repainting textured ceiling? UPDATE -- done, but broke ceiling fan :/

[patandchickens]

The living room and hallway ceilings in our house are that rough-textured finish, you know, very pointy and rough? (Not the 'i made swirls and curves with my trowel tool' type textured)

The house is old enough that it's not entirely impossible there may be asbestos content in the texturing, altho *prolly* not. Not affording to have it lab-tested. But don't want to damage it, just in case.

But the ceiling is FILTHY, some previous owner of the place evidently used the fireplace without opening the damper and got lots of black soot stains all over the upper walls (cleaned/repainted when we moved in) and stone fireplace (cleaned as best I can).

I was kind of putting this off til my husband retired, since it doesn't bother me that much just living here, but now it looks like the house may be sold much sooner and I think I'd better quit procrastinating. It's a good cool-summer-day type project, anyhow.

How much trouble am I going to have with the texturing material softening and falling off? (There is NO "inconspicuous" place to test first).

Can I just use primer (b/c ceiling is so filthy), maybe have it tinted lightly cream-colored, and roller that on and call it good? As opposed to using actual paint as such.

Any tips? I've painted ceilings before, of course, but never *textured* ceilings.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[savingdogs]

I painted textured ceilings in my last house, they came out great. It was not old but it had been painted on by teenagers who wanted deep bold colors. I used Kilz paint first and was able to paint right over. That product works great! I would prime it if I were you and then put on your color. It worked best to roll it with a roller designed for textured ceilings, I just bought one and it really helped.

 

[sufficientforme]

I have removed all the popcorn ceilings in my house, they were the rough texture. Here are my findings, you will probably have no issues painting them without the texture falling off, the key is to use a roller and not re-roll over your previous strokes, that is the only peeling I had is after I removed the popcorn the seams peeled if the roller did that. By painting them you will have a rough go if you ever decide to remove the texture but since you are selling I would not worry about it. I would buy the paint with the built in primer and save yourself some work!

 

[MorelCabin]

You can definitely get away with just priming if that is what you want to do. Buy a good premer/sealer and it will cover all the stains very well. I have often just primed my ceilings instead of priming and painting. You are probably talking about popcorn ceilings...we have them again in this house we just purchased...I don't like them, but if they are clean, they are livable.

 

[patandchickens]

Huh, now I was just talking to a friend (who, admittedly, is of the "why bother reading instructions first?" type persuasion, but still, does a lot of stuff around the house and is not a complete idiot, certainly has done plenty of utilitarian painting) and she says she tried painting this type ceiling on her house twenty years ago and it totally fell off all over in huge gruesome splats. Her adult daughter was present and corroborated the story, with plenty of details of what a person looks like with failed ceiling-texture all over their person

So now I am confused. Perhaps there are different types? Or perhaps my friend just did something weird? I dunno. But now I'm worried about it again.

Anyone know more about this? IS there more than one type, some more 'moisture-soluble' than others or something?

I just canNOT afford to have the whole ceiling go splat. My friend says she ended up putting decorative tin over the whole thing (it's an old victorian house so it suited)

Pat

 

[SKR8PN]

A WAGNER POWER PAINTER is your friend in situations like this.

SPRAY it, do not roll it. If you DO spray, make sure you use the "fast dry-no overspray" type of paint.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I was gonna suggest spraying it also. I aslso asked hubby what ype of situations might make that type of ceiling come down, and he couldn't think of any. maybe your fireds ceilingwas old and cumbly anyways,? considering it was an old vic?

 

[patandchickens]

A WAGNER POWER PAINTER is your friend in situations like this.

This is something you rent at a rent-a-tools place, or what?

SPRAY it, do not roll it. If you DO spray, make sure you use the "fast dry-no overspray" type of paint.

If I spray, am I going to have problems with the fact that it's a large and furnished room that I just CANNOT vacate and probably can't cover all the walls, I can put plastic over the part of the floor I'm actually working over but that's about it? I.e. how much spray drift/escape is there going to be? I know NOTHING about spraying paint (well other than shake-the-can-til-it-rattles-then-hold-upside-down type thing )

Thanks,

Pat

 

[MorelCabin]

if it is solid, it is very unlikely that it would come down from rolling it

 

[patandchickens]

To clarify -- it wasn't the whole ceiling that came down on Susan (not plaster or drywall), it was the texturing material. Apparently it took leave of the underlying plaster-or-drywall-or-whatever and just dropped off all over.

Pat