What type of roller/brush - Aluminum Siding

I'm having the aluminum siding on my home painted next week, and was wondering what is the best type of roller to use. The siding has a coarse wood grain texture to it and I want to be sure the texture remains as defined as possible. I took a sample piece with me to Sherwin Williams yesterday to match the color, and they applied two coats with a paint brush. The color is pretty darn close if not exact, but the texture looks different because they used a dryer to speed cure the paint, which obviously didn't give it time for the brush strokes to settle. Anyway, is there an ideal type of roller to use for textured aluminum siding? I'm taking a guess that a lower nap or even a sponge type roller would be best. Not sure if the type of brush matters.

 

I usually spray aluminum siding which IMO gives the nicest finish. If I had to use a roller I'd use one of those little 'whiz' rollers. Not sure which cover would work best.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/WHIZZ-4-in-...Roller/3026935

 

My apologies, I meant which "cover" to use. I'm assuming they'll be using a similar roller to that one.

I asked them about spraying and they said it would be too much preparation/masking (because there is so much wood/trim), so they'll be brushing and rolling it.

 

Any other thoughts on this? The sample I had painted with a brush (two coats) softened the edges of the texture, which makes it look slightly different than the new siding (new siding is not being painted in case I missed this detail). So I'm thinking two very thin coats would be best. What type of roller cover would be best to use for two very thin coats? Foam?

 

I normally spray aluminum siding and don't know which cover would be best but it shouldn't take too much to get 2-3 different covers and see which one works best. The thicker the paint is applied the more detail you will loose.

 

I'm paying someone to do this. Spraying is not an option. I general, what types of covers apply the least amount of paint? Seems like foam would.

 

I don't know that one cover applies more/less paint than another, it's more a product of how it's applied. keeping a wet cover will apply a thicker layer of paint while dry rolling will apply less.

 

They ended up spraying it. It looks pretty good, although they missed a few spots. Is two coats needed when spraying?

 

Spraying normally covers in one coat but it sounds like they missed some so they'll probably need to respray that section. It's possible they can thin down some paint and apply it with a small roller and make it look right.