# "Whitewashing" T&G Ceiling



## Eagle Cap Painter (Nov 14, 2016)

Repeat customer has asked me to brighten up their tongue and groove ceiling and darken the beams. The beams are just getting a darker stain, but they want some translucency in the ceiling coating to let the grain and knots show through. The pictures she dug up on Pintrest and GIS had a bit more shine than I would expect from ragging off thinned white latex, so my SW rep recommended Woodclassics oil stain pickled white and a WB poly topcoat which I worry might be too shiny (and more labor-intensive than the HO is looking for). Spraying's not an option, so I'm planning on rolling in the Baker scaffold and playing DaVinci for a few days.

Any thoughts on this or things I should be wary of? It's about ~650sqft with the peak at 22'.


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## ridesarize (Jun 19, 2012)

Looks like a tremendous amount of work. You have to sand down all the ceiling to raw wood right? Curious if you really mean a few days.. or like 10 days.

Seriously hope you don't have to work around furnishings and everything in there. Seems at the point where there's that much surface area to work on, you need the area cleared out. Then at that point you could easily plastic down the walls and spray. 

Well, it's still not _easy, _but comparing the spraying to brushing it out....


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## Roamer (Jul 5, 2010)

If you are pickling the ceiling spraying is not an option.

OP: you can probably get away with the white stain alone without the poly top coat.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

We did this one 2-3 years ago. We used streaight Regal Select and let it set for a couple minutes then ragged it off. Ceiling perp was sand back to bare wood and then hit with paint.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/CD-Painting-of-Newburyport-141180039332655/photos/?tab=album&album_id=656195134497807


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## Eagle Cap Painter (Nov 14, 2016)

Their question is going to be "what's it going to look like if we skip sanding and just rag off the new coating?" It's a [sparsely] furnished area and I did the walls in December, so it's going to get masked and dropped anyway. I do need an excuse to buy a DTS400, but an extractor's not in the budget this year.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

Eagle Cap Painter said:


> Their question is going to be "what's it going to look like if we skip sanding and just rag off the new coating?" It's a [sparsely] furnished area and I did the walls in December, so it's going to get masked and dropped anyway. I do need an excuse to buy a DTS400, but an extractor's not in the budget this year.


If you go with a paint and rag it off without sanding I am pretty sure there will be a bonding issue. 

You really do need the DTS400 for this. We used our Ro90, RO125, RTS400 and a dewalt (I know it's a pos but all we had for small square sanders).


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## Eagle Cap Painter (Nov 14, 2016)

Love my DeWalt drivers, but I have probably the same sander you used and it does suck. At this point, I'm going to give them a couple options and just bid it T&M. Would the DTS400 and a pile of low-grit paper be enough for this or was the rotary a must to strip it bare?


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

Eagle Cap Painter said:


> Love my DeWalt drivers, but I have probably the same sander you used and it does suck. At this point, I'm going to give them a couple options and just bid it T&M. Would the DTS400 and a pile of low-grit paper be enough for this or was the rotary a must to strip it bare?


I had my crew do it so i can't say.With the different sanders we had a few boxes of 50 sheets, I believe it was 100 grit, we may have used 60 to start then 100 to follow.

We charged T&M for sanding. 4 guys 2 days. Off the top of my head the total was somewhere around $3,000-$3,500 all said and done.

The dewalt sander we had was a cheap one, cost us like $35.


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## ridesarize (Jun 19, 2012)

Eagle Cap Painter said:


> Love my DeWalt drivers, but I have probably the same sander you used and it does suck. At this point, I'm going to give them a couple options and just bid it T&M. Would the DTS400 and a pile of low-grit paper be enough for this or was the rotary a must to strip it bare?


I need an excuse to get a dts 400 also, I'll come help sand.... then I'll leave the whitewash for you. :smile:

I would say if you sand that ceiling down, the orbital is a must for the flats. 
Any shop vac attached to the sanders is better than none. 

To some people looking for festool dust extractors... the used market has them if you get lucky to find one and at a good cost. I've bought two midis, both used and although they look used they work flawlessly and were spotless inside the machine.
The first set I got was a RO 150 feq and a Midi, both for 325. The second, I bought a midi for 300, and a RO 150 feq and case for 320.


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

Screw that sanding noise. Get yourself a good carpenter/framer and ask how much he'd charge to remove T&G and install new ones. 

I personally hate sanding stuff back down to bare wood. If it's small and flat, no big deal, but holding the sander up above your head for hours and then day after day...thanks but no thanks.

A new piece of T&G, assuming normal size of about 6 inches wide, covers about 6 sqft. Just add your 10% for waste, get a price and tell them they'll rip them all out, put new ones in. Sub that section out. Pre-finish before you install, fill nail holes, and collect a check. 

Unless you charge Time+ you'll regret giving a set price unless it's super high and "worth" it.

Edit:
When people do Time+ or Time & Material or Cost+, whatever you want to call it. The Customer still wants a "ball park" figure. Once you give one..it better be pretty close or higher than you think because they'll want you to stick to around that number...because it's a number.

Customer's don't want to have to write a blank check and just fill in the amount at the end.

Approximates are always a negative unless your prepared, because people will want you to be right in that "approximate range". Outside, to the upside, you'll run into a dispute or a bunch of moaning and groaning. 

Just thought I'd put my 2cents in.


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## Eagle Cap Painter (Nov 14, 2016)

First pass with an acrylic glaze came out looking okay I thought:


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## lilpaintchic (Jul 9, 2014)

cdpainting said:


> We did this one 2-3 years ago. We used streaight Regal Select and let it set for a couple minutes then ragged it off. Ceiling perp was sand back to bare wood and then hit with paint.
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/pg/CD-Pain...55/photos/?tab=album&album_id=656195134497807


Yup, I did on 10 years ago or so...didn't do much by way of prep but there wasn't much sheen to start with. We called it "stainting". Lol, turned out great, did just the same thing as you did some green mossy color....if the ho wants white or off white, I'd probably be looking at gripper, seal grip or 123 primers and ragging that off vs an actual paint product. Just tint the primer, it'll bite... Maybe throw a bit of ceiling flat in the mix to kill the sheen....going for bite and color not longevity of a protective coating though on an interior surface longevity wouldn't be a problem with the application method cd mentioned.

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