How to Paint Your Ceiling

How to Paint Your Ceiling

Painting the inside of your home is a great way to spruce up the interior and update your style. However, painting the ceiling of a room is much harder than painting the walls. This causes many homeowners to feel stuck and frustrated because their painting project doesn’t turn out as planned. Luckily, there are additional few steps to follow when painting a ceiling instead of a wall that can make the process much simpler and more successful. Below are the most important steps to consider when painting a ceiling and a few tips from the pros. Remember, if any of these steps seem like too much work for one person, professionals are only a phone call away.

Ceiling Prep

Before the actual painting can begin, a fair amount of preparation is required to ensure that the final product will look its best. Ceilings present their own unique challenges during a painting project. For example, ceilings are more likely to have stains from water damage than a wall. In order to hide these stains and prevent them from creeping through your new paint, purchasing and applying a stain-blocking primer over the damaged or discoloured area is very important. Although the paint job may look great at first without primer, a few months down the road will be enough time for the stain to come through your paint and ruin the appearance of your freshly painted ceiling. After priming, a thorough sanding of the surface is required to that the paint will stick properly to the ceiling. Remember to have any imperfections in the surface taken care of with a filler or new materials before applying the actual paint because repairs cannot be made after the color is applied.

Ceiling Textures

Not all ceilings are made the same way. Although some ceilings are smooth to match the walls, there are textured ceilings that require extra work before painting. There are a variety of ceiling textures like “popcorn” or “knockdown”. It is most common in bedrooms and in hallways, as it hides imperfections under the rough surface. Kitchens can also have these textures ceilings, but they tend to be less porous and less rough in order to make cleaning easier and to prevent grease from becoming trapped in the pattern. Many textured ceilings have never even been painted! The preparation for a textured ceiling involves removing as much dirt as possible, wither with a duster or vacuum.

Since dust or excess dirt can ruin a paint job, many people choose to remove their textured ceiling and replace it with a smooth, easy to clean surface. Removing a textured ceiling is no easy task. Using a trowel to scrape the bumpy surface until it is smooth enough to level out with filler is time consuming and exhausting. Dampening the textured ceiling can make scraping easier and faster, but a textured ceiling that has been painted will be exceptionally difficult to remove since water cannot penetrate the material. This is usually a situation where the homeowners hire a professional.

Painting Tips

Painting a textured ceiling is also different from painting a smooth ceiling. The best technique to use, so that as much of the surface is properly covered as possible, is to apply very little pressure to the roller when putting on the paint. This way, the fibers of the roller don’t get as flattened out and can reach into the tiny indents of the rough surface. A smooth ceiling can be painted much easier and the pressure placed on the roller is not as critical. Generally, medium pressure is considered appropriate. Also, it is very helpful to use paint that specifically mentions that is is for ceilings because these paints have a slower drying time, allowing you to coat an area properly before moving on. Ceiling paints are also less likely to drip from the ceiling onto the floor or on yourself.

The above tips are some of the most important factors to consider when painting a ceiling and will make the whole job go a lot smoother and look significantly better than if someone with no idea what to expect had painted the room. The extra prep time and the decision to keep or remove the texture will determine how long the overall job will take. The longest type of paintjob would include full removal of the textured ceiling as well as smoothing of the ceiling and dust removal after sanding. For painted textured ceilings, a professional would be a wise investment due to the degree of difficulty that is involved in removing the texture.

If you have any ceiling painting questions or would like to get a free estimate, contact us here or call us directly at 239.600.1418.