# Spray crew formula?



## JCardoza (Jan 23, 2008)

Any "big time" spray guys out there who run more than one spray rig with multiple crews? How do you you set up the crew on an avarage day? Do you just send a truck out with 3 guys and a spray rig to sand, mask and texture? Or do you just do a spray guy and a helper that mask and texture while and let the tapers do all the sanding? Right now I have multiple crews that I let sand and mask, then I show up and spray, then leave them there to clean up while I move to another spray job... It works but I have to be good at scheduling and guessing which crew will finish sanding and masking where first!:blink:


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## jpool (Jul 1, 2009)

Never hear of a spray crew that has to show up and sand.. 1 guy masking, 1 spraying.


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## Custom Drywall Svc. (Oct 31, 2008)

jpool said:


> Never hear of a spray crew that has to show up and sand.. 1 guy masking, 1 spraying.


yea, this is how i generally run my crew.

sounds like you have what we would call one of those 'good problems' though. haha.

overall, find an experienced spray-man......and a laborer to help him.

now, what i mean by 'laborer' is someone that is min. wage at your company.....meaning, its not a skilled position by any means. The main duties of this laborer will be to navigate the slack on the spray hose behind the sprayman, masking, sanding, and scraping floors -- that's it.

depending on the size of the house of course, i use generally a 2-man crew like this on all my production.

when not spraying, my sprayman is of course helping out masking and sanding.

the sprayman should be somewhat mechanically inclined and familiar with how the spray rig WORKS........because this will surely go out on him on a jobsite -- period. he'll basically have to be able to diagnose any problem the spray rig will have.

if you send two idiots to spray a job 50 miles away who dont know sh-t about the spray rig, that makes you the third idiot.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Some claim spraying is a one-man operation. That's usually some guy to greedy to pay a helper and willing to spend most of a day on the average house. Our spray set-up was same as Custom's during the boom. Now the lead taper sprays, his help preps, I mix and monitor the rig and see that all excess materials get loaded up and that the work meets my standards. Taping crew sands their own work these days. Will never again pay a sanding crew a few cents to ruin a stellar finishing job. By-the-foot sanders have become pretty rare in these parts.


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## brdn_drywall (Apr 25, 2008)

man you guy's have sanding crew's wish i could get my hands on some crew's that'll sub mine out can't imagine someone actually waking up every morning and sanding for a living.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Used a crew for many years and had pretty good results during the boom. They could sand 3-5 houses per day. Think there was 5 or 6 on the crew and they could sand an 11K Cal. split in less than 2 hours. Problem was when they burnt the corners and had to remud. Had another crew run by a lady who used headlamps to sand by and her work was awesome.


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## Custom Drywall Svc. (Oct 31, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Taping crew sands their own work these days. Will never again pay a sanding crew a few cents to ruin a stellar finishing job. By-the-foot sanders have become pretty rare in these parts.


Hahhah, yea.....by the foot sanders are rare now.

not really 'rare', but just doesnt make sense if you do not have volume/production going on.

like you said in the post above me, when we were doing tract homes, id have a sanding crew of 2-3 guys practically came out all day in a 100 home subdivision and sand maybe 5 tract houses per day.

THEN, it worked out good........now, no way possible.

and just like you said Darren, now my finishers are responsible for sanding their own work....plus we've also found they are definitely more keen and adept at sanding their OWN work......as in, they are sanding from a more intelligent perspective......not a sanding crew that, like u said, burns the fkkn corners and destroys the finishing work hah


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## JCardoza (Jan 23, 2008)

I found a solution  I quit texturing. I am now a full time estimator for my Dad's drywall company. Granted the money isn't as good and it's a 9-5+ job, but in today's economy I won't complain.


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## Whitey97 (Jan 27, 2009)

sell out!


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## onesko (Nov 26, 2009)

we usually sub out this kind of work.


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## thesprayking (Dec 25, 2009)

That is the funniest line I've read since finding this site "couldnt imaging someone waking up everyday and sanding for aliving". fkkn hilarious. I agree.!! That would be the worse job ever. As far as sanding crews I also couldnt imagine a crew that would be paid by the foot for sanding and really care for the walls. They wouldnt look back at all I bet. Spraying should be done by one guy, Walls sanded by whoever did them so they know where all the trouble spots are, Masking done by someone whos knows how to mask where the stuff isnt blowing off when you spray and he's outside staring at the spray rig. .02


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

We used to lovingly refer to that guy as the spray [email protected]$&. A good one is masking garage doors once the sprayman gets going, and busting a grape scraping walls then floors. He best NOT be outside texting his girl.


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## Filler29 (Mar 21, 2010)

taping is about filling not sanding. The last house I sprayed the taper insisted on light checking the ceiling before texture after spending 3 hours pulling out the 2,300sq.ft lid with 180 grit. 3m makes great tape but never did find a tape that would stick to a dusty angle.


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## miket (Jan 29, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> Used a crew for many years and had pretty good results during the boom. They could sand 3-5 houses per day. Think there was 5 or 6 on the crew and they could sand an 11K Cal. split in less than 2 hours. Problem was when they burnt the corners and had to remud. Had another crew run by a lady who used headlamps to sand by and her work was awesome.


What kind of headlamps? battery or cord? do you how many watts?


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## miket (Jan 29, 2010)

Yup i'd agree when you spray guy doesnt know how the rig works bad things eventually happen... The machines are decently simple too.

If you dont mind my asking; What has to be masked in new construction texturing?
I've sprayed or helped spray over a hundred textured ceilings but that was repair work where we, scraped down usually all but sometimes only part of the old texture, taped and put up plastic around all the walls. My dads painting company did mostly insurance jobs when i was in high school.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

The headlamps were the led ballcap type.

What needs masking on new work? Oh, just: every entry and patio door, every window, can light, fart fan vents(ok sometimes we skipped em), tubs, showers, garage doors and track, red iron posts, glass block, whatever millwork or material left in the garage....and it better be tight enough that the stator gun doesn't blow it off.


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## miket (Jan 29, 2010)

The head lights that clip on to a baseball caps arent nearly as bright as some of the good headband style. Im going to have to give that a try when sanding. Cant belive i never thought of it.

I dislike wrapping up ceiling fans. Doorways were a pain to get through once plasticed off and in small rooms the plastic on the wall can billow and your in a bubble. Dealing with fragile wallpaper isnt fun because it can tear off pieces with the tape or the plastic can fall down when the texture gets heavy so very low tack tape and small staples.

My Dad never oversprayed the walls and scraped them, always masked, but in situations where were going to paint the walls anyways it might have saved time.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Miket, ceiling fans, I take off the blades and bag em. I thought you were asking about new work. 

Cased openings I do 9" paper. Wallpaper, I tell them it's gonna get trashed. Or sell a new border and staple the plastic.


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## betterdrywall (May 4, 2010)

Try not breaking the workers up, take it one job at a time, and keep the guys moving. everybodys on the same job, from start to finish.


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## tricounty dwall (Apr 29, 2010)

we have sander here that piecework.. they come in and blast em out quick but most of them dont block in worth a dang. when i sand i use a headlamp and to awnser ur ? about the watt and what kind. the best one ive ever used is a coonlight. it fits on ur hat and is very bright.. me and my guys love them


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## drywallmike08 (May 27, 2010)

jpool said:


> Never hear of a spray crew that has to show up and sand.. 1 guy masking, 1 spraying.


 that would be my last day of texture no one should be asked to sand someone elses work !


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