# ceiling restoration, bad ass



## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

this took an extreme amount of manhours, and a loooooot of sand paper, all well worth it


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## TheRogueBristle (Mar 19, 2010)

That's a big improvement. Did you use any wood bleach after the sanding? 

That's a lot of difficult work over head, especially with the v-grooves. Nice work.


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## TDTD (Jun 10, 2010)

Quaid? said:


> this took an extreme amount of manhours, and a loooooot of sand paper, all well worth it


Wow! Nice work! Curious about a couple of things;


What type of finish is it?
Did you spray, brush, or roll it on?
How many sq ft and what did you charge?


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## WisePainter (Dec 27, 2008)

Well done! That is tough work and it looks much better.

I hope those were taken on your phone, otherwise...


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

I did that once. Exact same thing. holding a sander above your head the whole time is a bitch.

I don't think I will ever do it again.

Your results look excellent.


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

TDTD said:


> Wow! Nice work! Curious about a couple of things;
> 
> 
> What type of finish is it?
> ...



thanks for the complements. oh, and this is probably less than a 1/4 of the whole ceiling. it was so much work.
Ok, I used Sikkens Natural, 1 coat cetol1, two coats cetol 23plus.
We brushed all coats
Cant tell you what I charged, Im not that easy, but it was up in the thousands. 

First, we sanded with random orbitals with 60 grit. It seriously took about 5 min to do less than a square foot, the urethane was on there in great shape. who ever did it, didnt prep correctly, so all that mildew is in the wood, under the finish. 
After that, we low pressure washed it with Cabots wood cleaner, followed by cabots wood brightener. 
After letting it dry, we sanded again with 100 grit, and by then it looked like a million bucks. then we stained with the sikkens, 24 hrs between coats
Ill tell ya, after a few min of that sander over your head, your whole upper body starts to burn, and youve barely sanded anything. after a couple hours you dont even think you can continue, but you have a mile left. Im in really good shape, and very experienced, and I underestimated the hell out of how much this was gonna hurt. 
Oh, and I would def do it again, because I made a boatload of money and everyone who sees the pics (not to mention the HO), is f-ing blown away at my results


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## TDTD (Jun 10, 2010)

Quaid? said:


> Ill tell ya, after a few min of that sander over your head, your whole upper body starts to burn, and youve barely sanded anything. after a couple hours you dont even think you can continue, but you have a mile left. Im in really good shape, and very experienced, and I underestimated the hell out of how much this was gonna hurt.


I think if I had to do a job like this I'd set up scaffolding with a plank about a foot and a half from the ceiling so that I could lie on my back, support my arms on my chest and just wheel myself around the room if you can picture that. :jester:


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## ProWallGuy (Apr 7, 2007)

One word of advise:

Invest in a decent camera.


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

One word of advise:

Invest in a decent camera.

I appreciate the advice, but I have a great camera, just didnt have it on me when I posted this (actually, the first two 'before' pics are taken with the digi camera' figured you guys would get the general Idea of what the finished product looked like, if you would like I can post the pics from my digi on here, but that would require walking out to the truck, and since im a painter im a little too tired and buzzed to do that right now.

"I think if I had to do a job like this I'd set up scaffolding with a plank about a foot and a half from the ceiling so that I could lie on my back, support my arms on my chest and just wheel myself around the room if you can picture that." :jester:

yup, we actully did that with my baker staging. My employee actually really liked that method. I found that it was more comfortable for me to work off the ladder. Trust me guys, we tried EVERYTHING we could think of to make this easier, and it still came down to just sucking it up and sanding in horrible pain


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

Quaid? said:


> Trust me guys, we tried EVERYTHING we could think of to make this easier,


Did you try sandblasting it? Dry Ice? Corncob? :brows:

What about mounting a belt sander upside down onto an adjustable platform sitting on top of the scaffold then nudging the scaffold along?

You can't possibly have tried EVERYTHING.


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## johnthepainter (Apr 1, 2008)

i would have 20 yr olds do this for me. just looking at these pics has irritated my rotator cuff, and put a kink in my neck.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

high fibre said:


> i would have 20 yr olds do this for me.



That's true. I believe God invented 20 year olds for exactly such tasks.


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Last Craftsman said:


> That's true. I believe God invented 20 year olds for exactly such tasks.


word. my back wouldn't take a day of doing that.


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## aquacaldo (Jun 25, 2010)

Nice work dude. I did that on my porch last summer. Its cool when it looks like a floor on your ceiling.


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

Last Craftsman said:


> Did you try sandblasting it? Dry Ice? Corncob? :brows:
> 
> What about mounting a belt sander upside down onto an adjustable platform sitting on top of the scaffold then nudging the scaffold along?
> 
> You can't possibly have tried EVERYTHING.





high fibre said:


> i would have 20 yr olds do this for me. just looking at these pics has irritated my rotator cuff, and put a kink in my neck.



everything thats actually feasable, and i wasnt gonna sub out the blasting when we could just man up and sand it. the belt sander thing is just rediculous, sorry. and im 25, so im kinda still in that range


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## Romanski (May 4, 2008)

suuuweet!

I usually use helmsman satin on my T&G clear coats.

Going to have to try the sikkens soon. Hopefully my NC job next month has some.


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

Romanski said:


> suuuweet!
> 
> I usually use helmsman satin on my T&G clear coats.
> 
> Going to have to try the sikkens soon. Hopefully my NC job next month has some.


thanks man. Ya, i hear a lot of people bashing sikkens, but Ive been using it on various projects for 6 years now, and I love the stuff. Its hard to beat the look of that finish, and it has a lot of lasting power due to the fact that the stain actually has a thick film it builds up as you apply


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## boman47k (May 10, 2008)

> First, we sanded with random orbitals with 60 grit


What speed setting?


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## Quaid? (Mar 13, 2009)

boman47k said:


> What speed setting?


the highest speed


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## TheRogueBristle (Mar 19, 2010)

We did about 1200 square feet of new, 3 inch fir soffit and porch ceilings on a modern house that all had to be sanded before finishing to remove fingerprints and lumber crayon marks. Some of it was at hard to reach locations and awkward angles. I agree with Quaid- after trying a lot of different thing is just came down to sanding overhead, sucking it up and feeling the burn. Granted, we were only using 120 grit and not removing layers of old finish, but in that position it felt like you could only do about 3-4 square feet before you felt like you needed to stop. We used Cabot's clear solution and a cup gun, looked great.


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## TheRogueBristle (Mar 19, 2010)

Looking at the pictures again and seeing the mildew and thinking of all the fingerprints on my new work, I am thinking I am in favor prefinishing wood for clear ceilings. PITA for the carpenter, I know, but what an amazing amount of work if something goes wrong. No offense Quaid and I'm glad you got the work, but I may have sooner suggested replacing the ceiling than doing what you did. Kudos to you for toughing it out.


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