# Brush for sand painting ceilings



## cardgunner (Feb 29, 2016)

So here in the northeast, they do a lot of sand painted ceilings. And a lot of hacks do it wrong. Me included once, and only once. I usually shy away from it because it requires me to paint a ceiling with a brush. Very time consuming and tough on the shoulders and back. You can't, or I have not seen it done nicely, with a roller. That was my mistake. My question is in the brush. Is there a better type of brush to use for this? What I have done in the past is buy a cheap one and toss at end of day. It really takes a beating. However the bristles in those cheap ones tend to clog and hold onto the sand paint taking more effort to use them. Maybe a chinex with a narrow ferrule? Thoughts on the best brush for this?

btw: the ceiling is about 60' x 120' and vaulted.


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## Masterwork (Sep 13, 2020)

Painting 7000ish square feet of ceiling by hand? How did you convince them to pay for that? 

I have no idea what sand paint is.


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## cardgunner (Feb 29, 2016)

He wanted


Masterwork said:


> Painting 7000ish square feet of ceiling by hand? How did you convince them to pay for that?
> 
> I have no idea what sand paint is.


I did his sons bedroom and when compared to what others did it was a no brainer.

Sand paint is just as the name says. Ceiling paint with sand. It provides distraction from imperfect ceilings from the drywall finishers. I can't stand them but in Northeast you see a lot of it.


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## Joe67 (Aug 12, 2016)

Sand painting is done on walls too. (I've only every seen it on walls). It's in the realm of faux finish techniques. Often with mottled colors. Gives walls a weird look - almost like they're covered in velvet. There's one neighborhood where I've done a bunch of work where someone was apparently running around doing it a lot at one point. It's annoying on a repaint.


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## cardgunner (Feb 29, 2016)

The Corona Sand Tex, 7". I bought a 4" Chinex as a backup just in case.





Sand Tex™


Quality, hand-crafted paint brushes, rollers and painting accessories for professionals and non-professionals.



www.coronabrushes.com


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

cardgunner said:


> The Corona Sand Tex, 7". I bought a 4" Chinex as a backup just in case.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I don't do sand texture, so I don't wanna pretend I know anything about it. Only suggestion I'd have is to maybe look for a brush with Acme threads, which would allow you to screw it into a roller pole. Your neck & shoulders will thank you. Something like this:

7" brush, Acme Threads


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## fauxlynn (Apr 28, 2011)

Ralph Lauren had a great sand paint years ago. I used it a lot. If it were me, I would not waste money on fancy brushes. Buy a crap ton of large 4” chip brushes. Long bristle. Soft. I’d stand there and hand pick each one. A short bristled, stiff brush will be aggravating.
Roll it on in a manageable size, leaving irregular edges. Brush out as fast as you can, move on to another section. When the brush gets icky, throw it in some water and get another one. Have one in your back pocket for dry brushing(edges, whatnot).

I hope you’re working off a baker, maybe get a helper. I’m betting you’ll have to do the thing in one pass, lest you’ll see a stop line.

I’m in the NE, never seen it on a ceiling. I hope the least you charged was $8000 or thereabouts. Don’t tell us, we don’t need to know.
Good luck.


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## cocomonkeynuts (Apr 14, 2017)

fauxlynn said:


> Ralph Lauren had a great sand paint years ago. I used it a lot. If it were me, I would not waste money on fancy brushes. Buy a crap ton of large 4” chip brushes. Long bristle. Soft. I’d stand there and hand pick each one. A short bristled, stiff brush will be aggravating.
> Roll it on in a manageable size, leaving irregular edges. Brush out as fast as you can, move on to another section. When the brush gets icky, throw it in some water and get another one. Have one in your back pocket for dry brushing(edges, whatnot).
> 
> I hope you’re working off a baker, maybe get a helper. I’m betting you’ll have to do the thing in one pass, lest you’ll see a stop line.
> ...


These brushes are like $10 each, 1" thickness. BM makes a decent sand texture paint under the studio finishes label.


