# Exhaust fumes dirt on a mechanical shop ceiling



## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Hey Fellaz,

My name is Vulko, newly registered here,working in Vancouver bc.

There's a lot about how I work but in short I want to create a beautiful finish that I'm proud of and do it the right way..The standards I set are always high and I like to tackle difficult jobs - best way to get ahead in any trade I think .

That being said I have a tough job on my hands and vert little time to figure it out.We're talking about:

-Bare wood ceiling at a car mechanic shop
-2500 square feet
-2by4s every 3 feet crossing over the main celing body (for support)
-Heay duty wood supporting beams 

Then we have:
-A ton of electrical wiring for the lights all over the beams (covered in metal tubes ending in el boxes)
-A ton of pipes and steel beams for extra support just under the ceiling

The problem:

Although if you see the place you'd think that access would be the nightmare,that's the least of my worries.We have decades of exhaust fumes on the ceiling and pipes - about 3mm in thickness!

I will be spraying kills once I clean that mess up but before then comes the cleaning itself.And that's my problem.

Off the top of my head I'd use a cleaner and pressurewash the whole thing.But I have ton of el boxes on the ceiling and walls.Thought about masking them off very good and then isnpecting and drying them after where needed.

Another idea would be clean with a sort of machine that pushes heavy pressurised air strong enough to pick it all up....Much like a pressurewasher but with air.It is dust in the end - pretty heavy but dust.Don't know what that machine could even be?Any ideas?

If I did this all by hand it'd take a century so I'm kind of in a bind as I'm bidding and my bid needs to get submitted in a few days.I'm busy on other sites and don't have much time to test options out or find creative solutions.Some help and ideas from my fellow tradesman would be really appreciated right now.

The whole thing is a bitch and I don't imagine a lot of ppl would have met the same problem but I'm sure a lot of you would have something to say so thanks in advance!

Vulko


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## Ultimate (Mar 20, 2011)

Start over.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

Soda blast, or dry soot sponges. Both are expensive, but you do not want to put water on it.


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## cdaniels (Oct 20, 2012)

I've used dry soot sponges on ceilings where there has been fire/smoke damage then BIN primer but that big ceiling of yours would take forever. I'd go with the soda blast.


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## kdpaint (Aug 14, 2010)

Soda blast. Interesting job. I'd love to get updates on this if/when you get it!


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

Talk to Sherwin-Williams about Pro Industrial Multi Surface Acrylic.

Its amazing stuff. We did a muffler shop last summer that was absolutly filthy. All we needed to do for prep was wipe down the loose dust, that was good enough. 
I did several test areas, painting over stuff like slag from the chop saws and even on top of grease to see how well it would work. 
Sticks like crazy glue


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## kdpaint (Aug 14, 2010)

On the SW site it says it is great for "marginally clean and marginally prepared surfaces." I like the sound of this stuff.....


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Thanks for the advice gentlemen!

Kdpaint,I'll make sure I keep everybody here updated about this job.I'd probably be a helpful thread to others as well.

Bender, did you brush and roll or backrolled if you sprayed?I spoke to my salesrep, he's telling me that he won't recommend spraying over even a little bit of leftover dust without backrolling as you need to work the paint better into the actual wood...Which makes sense, but backrolling would be pretty challenging with all I got going on that ceiling.Clean as much as I can and just spray ok in your opinion?

As far as cleaning goes,looks like there are NO sodablasters for rent in Vancouver bc.What if I fill a sandblaster with soda, use a proper compressor and nozzle?There must be sand close to as fine as soda ..Any thoughts?

In the end what if I just sandblast the mother!No wires to worry about as they are in metal tubes, plus the ceiling is so old, patchy and high up that the last thing I worry about is damaging/roughening the wood a little.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

No, we didn't back roll. We did roll one section and the paint flashed pretty bad. Its hard to keep a wet edge with it.

Knowing that you have raw wood I'm not sure that product would be the best choice. It almost sounds like you need to spray kilz it and backroll with a big 'ol 1 1/2" cover.


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Aha, so did the stuff block the grease stains as well??..Good to know about flashing thanks!


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## kdpaint (Aug 14, 2010)

If you cant get a soda blast set up, corn sugar works in regular blast pots. It's a special order, but aviation painting crews use it to remove paint from fuselages. We used it on cedar shakes instead of walnut shell or corn cob. 

Blasting does add an awful lot of variables to a job. You would need air for respirators, reaaaally good vacuums. Maybe do some test patches with the SW product or something similar, and see how it adheres and looks in a few days.


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Yeah it's a challenge...I got the job and as the ceiling is abiout half of it the client agreed to leave the price on it open till I figure out best way to do it...So I'll keep you posted.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

Congrats!


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Thanks.

Btw can you successfully cover heavy water and/or smoke stains with 1 or two coats of oil base paint?

I've heard that on a number of occasions but I always use my blockers and good latex over.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

Update?


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Job is done....

Was going to use a dry ice blaster to clean....Awwwesome machine I swear!

My client went beyond reason on this one though and paid me more to clean it all by hand than it would've cost to ice blast :blink: !

So in the end dry soot sponges, brushes and an air gun to shoot the huge amounts of dust off the beams and into the air....Had to do that a couple times.

As far as products go I used ceiling flat oil and it worked awesome. Again, I had bare wood, water stains, rust, oil, and others of unknown origins.That oil blocked/primed/painted it all nicely with a few minor exceptions.

Bottom line:

I'd done a much better job cleaning with the ice blaster but given the way I was asked to do it I'm pretty happy with the results.

I'll attach before/after pics soon.


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## Red Truck (Feb 10, 2013)

Sounds like a heck of a job. Gotta say oil saved the day. Would like to try that multi surface though - sweet looking job Bender :thumbsup: Wonder how that stuff compares to a dryfall- alot of that is self priming these days but I doubt it would cling to soiled surfaces,etc


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Here's the pictures....I hope they're viewable.

Btw would somebody give me a quick hint as to how to post high res pictures here..the file limit for jpeg is only 117kb...had to play for a while...download a trial version of a converter and all that...hence the crappy logo when you open the pdf...


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

Use an image host instead of uploading here. I like imgur.


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## clermontpainting (Feb 25, 2013)

congrats, it looks great:thumbup:


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## PP&C Services (May 10, 2013)

If you have access to a blasting machine, you can also use black walnut shells to blast it off. We have used it on most everything over the years. You can even blast cardboard and Masonite with the softer grinds that are available.


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

Wow Vulko! That looks stellar!


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## YoungPaint (Feb 20, 2013)

Thanks for your help and praises fellaz, god knows I deserve it !

We did some more stuff here, check it out.


http://properpainting.imgur.com/all/ *Scroll down when you get to the 'after' pics of the offices (the pictures are too tall i guess)


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