02
Feb
Feb
Making the switch from painting by hand to spray machines would have to be our number one tip for boosting revenue and efficiency. However, investing time in planning and preparing for your project, whilst time-consuming itself, will save time in the long-run and improve efficiency in your clean up process. We’ll explore this and more in this painting and decorating blog.
Marvellous Machines
Making the change from hand application to machine spraying is worth investigating. With an experienced hand, spray machines can paint a room in around ten minutes. This super speed allows you to turn around jobs more quickly and therefore take on more projects. The Paint Spray Machine boasts many other benefits including:
Achieving a superior smooth and even coat- Light-weight and portable design
- Fantastic health benefits reducing wear and tear on your body
- Ability to spray details (the HVLP is perfect for this) as well as large-scale areas
- Creating a high-quality professional finish with great coverage in just one-pass
Perfect Planning
Whilst “desk-time” seems counterproductive as you might feel like you’re not carrying out actual decorating work, planning saves you time and money on your project overall and ensures you not over-ordering on paints, tapes and films. It also means you won’t end up starting/stopping when you realise you’ve run out of paint or don’t have the ladders you require. When your planning consider:
- How big is the space that your painting is?
- Is it a large area or more details focused?
- What kind of surface will you be covering?
- Do you need any additional tools such as tip extensions or ladders/scaffolding?
- Have you purchased and fitted the correct machine filter and spray tip?
- What protective films and tapes do you require?
Selecting your Paint
Getting your paint right ensuring it is compatible with the surface you are covering as well as your spray machine is important to ensure efficiency when you come to actually carry out the painting itself. Always check the paint specification sheet prior to setting up your machine to select the correct spray tip. Generally the thicker the paint the larger the spray tip needed and thinner paints require a smaller tip. Paint spray machines are generally very versatile machines and will work with most paints including emulsion, latex, varnishes, lacquers, primers amongst many more.
Choosing the Right Filter
Selecting the right filter ensures a professional finish and smooth and more efficient running of your machine since the filter takes out the non sprayable particles. Thicker paints require a coarser filter. Most of our QTech machines are designed with a triple filter to ensure a good quality and smooth finish in one-coat. Often the Suction and manifold filters are specific to the machines, however the gun/pencil filters will vary according to the paint you are using. Choosing the correct filter (according to the paint spec sheet) will prevent problems when spraying and ensure a quicker and more efficient turn-around of your job.
Choosing the Correct Spray Tip
Just as with the filter, getting the spray tip right ahead of beginning painting will prevent issues later. Tips are selected according to the coating you are using as well as whether you need it for precision work or large surface coverage. The spray tip controls how much paint is projected from the gun and the fan pattern produced. Getting the tip correct reduces paint wastage and project cost therefore increasing overall revenue. As a brief overview, lighter coatings will need a smaller tip and thicker materials require a larger tip. Find out more about how to pick the correct spray tip here >
Preparation
Even if you want to simply crack on with the job and find prep work frustrating, careful preparation is vital and will make the painting process easier and save time in the clean up. Our top three products for preparation efficiency would be
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Painters Masking Tape-Always opt for the best quality you can as it will be designed with innovative technology to achieve crisp, clean lines and prevent paint seeping. Check out this blog for our top tips when using painters tape >
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Drop Film-This pre-taped film is ideal for covering large areas (floors, walls, furniture) that you wish to protect from paint overspray.
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Window Protection- Our blue glass protection roll will work on window, glass and other smooth surfaces to quickly cover and protect these areas from paint.
Practise Makes Perfect
Once everything is set up and your area is prepared, it is always worth perfecting your spray technique and checking your fan pattern on a piece of scrap card. Our top tips to achieve that perfect technique include:
- Remaining a consistent distance from the surface (10-25cm) to avoid unsightly drips or tailing
- Spraying using long continuous passes maintaining the gun at a 90 degree angle without swinging it
- Triggering the spray gun after beginning each stroke and releasing it whilst your arm is still moving at the end. This will prevent paint build up.
- Overlapping each pass by 30-50% to ensure a seamless blend.
- For further tips check out this blog >
