# New Construction, Spray walls after ceiling is finished?



## CTSNicholas (Nov 29, 2017)

Hello all,

I have been rolling some small jobs and rooms but want to do this new house. The ceiling texture had pain mixed in it so the ceiling is perfect and good to go. Well, I am wondering if I can spray the walls if I just mask 48" of the ceiling along every wall? Has anyone had luck with this or do you just cut the last couple feet to be safe? I assume as long as the tip of the gun stay facing the plastic and wall, then I will be safe from any drift.


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## kmp (Jan 30, 2011)

Yup, you will have drift on the lid.


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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

I prefer to paint walls first then mask walls with 6 foot film. Removing film immediately after spray/backrolling ceilings. Masking ceilings kills my neck and shoulders plus celings can be very unforgiving to touch up. Walls are so much easier to mask too especially if you have a pair if stilts handy. If you do mask ceilings first you can eliminate alot of drift potential with a shield with a extend handle. Position it not where your spray will hit but about a foot and a half out on film to direct the air current away.


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## lilpaintchic (Jul 9, 2014)

Might be beyter off with a power roller...personally, I'd probably cut it all in, spray up about 3 ft shy of the lid and backroll it in. Hard to say....too much missing information.

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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

lilpaintchic said:


> Might be beyter off with a power roller...personally, I'd probably cut it all in, spray up about 3 ft shy of the lid and backroll it in. Hard to say....too much missing information.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


I have never tried that power roller but I'm getting really close to opening up the wallet to give it a try


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

cut and roll the walls like a real painter... want to save time? use an 18" roller.


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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

Woodco said:


> cut and roll the walls like a real painter... want to save time? use an 18" roller.


 Haha, in New construction If your not spraying your not playing. I painted for Schumacker homes several years. Spray is the only way even if you could keep up you wouldn't want too for long.


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## ridesarize (Jun 19, 2012)

If you want to mask the perimeter of the ceilings, a row or two of 12 inch paper, flap the paper down 4 inches by creasing it and taping it on the back side.


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## PNW Painter (Sep 5, 2013)

ridesarize said:


> If you want to mask the perimeter of the ceilings, a row or two of 12 inch paper, flap the paper down 4 inches by creasing it and taping it on the back side.




Great idea. I'm sure you'll still get a little drift, but it should be better than masking it flat to the lids.


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## Haris (Aug 23, 2017)

Lazerlnes said:


> Haha, in New construction If your not spraying your not playing. I painted for Schumacker homes several years. Spray is the only way even if you could keep up you wouldn't want too for long.


We’ve been painting NC homes for about 17 years and we always cut & roll the walls and spray everything else and so do all the other painters I know around here.


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

Hes talking about one house, not a tract of cookie cutters, and while i have done it, masking the ceiling itself is a nightmare. If I was gonna go that route, I would rather spray the walls, then mask 48" down the walls and spray the lid afterwards.

You could use some cardboard sheilds, but there will be some touch up on the ceiling, so I hope thats an option the way they did it. Only do this if its flat paint, btw!

Are the walls at least primed?


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## lilpaintchic (Jul 9, 2014)

He didn't touch the lids. Those were part of the drywall package, finished. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems a few folks missed that part? 

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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

I understood that, I was just wondering if its even possible to touch up the lids if he gets any paint on them. I've only seen that done with popcorn, and if its popcorn, you dont want to mask it anyway.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

This thread has become a complicated solution to a simple problem. 

Determining factors, or logic gate:

1. Just the idea that anyone would spend time masking four feet of ceiling in order to spray eight feet of wall, in a simple house, defaults to brush and roll.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

ridesarize said:


> If you want to mask the perimeter of the ceilings, a row or two of 12 inch paper, flap the paper down 4 inches by creasing it and taping it on the back side.


Done the same but with plastic. Four or so feet out on the ceiling then let the remaining width hang down.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

CApainter said:


> This thread has become a complicated solution to a simple problem.
> 
> Determining factors, or logic gate:
> 
> 1. Just the idea that anyone would spend time masking four feet of ceiling in order to spray eight feet of wall, in a simple house, defaults to brush and roll.




Ain't it so.


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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

Haris said:


> Lazerlnes said:
> 
> 
> > Haha, in New construction If your not spraying your not playing. I painted for Schumacker homes several years. Spray is the only way even if you could keep up you wouldn't want too for long.
> ...


lI have no doubt you could but where I was at all trim was required sprayed and since that is the case it did not make sense to cut and roll with the house already wrapped up like a present


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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

Woodco said:


> Hes talking about one house, not a tract of cookie cutters, and while i have done it, masking the ceiling itself is a nightmare. If I was gonna go that route, I would rather spray the walls, then mask 48" down the walls and spray the lid afterwards.


