To Spray or Not To Spray : That is the question

[Fitzroy]

I've a set of sash windows about finished. I plan to paint them before installation and I can paint them in the room where they will be installed. It is not heated but gains heat from the rest of the house so at the moment is at about 10-12degC.

The window is a bay sash with two 50cm side windows and a 100cm wide center window. It will be internally glazed and I plan to paint the frames first then install the glazing on a suitable flexible putty, followed by a final coat externally to overlap paint with glass. I'm following(ish) the design and approach Bradshaw Joinery does it, for anyone interested.

I have read through the posts on here recently regards spraying windows so have a good handle on the options and if I spray i will go airless and use waterbased Tikkuurila paint system.

However, the main question I'm stuck with is to spray or brush paint?

I do not like brush painting, find it very boring, and don't think I'm very good at it. In my mind spraying is the way to avoid this chore. However, I have no feel for the learning curve, if sash windows are a sensible place to start, or if I've just setting myself up for failure and I should just get on a paint them by hand. A few hours each evening and I'll be done in a week or two, likely before I've even decided on a sprayer, had it delivered, and got familiar with it!

Any advice from people who spray?

Fitz

 

[niall Y]

If you are hankering after getting a spray system anyway, then that is the way to go. The local joinery firm I used to use, sprayed the primer on all the doors and windows he produced.

If you can at least get it to the undercoat stage before installing, it will be a lot easier, though with water based paints in this cold weather it might also be worth getting the top coat on as well. With the base coats you have ample opportunity to correct any mistakes before applying the further coats. This should at least take the pressure off during the inevitable learning curve.

 

[johnnyb]

Brushing, cheaper, easier, more authentic, less paint. Plenty of painters if your not bothered. Best for oil based, traditional pine windows.
Spraying is quicker,water based, more prone to build up, messy, puts a thick coat on(plus and minus) suited to hardwoods(imho) gives a rather plastic look, best as part of a system (use the whole system end grain sealer etc) masking a pain, the more your spraying the more it's quickness is apparent, spraying all day constantly it's amazingly quick. Spray over 3 days(changing paints) it's a pain.