Garage Makeover: Painting Siding with a Paint Sprayer (Wagner Control Pro 150 Review)

I hope you’re not tired of seeing my garage yet, because I have another piece of this budget-friendly garage makeover to share: painting siding with a paint sprayer.

The garage siding is not vinyl like the house was, but some kind of composite fiberboard.  I think it is HardiePlank, but I can’t be sure.  In any case, it was old and grungy, with some flaws – the biggest flaw being that it didn’t match our soon-to-be-installed, grey/brown house siding.  With the garage soffit and fascia painted black, and the DIY mural complete, all that was left to do was paint the garage siding to match the house.  Hubby and I actually brushed the paint onto the front side with 3″ wide, angled brushes (and an afternoon of patience) because I didn’t want to risk any overspray getting on to my mural.  Once the front was finished (I even brushed the same color on to the doors, after priming with a metal primer), we used a Wagner Control Pro 150 to apply the paint to the two sides and – wow! – did that ever make the job go quickly.  I knew that painting siding with a paint sprayer would make the job much easier, but I just wasn’t prepared for just how quick it would be.  If you caught the video in my Instagram stories, it took maybe 10 minutes to paint an entire side.  Of course, as with all paint sprayers, it took twice as long to clean the darn thing, plus I did go back and touch up a thin area or two with my brush, but overall painting siding with a paint sprayer saved us at least two days of painting by hand.

Setting up the Control Pro 150 is straightforward and this paint sprayer comes with everything you need.  Instead of thinning the paint, I chose Behr’s thinnest exterior paint and we were actually able to get away with one coat in most places – the coverage with this paint sprayer was great.  The one trick with painting siding with a paint sprayer is to make sure the paint covers the bottom of each plank.  We learned to crouch down a bit and angle the paint spray up, ever so slightly, to make sure the underside is coated too.

Before painting the siding with a paint sprayer, I painted the edges by hand and we taped off the window but instead of taping off all of the soffit and fascia, we only painted up to the second last piece of siding and then I quickly brushed on the paint to avoid any overspray getting on the newly painted soffit.  Luckily the dark soffit and dark siding color are pretty similar – with white soffit and a dark paint, I think taping and protecting from overspray is preferable.  However, this model of paint sprayer is designed to reduce overspray – which had the added benefit of conserving paint (we actually had extra at the end of the project).  Even though overspray is reduced, make sure to wear safety glasses and a dust mask or respirator.  Hubby wanted to take down the trees touching the garage, but I chained myself to them, because I have this thing about removing trees, so I jury-rigged a system with ropes and a sheet of vapor barrier to hold the troublesome tree back – that’s my tree-saving tip when it comes to painting siding with a paint a sprayer.

I am so thrilled with how the garage turned out!  I am hoping this color is a close match to the new siding.  The siding sample we chose is an unusual color (you can see a video of it here): sort of a grey/brown, and because it has a shimmery, sparkly top coat it reflects colors so on the lakeside it reads really grey/cool and on the forest side of our house, it reads more brown.  So I chose a cooler grey when I painted the stone facade on the lakeside and a slightly chalkier brown for the garage.  When I held the paint chips up to the sample of siding, this color (Cloverdale Storm CA211) looked perfect but we’ll see in real life.  If you read my recent Instagram post, you know the company we hired for the exterior reno made a major blunder and our windows were never ordered, setting our already 6-week behind exterior renovation back another six weeks. In the meantime, it’s been fun seeing the garage transformation take place, although we’re not 100% done – we still need to install a gorgeous new copper ferry light.

I like how much this darker color helps the garage recede into the woods – it’s so much less noticeable now.  We’re saving up for a new roof here too (I’m thinking black metal – the cheaper, sheet metal roof we want doesn’t come in a copper to match the house).  Although the shingles look rough, it’s mostly moss – they’re not curling up so we can still eek a little life out of them.

Here’s a reminder of the before and after:

Huge thanks to Wagner for sending me the ControlPro 150.  I reached out to Wagner to collaborate on this post because I firmly believe that painting siding with a paint sprayer is the way to go – all opinions and words are my own.  Be sure to check out the other phases of the garage makeover by clicking the links: DIY Garage Mural with Coastal Vibes and How to Paint Soffit and Fascia.