How to Paint the Exterior of Your Home Using a Paint Sprayer

Tape plastic sheeting around windows, doors and porch floors. Tape the edge of the soffit trim where it meets the roofline. Drape more sheeting over plants and other lawn items that are close to the house. Use old cotton sheets over plants if the weather is hot, to prevent overheating them.

Mix the paint with solvent in the sprayer reservoir using a ratio recommended by the sprayer manufacturer. Some paint sprayers can handle thicker paint, but others require adding a significant amount of solvent to thin the paint.

Twist a sprayer tip that is manufactured for your sprayer onto the gun. Sprayer tips are available in different sizes for different jobs and materials; a three-digit number describes the spraying hole's size and therefore the capability of the tip. The first number tells you half the width of the fan-shaped spray in inches if you hold the tip of the sprayer 1 foot from the surface that you are painting. The second and third numbers tell you the diameter of the sprayer opening in thousandths of an inch. For exterior latex paint, choose a tip that has between a .015- and .019-inch opening, and the width of the spray depends on your coverage preference. A 515 tip will apply a 10-inch-wide spray if you hold the tip 1 foot from the siding.

Put on a dust mask or breathing mask and eye protection. Stand with your arm extended straight, holding the tip of the sprayer approximately 10 inches away from a piece of plastic sheeting or another practice surface.

Squeeze and hold the trigger until the paint sprays freely; it may sputter at first. Spray the paint over the sheeting using a sweeping, side-to-side arm motion to judge the amount of coverage it produces.

Practice paint stroke techniques. Begin moving your arm across the space before you pull in the trigger or handle. During the motion, squeeze and hold the trigger to spray paint across the practice surface. Continue the sweeping motion as you release the handle at the end of each pass. This produces feathered or thinner ends to the paint strokes, which helps reduce drips. Practice until you are comfortable with the sprayer.

Move your equipment to the corner or end of the wall where you will begin spraying.

Apply the paint across the bottom row or lower edge of the siding using the same long, sweeping motion as your practice strokes. Overlap the feathered ends of each stroke when you begin a new sweeping pass. Paint each higher row of siding until you reach the top of each wall.

Pour a small amount of solvent into a glass jar. Twist off the sprayer tip and place it in the solvent.

Pour approximately 2 inches of solvent into the reservoir and swirl it around to dissolve residual paint. Reattach the tip. Turn on the machine and spray the solvent through the tip until the reservoir is empty. Wipe down the sprayer assembly with a rag soaked in solvent.

Pull off the tape and remove the sheeting.