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Applying  stain with a spray gun is fast, but it can be messy.  It works best when you don’t have to worry too much about overspray. A new addition or a new house where you don’t have to be concerned about stain on the plywood sub floor is a prime candidate for spraying wood stain.

Covering up
You will need to cover up anything that you don’t want overspray on.  I would not even consider spraying stain if you have carpet, or finished flooring down, it is not worth the time needed to cover up all the flooring - use a brush instead.  Block off the HVAC dusts: both the cold air return and the heat duct to prevent overspray from being drawn down into the vents. 
How to Stain Wood
with a Sprayer
Personal Protection
You will need at a minimum, to wear a spray paint respirator  Do not spray wear there is an open pilot, turn off all pilot lights and any potential sources of ignition. Provide for good ventilation, but be careful about overspray drifting out onto outdoor items through open windows at the same time. Cover the heat register and cold air returns to prevent drawing overspray down into the ductwork.

Clothing
Depending on how much staining you will be doing, you may want to wear a Tyvek coverall and a spray sock as well as shoe covers and gloves. 




























If you are spraying without a helper, then you can spray out a few jambs and  then back brush them before the stain sets up, then spray a few more items and wipe etc..

Spraying with an airless
You can use a electric cup gun (like the Wagner Optimus Sprayers), or you can use a airless rig. Use a narrow / fine tip, and keep the pressure low. It doesn’t take much pressure to spray stain.  The less pressure, the less overspray there will be drifting in the air. See How to Spray With an Airless Sprayer

Spraying with a HVLP
Unless you are using the electric cup gun airless, I don’t favor using an airless sprayer.  There is too much clean up involved with the airless rig, and there will be a lot of stain just sitting in the long airless hose before it reaches the tip for spraying.

Most of the stain spraying I have done has been with a HVLP sprayer.  Because the HVLP (as a rule) is a siphon or gravity fed cup gun, it does not involve a material line and there is no “wasted” material sitting  idle in a long hose.  There is more control with the HVLP, and less overspray. 

See How to Spray With a HVLP Sprayer


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Spraying
You can use an airless or HVLP sprayer to apply the stain, either will do a good job.  I prefer the HVLP because equipment clean up is much quicker at the end of the day.  An airless rig will require less moving around, if you are doing a whole house, but you will have a lot of stain in the line at the end of the day to purge. 

Spray and wipe
You can’t just spray the stain on the wood and leave it - almost all stains will lay on the surface and look awful.  You must use a brush to wipe the stain in after application.   If you have a helper, ideally one would apply the stain, and the other brush the stain.  It doesn’t take much to wipe the stain, just a stroke with the brush in the direction of the wood grain, then move on.

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