TL;DR

  • Rolling paint provides a higher quality finish, with thicker coverage and fewer risks like overspray.
  • Spraying is faster and more cost-effective, ideal for large areas with fewer labor hours needed.
  • Most homeowners choose rolling for its superior quality, especially when done by experienced painters.

 

Some painting companies spray the siding on houses while others brush and roll the paint on. I have had a lot of my homeowners ask me what the difference between the two are. Each of the two exterior house painting techniques has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Rolling

At Textbook Painting we normally roll the majority of our jobs because rolling jobs will give a higher quality finish. The advantages to rolling a house vs. spraying is that the paint will be applied much thicker giving overall better coverage than if it was sprayed. Also it is much easier to be precise and when a house is rolled it eliminates the risk of such things like overspray.

Spraying

We also spray some jobs for its primary advantage: speed. When we spray large areas it allows us to work much faster and produce a job much quicker. Since fewer labor hours are needed it costs me less to produce the job and I pass that savings on to my homeowners. So I normally write an estimate up with a price to have it sprayed with the additional option to have it rolled. Most of my homeowners end up going with the roll price because it is a higher quality job—especially when it’s done by experienced exterior house painters who know the best approach for each surface.