How to prevent overspray when spray painting

It’s very easy to mess up when spray painting: you look away just for a second and…goodbye cleanliness. Don’t be mad at yourself, even the best professional painters can mess up sometimes! You just need to keep in mind some tricks that make your life easier.

So, how can you easily avoid overspray? Here are a few fundamental tips to prevent it during your spray painting project (with some suggested masking products):

• Avoid newspapers when masking floors
• Watch out for air drafts
• Adjust your paint gun settings
• Practice your technique

Avoid newspapers when masking floors

The very first step to make is, of course, to use professional masking products, not newspapers or duct tape. First, because it is dangerous to walk on them (they can be very slippery), and second, because they can let paint bleed through.

To prevent paint overspray all over the floor, we suggest a magic combo like this:

• Q1® Floor Pro Board - reusable masking paper suitable for floor protection, totally recycled, blocks moisture and liquids.
  
• Q1® Pre Taped Washi Film - ideal to quickly mask large surfaces, it is already provided with a masking tape to help you save time during your painting projects.
  
  
  
  
• 3560 Q1® Precision Line Masking Tape - to fasten your masking paper or film, but also to mask smaller items or to obtain sharp lines on your walls.
  

If you are short of quality tools, you can get them in our shop.

Go to Q1®’s shop

Watch out for air drafts

Avoiding air drafts is one of the most important things you can do to reduce overspray. This sounds pretty obvious but, believe us, there are some professional painters who don’t even consider this.

Be wise and don’t underestimate this aspect: avoid painting outside in windy conditions, turn off fans and close the windows if you’re painting indoors.

Adjust your paint gun settings

Have you ever thought that maybe it’s your spray gun’s fault?

Sometimes it is just a matter of too narrow or broad spray patterns, or even wrong pressure.

Try these solutions to avoid overspray:

• change tip size or model to obtain a satisfactory spray pattern
• turn the pressure up or down until you don’t see unwanted paint drops anymore.

Practice your technique

Once you set everything correctly, you can master your spray painting technique until not a single droplet is released into the air.

You can learn some tricks here in our article: Spray paint tips to improve the quality of your painting project

Practice makes perfect, but high-quality masking solutions can be your real game-changer.

Rely on Q1® to keep your surfaces clean