If you are a professional painter and you refinish kitchen cabinets and maybe even wood furniture then you might want to invest in a paint spray booth at some point. But what is a paint spray booth and where can you get one? A spray booth is typically an enclosed area or room that has a ventilation system to contain overspray and filter it out.
There are many different types of spray booths. You can buy them or build them depending on your budget, time, and building skills.
If you are not ready to purchase an industrial size booth then you might find a suitable substitute here.
Here is an example of a simple open booth built out of plywood and 2x4s.
You can build one like this for under $200 including materials, filters, and fans.
Different Types Of Spray Booths
There are typically 5 different types of booths for spraying liquid paint.
Whether it is for cars, furniture, or kitchen cabinets.
The 5 types are:
- Cross Flow
- Side Down Draft
- Semi Down Draft
- Full Down Draft
- Open Face Industrial Booth
Pressurized downdraft booth
A Full downdraft or “pressurized downdraft booth” is usually the best way to avoid any contamination of your painted surfaces.
The positive air pressure that is created inside of the cabinet by sucking air from the bottom of the booth makes it almost impossible for any debris to stay inside of the cabin.
Even if the door is opened and closed frequently.
The air is sucked through a fan located on the floor and pushed out through a filtration system.
Unless you are painting objects that need to be painted from underneath, this is the best option in most cases.
How much is a downdraft paint booth?
An industrial-size downdraft booth can cost as much as $100,000.
Usually, a good mid-size booth costs around $10,000-$15,000.
downdraft booth.
Semi and cross draft airflow booth
For smaller items, these types of paint spray booths work great.
Furniture and kitchen cabinets for example.
For larger items, it can cause debris to land on the front half of the booth to spread over the rest.
That is because the air is sucked across the room before being pushed out through a filter.
On average these types of booths will cost anywhere between $12,000 and $20,000.
These prices can be a bit high for anybody that is just starting or that does not do that much spraying.
Therefore there might be some other options to look into.
Portable booths might be better for you.
How much is a portable paint booth?
Another option can be a portable booth.
There is a wide variety of inflatable and pop-up style spray booths.
They range from $40 – $2000 and all have their benefits if they suit your needs.
You can get an inflatable-style spray booth that can fit a utility van.
If you are looking for something smaller then you might want to consider a growing tent.
Yes, you read that right!
A grow tent is a perfect size to set up in a garage or basement.
You can add box fans with filters to create a suction vent like in the example of the plywood spray booth.
These regular box fans are surprisingly effective at a low cost.
In combination with furnace filters, they do a great job controlling over-spray.
You can opt-in for these types of filters or upgrade to HEPA filters.
That all depends on what materials you are spraying.
You should always check with your state’s/city’s rules and regulations.
Only they will know what filters you should legally use.
A grow tent like this is easily put up and can be taken down in minutes.
It is very convenient and easily cleaned.
It folds up and is easy to store away.
Air Scrubbers
A portable air scrubber will help you clear over-spray out of your spray booth.
The price range can vary from $100 to $1000 depending on your needs.
An air scrubber that has HEPA filters will cost you more than a cylinder fan with an exhaust axial hose.
A good air purifier will clean the air in an average size room about 8-10 times in an hour.
This is a Portable air scrubber and negative pressure machine with a two-stage filter system.
It is the more expensive kind due to the special air filtration system it has.
These air scrubbers are used mostly on commercial jobs that have strict requirements.
Cylinder Fans
At around $1000 per unit, the air scrubber might not be in your budget yet.
However, there is a less expensive option to clean the air in a workspace.
Whether it be a shop, basement, garage, or home.
A cylinder Fan with an exhaust axial hose works great as well.
With this fan, you can create negative airflow and remove the contaminated air via the exhaust hose.
A 25-foot hose is usually enough but you can always add another hose to suit your need.
Other necessities
There are a few things that you will need when spraying kitchen cabinets in your booth.
- A paint rack
- A drying rack
are just a few things you might consider acquiring to make your job much easier.
A paint drying rack will help you minimize the space you need to dry your doors and drawers horizontally.
You can dry multiple doors at the same time.
Or if you would rather hang dry your doors then you might consider a hanging spray and dry rack.
There is a less expensive option to consider as well.
At 518 painters we use clothes racks to hang dry our cabinet doors and drawers.
They are much lower priced but surprisingly durable and come in really handy.
You can hang up to 200 lbs. on each rack.
They fold up and disassemble in less than 2 minutes.
We store them in travel suitcases which is really convenient when you have to move them around.
There are 4 racks in this suitcase.
Whatever your budget is, there are multiple options for you to have a paint spray booth. You can always upgrade as you need.
Keep in mind that you are responsible for your health and safety.
Therefore, you should always do your due diligence and research what setup is best for you and are in compliance with your city’s regulations.
You can use wooden clothes hangers with cup hooks to hang everything.