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How To Protect Against Paint Overspray

August 26, 2019

Overspray will get everywhere, so make sure the work is contained, and make sure your tools are out of the spray room

After eight days and nearly 600 linear feet of crown molding—some of it curved—DFW Crown Molding is ready to spray some paint on their work. And rather than destroy everything in the house, they take the time to set up a temporary spray booth.

Rule # 1: Never Underestimate OverSpray

Jonathan takes us through the products, process, and procedure for setting up the booth and shows why they go to such great lengths to set up a safe spray area. The main products used for setting up the spray booth is .31 mil painter's plastic, in12-foot and 9-foot widths, and Scotch Blue Pre-Taped Plastic. The purpose of the painter's plastic is not durability, it is protection, so ultra-thin plastic is fine. The pre-taped plastic is an excellent way to tape off clean edges.

Begin the spray booth at the floor

Jonathan creates a small spray booth around what they're spraying. The 12-foot rolls of plastic always reach from floor to ceiling easily. First, they cover the floor with builder's paper taped at seams. Next, they tape wall plastic to the floor paper and stretch it upward.

Because Jonathan will be spraying up, toward the ceiling, they cover the ceiling with plastic too. After the spray booth is built, clear it of any tools, lunch boxes, cups of coffee, or jobsite dogs that you don't want to be covered with paint.

Because you will be inside the booth, the rule applies to you, too: your clothes, hair, face, eyes, and everything else will be covered.

"People say the full-face respirator is overkill, but how can you be overkill on protecting your freaking face?"

"Look at al of that junk on here. that would have been all over my face."

A Tyvek suit that also covers shoes will protect your clothing. Latex gloves over the hands and a Tyvek hood over the hair and head make a pretty protected painter, but one who is significantly harder to understand on video.

" Right now, I feel completely fine to just work. I don't have to worry about what's getting on me, on the furniture, on the ceiling. I can just do mu work and concentrate on doing a good job."

He puts a light coat on the arched cased opening to illustrate great spray technique and the power of protection. After the spray, the floor paper is covered with primer dust and residue. As the primer falls to the floor, it literally dries and is dust before it hits the floor.

Outside the spray booth, Jon's crew also drapes plastic over furniture, TVs, and other expensive-looking stuff, because you just can't underestimate the power of overspray.

—Richard McMurray, of DFW Crown Molding, has a good pile of videos on YouTube.

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