Painting a chain link fence

[Ed62]

Has anyone ever done it? I'd like to get an idea how to estimate the amount of paint I'd need for a 4' high fence, _____ft. long. Would using a roller be best, or would a sprayer be better? It's my thinking that a roller would equal less waste, but maybe I'm wrong. What's the best paint for the job? As you can see, I have lots of questions about this.

Ed

[LYU370]

My brother and I painted my mom fence last fall. Used the Rustoleum fence paint, went right over the rust and everything. Well, we did take a wire brush to the heavily rusted areas. Looks way better than the rusted mass it was before, it actually weathered a Chicago winter fairly well. I used a thick roller, that way it gets the sides of the chain link in addition to the face. One gallon was enough for I'd say at least 70-80 feet of fence.

[Mr__Bill]

Roller defiantly is the way to go. Spray gun just wasts too much paint along with painting the lawn and what you wind up breathing in. As was said, long nap roller and when that guy who just likes to BS and slow your job down shows up to tell you hot to do it, shake the fence as he gets close. This will get rid of both him and the drips and runs of paint.
If you have an rt angle VS drill get a large wire brush for it 6 or 8 inches and give the fence a good brushing down first. You may also have to treat the galvanize prior to painting too. As I recall you wash ti down with vinegar.

First however, make sure that the flying stinging devils haven't nested in the ground along the fence.

have fun,
bill

[DaveStL]

Somewhere I recall hearing that a painting mitt is the preferred tool for chain link. Here's one:

http://www.acehardware.com/sm-shur-l...i-1396150.html

Dave

[Ed62]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I thought the long nap roller was the way to go, but now I might look into the paint mitt.

Andy, you said "One gallon was enough for I'd say at least 70-80 feet of fence." Was that for one side, or both? And was the height 4' or close to it?

Ed

[JoeyGee]

1) Choose the cheapest method to get the job done.

2) Set everything up, start painting, and REALLY embellish how much fun it is, what an honor it is to paint a fence, etc.

3) Fleece all your friends and neighbors for all their worldly possessions in return for the "honor" and "fun" of painting your fence.

[LYU370]

Yep, 4 footer. Enough for both sides.

[nickg]

H Would using a roller be best, or would a sprayer be better? It's my thinking that a roller would equal less waste, but maybe I'm wrong. What's the best paint for the job? As you can see, I have lots of questions about this. Ed

This is probably getting a little far out, and probably wouldn't make much sense unless you were painting a lot of chain link. Anyway, I think it was some amusement park had to have a long stretch of chain link fence painted. Their solution was to use electro static spray painting whereby the paint itself, and the fence were oppositely charged. The beauty of this set up was that both sides of the fence could be painted at once (from one side) by a slow moving truck. The paint would be 'attracted' to the fence wire, so there was very little wasted paint, and the job was completed much faster than conventional methods. I know that pro companies use this electrostatic method, but I don't think the equipment is even available to non pro painters.