The idea of painting with s spray gun seems straightforward, simply point and shoot. I found out the hard way that there is more to it than that this past Sunday. It is not something I planned on doing, more so, I was pressured into doing it.
We started replacing our fence a couple months ago when the old couple that lives on one side said he was going to replace the fence, if I wanted to contribute great, if not, well great too. I paid what he suggested, actually gave him $50 more because $250 that he quoted sounded way too cheap, but he and a friend did the work, so cool. I was quite happy with their work, the fence looked sharp and new and it got me motivated to continue, so a couple weeks later we did the back part of our fence. This is the longest part of our fence, compared to the sides and I probably spent $750 on wood alone. We did the work ourselves, between DD, Boy, Baby A and myself. While doing it, I told my other neighbor we were coming around and we would be taking care of the fence between us. I was even offering her the same deal my other neighbor did, I told them to pay me about $300 and we would do the work. Well, the snow came, then this and that, then Spring Break and before we knew it, they told us they had hired professionals and it was going to cost quite a bit more, but since it was their idea, we wouldn't have to pay much more than we had offered them. We ended up at $350 and Wife was a little annoyed at the way I handled the deal, that I talked my self into paying more. After seeing the work and the wood, it made sense. They used a much higher quality looking wood, the guys even reset some of the posts to make sure the fence is perfectly straight. Mine isn't going to fall, but it leans here and there. Anyways, afterwards, they stained that part of the fence and it made it look even more outstanding. We asked the guys how much for them to stain our fence, and I about choked. The guy said he would do it for $1500 or we could go buy the stain and he would do it for $1000.
I went and bought my own spray gun and ten gallons of stain, should be more than enough. Each 5 gallon drum was $150 and the sprayer was like $170, so less than $500 and I get to keep the spray gun, Wife already has ideas "We can paint our outdoor table and chairs later." We did the inside of the back fence and it is not as easy as one might think. First off, the gun with its reservoir of stain and the motor is a little heavy in one hand, then the spray gets into the air easily. I was waiting for one of the neighbors to start whining, but we waited for a day with very little wind, so that helped. Baby A and I did the work and you can tell it is amateurs but I guess the fence is now protected. It is splotchy dark and light all over the place. DD suggested we give it another coat and one of the youtube videos suggested it would take two coats. This might make it look better, but I really thought it would take 20-30 minutes to spray the whole side of the fence and it took more like two hours and my back. I tweaked something early on and thus I had Baby A do most of the work and he did it like you would expect a teenager who doesn't want to be outside would do it. It is started, hopefully we can finish it in the next weekend or two.
Our amateur job
Professional job (it is nicer)
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