jason suggested, painting the ceilings might be advantageous even if you pay for the paint. In the future if it is strategically advantageous to paint the ceilings, I would sell the customer on the fact that it will be easier to paint them, then not paint them.

In any case I highly doubt it's worth your time to spray the walls. With surfaces like knockdown, you can just FLY with your brush and your roller because you don't have to worry about brush marks or roller texture.

(You will want to run low-tack masking tape on the trim so you don't have to cut in anywhere with your brush on an uneven stucco/knockdown surface, unless low-tack wont stick to the trim, then use regular tack 3m.)

Shielding the ceilings without masking them will not only bog down the actual spraying process which you usually want to eliminate as many variables as possible, especially in a cramped areas like a hallway, but it is highly likely that indirect fog will make it onto surfaces where it is not wanted.

Plus the backside of the shield will leave pain on the ceiling any way.

I would either caulk the ceilings, then touch up the caulk with ceiling paint, then cut and roll the walls. (You will want the touch up paint on the ceiling to be unnoticable for this approach to work.)

Or I would caulk the ceilings, then cut and roll the walls, then drop plastic down and spray the ceilings like Jason suggested.

Break a leg.


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## Masterpiece (Feb 26, 2008)

Is this a color change or just a refresh coat?
If you plan on spraying the walls, then you could use a shield at the ceiling if you know what you're doing. I've done it in apt interior changeovers (from white walls to custom color) quite a bit and using the proper sized tip (and a new one at that) can cut down the number of times you have to wipe down the shield and speed up production. 

However, for just an interior hallway, I would brush and roll. If the stucco is that hard on you, you could possibly try a firmer brush that will help create a straight line....

Jeremy


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

paint the ceiling wall color would make your life so much easier. probably cheaper than the masking materials too.


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## admirableptg (Oct 23, 2008)

we spray everyting... 12 green paper, white tape 1 1/2, and pvc sheild.


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## deach (May 11, 2008)

I'm curious as to the spraying also (masking doors and all) however you can take a shield and honestly with two people one holding and moving shields along with you pull that off. However what are you doing about the doors and all? Remember to hold the shields down at a pretty good angle to keep over-spray from getting to the ceiling. Is the project large enough to justify the spraying vs, cutting and rolling is the decision you have to make. Good Luck let us know what you do and how it turns out.


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## sir paintalot (Oct 21, 2008)

Thanks for everyones replies, after some thought here's how I did it:

I decided to cut and roll the stucco. Cutting was pretty slow but seemed a lot more civilized than braking out the sprayer what with tenents coming and going and also the noise of the machine. I like to be considerate. This is the order I did it in:

I caulked all base and frames then painted the base and frames with 2 coats gloss oil. I spilled over on to the stucco about 1/2 inch. I let that set up for 3 days. I then taped the tops of the base and the sides of the door frames laying the tape in with a plastic putty knife. I tried cutting in a few frames and removed the tape... woah, major bleed coming underneath the tape. For the remaining base and frames I painted the tape edge with the same color as the frames and base, sealing the tape. Let that dry and cut and rolled all the stucco walls. I then removed the tape, door frames were almost 100% no bleed through as were the base. Problem with the base was the tape lifted the paint in a lot of places, no big I just touched up and it looks fabulous! Really crisp lines! Definatley was worth the extra time to seal the tape with the trim color which by the way was a chocolate brown, walls yellowish beige. The only thing I would have done different would be to let the base set up longer probably about a week or so before masking. I'd really like to try that frog tape sometime but can't get it in Canada, and it looks pretty damn expensive too! Basically painting stucco REALLY sucks! I felt like I was on an outside job(which I don't do anymore) but I was inside! After this job I'm actually really looking forward to painting some plain old drywall hahaha! Hope this helps some one else down the road.


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## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2008)

Good call with sealing the tape with the trim paint. I have done that too. Works great. It's actually better than using caulk to seal that edge... :thumbsup: But caulk is situational... it's not every day painting that the trim paint is available... 

Glad it worked out for you.


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Anybody use cardboard shields with the pole/handle?


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

RCP said:


> Anybody use cardboard shields with the pole/handle?


I tried once but it drove me nuts. I make my own custom spray shields using the cardboard swivel and the aluminum shield from another option at mautz. They are the best.


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## [email protected] (Mar 1, 2008)

I use FRP (SP) board. for my sheilds Com Rest room panels No ones or twos for me Keep about 30 on the job trailer


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## deach (May 11, 2008)

Usually for exteriors cut up 12 inch fascia. Cut to any length, have multiple sizes and cheap. (watch for sharp corners though).....I have a couple with the handle for really special situations hardly ever use them though.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Good call with sealing the tape with the trim paint. I have done that too. Works great.



Around here we call that "Burning in".

Usually don't need to resort to it though.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

sir paintalot said:


> Thanks for everyones replies, after some thought here's how I did it:



Sounds good. Thanks for the report back.

BTW. What kind of tape did you use?

Also did you have to caulk the ceiling line to get straight lines between the wall and ceiling? And did you have to touch up the caulk?

Also, I didn't know what you meant earlier when you said "stucco", I thought you meant "knockdown". 

If it is like exterior stucco, that would be rough (no pun intended) cutting in those lines.

Sounds like it turned out good. 

Kudos.


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