What is overspray

Overspray is caused by the mist that is created when spray painting a surface. The tiny paint particles are light enough to float around in the air, when they land they slowly start to harden and become overspray. Overspray can be removed safely in many cases.

Why overspray

When a painter needs to spraypaint a surface, he needs to set his equipment to work with the paint he is using. The paint is pressed through a nozzle that atomises the liquid paint into a very fine mist of tiny paint drops. This very fine mist is then sprayed on the surface to form a very even layer of paint drops. These slowly harden into a coat of paintwork. The very fine mist of paint is very light and is easily carried by air. This mist can float to area that are not covered by masking tape, and settle on a surface they are not supposed to come into contact with.

How to remove overspray

There a several ways of removing overspray, the best technique is very dependent on the type and amount of overspray.

How does overspray look like

Overspray can come in different amounts and sizes. If the droplet are bigger, the overspray will look like hardened raindrops, but in most cases it will like dust. A very fine layer if tiny dust particles that feel very rough and hard. The color might even give away that its not dust. Overspray can rarely be washed off, unlike dust.