Why use a roller when airless spraying?

In our Facebook group, a question was recently asked on the subject of rolling and post-rolling when using airless equipment. It’s an interesting and much-discussed topic, so we’ve summarised the main points of the discussion in the following blog post.

But first, here’s the question:

Hello everyone,
On some YouTube videos, I often see that after airless painting, the walls are painted over with a conventional paint roller.
Why use the airless if you have to use a roller?
You can then paint straight away with a brush and roller.
Or are there other reasons for this, such as the appearance or gradation of the colour?

Reasons why the roller has to be passed over again when airless spraying

To sum up, here are the four most important points to bear in mind when applying with an airless roller.

1. Desired roll structure for renovation work

You want a roller structure so that you can carry out subsequent alterations using the roller. Depending on the type of roller used, the result is a visible structure on the wall. This structure differs from the simple application of paint using an airless device. This means that small areas of damage and dirt on the wall can be repaired more easily with a roller, because a new roller structure is created during the repair process.

Roller structure for repairs

The theme of retouching is much broader, however, because retouching is always visible when viewed up close. To a greater or lesser extent, depending on the colour and technique. That’s why it’s advisable to touch up the whole surface, i.e. the whole wall, for many materials. Experienced users also use smaller airless sprayers for occasional touch-ups. This means that the touch-ups can be carried out in the same spray pattern, avoiding the need to touch up with a roller.

2. Inexperienced users

Users are not very used to using airless equipment and find it difficult to obtain an even surface by spraying. In these cases, the paint needs to be re-rolled to distribute it more evenly over the surface. If too much or too little paint is applied in places when spraying, the material can then be distributed evenly over the entire wall surface using the roller.

Airless & finishing rollers – inexperienced users

3. Mist-free paint application method – Facade

A method of spraying with a particularly low mist, often used on façades. The paint is sprayed with very little pressure, which produces very little paint mist. But the paint doesn’t spread evenly either, so it has to be re-rolled. On the façade, the advantages are as follows: no buckets to carry on the scaffolding, because the airless pumps the paint upwards. High working speed. Good application of the material on structured or roughly coated surfaces, because the paint can be better applied to structured surfaces by spraying.

Fog arm sprayed on the façade

4. Seal joints from paint or wallpaper

When wallpaper or non-woven is hung, joints occur where the strips meet (the point where one strip meets the other). To seal these joints with paint and prevent the wallpaper or non-woven from peeling off, it is useful to apply the paint using mechanical pressure with a paint roller.

Roller to seal joints from wallpaper

Finally, an advice: for subsequent rolling of large surfaces, there are particularly large 50 cm wide rollers available. This makes the job easier and significantly increases surface yield. You can find out more about this in another of our videos.
Here’s the page dedicated to these XXL rollers: XXL roller – the extra-wide paint roller

XXL rollers at Airless Discounter