Paint Sprayer Vs. Brush

Prep Time

• While you’ll need to cover up surfaces that aren’t meant to be painted when using either a sprayer or a brush, this task is easier and faster to accomplish when using a brush. A brush is much more accurate than a sprayer, which tends to overspray onto nearby surfaces and objects.

Applicaiton Time

• The paint sprayer is the clear winner when it comes to application time. Though you can assemble a team of painters to work with brushes and rollers, a single skilled painter can usually best them in the amount of time it takes to actually apply and finish a paint job.

Applying An Even Coat

• It takes a bit of skill to apply an even coat of paint on a wall or surface using a paintbrush, but the uniform distribution of paint through a sprayer makes easy work of this task. That holds true until the sprayer begins to run out of paint, at which time it starts to sputter and spit out streams of paint that are anything but consistent. The paintbrush, on the other hand, gives you the advantage of knowing exactly how much paint you have at any given time – whether it be on the brush itself or in the can.

Cleanup Time

• Cleanup is almost always easier when using a paintbrush than with a sprayer. There is typically less tape and covering to remove from nearby surfaces and objects, and brushes are simply rinsed clean afterwards. Paint sprayers, on the other hand, need to be partially disassembled and smaller, sensitive pieces need to be thoroughly cleaned and washed out after each use.

Detailed Painting

• Focused, detailed painting is something that the paint sprayer is simply not meant for. When painting latticework, trimwork or trelliswork, for example, the amount of paint wasted by a sprayer is too great to make it a viable option.

Cost

• Using a sprayer to paint a surface uses far more paint than when using a simple brush. A portion of the paint used in a sprayer is wasted, either in the atmosphere or on nearby surfaces. This will ultimately result in a higher amount of paint used when applying it with a sprayer versus a paintbrush. Additionally, new brushes can be picked up at any home improvement store for just a couple of dollars, while paint sprayers themselves can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.