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## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

I’d try this:

(Link) Sand Tex™

Edit: never mind...I missed the post indicating you picked one up already..


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## celicaxx (May 29, 2015)

The stiffest brushes I've found, if you want that, are the Sherwin Williams Proval brushes with the pink bristles.








I've found the 4" versions absolutely awesome exterior brushes. I think some other companies use the same pink filaments, too. I like them as wall brushes with thicker paints as well, but they're a bit stiff for trim brushes.


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## ridesarize (Jun 19, 2012)

If you need a big brush that attaches to a pole, check out Deck Boss on Amaz on . Otherwise I'd go with fauxlynns advice.
Dang big ceiling


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## fauxlynn (Apr 28, 2011)

I’m just going to jump back in with one other thing, if you already know, I apologize. With that brand of paint I used, you could not cut in, it left very noticeable cut in marks. I’m not sure if other brands are similar.


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## PApaints (May 17, 2010)

We've never done sand paint....so I'm not a good resource for this at all....but just to take a guess and ask the question, wouldn't a big heavy brush like a 6" deck brush on a pole be your best approach, or do you need something more fine for the technique? 
If you can, post a pic when you're done. I'd be really interested in seeing it. I never have before.
Is it better looking than just popcorn or texture paint?


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## cardgunner (Feb 29, 2016)

Before








After









I'm not totally happy. I expected to cover the mistakes better. I was mixing a cup and half of sand per gallon of PPG Ceiling paint. It looks a ton better in person. When done right from the start it is a nice covering from imperfect drywall work. Hides the seams. I used the Corona Sand Tex brush with an extension. It worked better and the ceiling was smaller then I thought. Thank god. The brush was good. Would have preferred a stiffer brush. And the brush lost about about 46 of its bristles. After that I was rolled a second coat of just paint.


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## PApaints (May 17, 2010)

That's interesting. I have to agree it doesn't look awesome in the pics...but pics can do that sometimes. I get the idea though. I think from the look of it you were starting off with some not great drywall though. It looked B&R, which is odd to see on new board. I may play around with some different versions of this sometime. Seems like a cool idea.


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## cardgunner (Feb 29, 2016)

pghsteve said:


> That's interesting. I have to agree it doesn't look awesome in the pics...but pics can do that sometimes. I get the idea though. I think from the look of it you were starting off with some not great drywall though. It looked B&R, which is odd to see on new board. I may play around with some different versions of this sometime. Seems like a cool idea.


Yeah it's a bad example of my work. However it was a terrible example to begin with. Regardless It's done. The client is extremely happy.


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## Holland (Feb 18, 2011)

cardgunner said:


> Yeah it's a bad example of my work. However it was a terrible example to begin with. Regardless It's done. The client is extremely happy.


Looks like the first painter tried to roll the sand tex on...

You camouflaged it pretty well. I wouldn't think twice about it if I walked in the room now.


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## ParamountPaint (Aug 25, 2016)

I've never seen anyone use sand paint on new work...only to match existing for a repair. The existing sand texture that you usually see was plaster that was floated until the aggregate (sand, in this case) rose to the surface. You could then pattern it with a final float.

It's a big PITA to match for repairs. Sometimes, we just do a double skim and be rid of the sand texture altogether. Other times, you have to mess with mixing sand into paint and experimenting with the best way to get it on there. Those big masonry brushes someone posted can work, but you might have to let it dry and knife the boogers off. The, you can repaint it with normal paint and see what you've wrought.

I don't know who cooked up the idea, but they need to be taken out to the woodshed. Why would someone want their walls to have a sandpaper texture? Ceilings, I guess, but walls? I can only envision that they didn't want people touching the wall, which I can somewhat relate to, but I wouldn't put mousetraps on fancy chairs to keep people from sitting on them.

The only thing I can divine is that the period for sanded plaster work roughly corresponds to the period when people had plastic cushion covers on the furniture and pink toilets...strange times.


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