I'm with you masking ceilings gives me hemroids!


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

Lazerlnes said:


> lI have no doubt you could but where I was at all trim was required sprayed and since that is the case it did not make sense to cut and roll with the house already wrapped up like a present


My standard is to spray the primer, spray the lids, spray the trim, then cut and roll the walls. Minimal masking that way.

You might want to look into this Jet roller. spray and backroll at once, and it keeps the overspray to a bare minimum. It might work really good for cookie cutter two tones. https://www.ebay.com/i/391122480943?chn=ps


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## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

Woodco said:


> My standard is to spray the primer, spray the lids, spray the trim, then cut and roll the walls. Minimal masking that way.


Haven't done NC in forever but that's exactly how I'd do it. 

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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

Woodco said:


> https://www.ebay.com/i/391122480943?chn=ps
> 
> 
> Lazerlnes said:
> ...


 yeah I want to try it just to see how it does. Fortunately my days off banging out new constructions are over. The money was great but when the housing bubble burst I got out of it and never went back. I do probably about 3 a year now.


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## Haris (Aug 23, 2017)

Lazerlnes said:


> lI have no doubt you could but where I was at all trim was required sprayed and since that is the case it did not make sense to cut and roll with the house already wrapped up like a present


We also spray all the trim, slabs and everything else such as railings, FP mantles etc. and cut & roll the walls last.


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## Haris (Aug 23, 2017)

Touching up textured ceilings is a nightmare and it never blends in 100% unless you get the tapers back to re-spray affected areas.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Haris said:


> Touching up textured ceilings is a nightmare and it never blends in 100% unless you get the tapers back to re-spray affected areas.


If that ceiling doesn't need touching, I wouldn't touch it.


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## Wildbill7145 (Apr 30, 2014)

Keep in mind, the OP said that the ceiling texture had "pain" mixed in so it's done. lol. Touching up a ceiling like that would be basically impossible, even if you knew the ratio it was mixed at.


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

I've never had to deal with that. 

Im assuming this is a popcorn ceiling. I wouldnt try to mask that....

Why in the hell wouldnt they do that after the walls had been painted. They'd have to drape the walls anyway to keep the texture off. At least you could touch the walls up.


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## Haris (Aug 23, 2017)

CApainter said:


> If that ceiling doesn't need touching, I wouldn't touch it.


Same here, on a couple of instances while spraying trim dark brown and black color we had a bit of overspray on textured ceilings. Luckily I have close relationship with couple drywall outfits so I called them over to re-texture few spots, bought them a couple cases of beer and all was good.


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## AngieM (Apr 13, 2016)

I second the idea of using the jet roller. The $300 investment will make you money. 

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## CTSNicholas (Nov 29, 2017)

Figured it was worth coming back to chime in on the experience.

Ceiling was indeed finished before walls were painted. Not my preference but it is what it is. The ceiling was hand textured...very good looking, and about 1/2 gal paint per bucket of mud. Normally I get a bucket with the leftovers which is perfect to use for touch ups by just using a paint brush and diluting the mud a little! (Tip for anyone working new construction).

I'm young dumb and able so I did end up masking the ceiling off. I masked one bedroom ceiling off, took about 1 hour 15 minutes to mask off. Took 5 minutes to prime, then 5 minutes to paint. It was very evident that my sprayer was going to make a horrible mess on ceilings with dark paint colors. So that led to me masking every square foot of every ceiling, about 2 days of work then I was able to paint each room the color of choice. In hindsight, this would have been easier to paint before ceiling was even mudded. You can just spray to the ceiling and let paint touch the lid because mud covers it. When that's not an option, I would suggest rolling and cutting if working with multiple colors. If just priming and doing a production color, then spraying still is faster after masking in my opinion. Depends on the corners and amount of fancy drywall work, too.

This would have been probably about half a day faster to roll but keep in mind it was new house so deep texture that I tested out rolling primer on...went very slow getting in the crevices with a 3/4" nap. Local supplier didn't have any 18" covers! I would have done that otherwise.

Finally, I peeled away the masked ceiling (some of it was masked up for 3 days) and had started to drop down. Using the 3m medium surface tape was an absolute joke. Will always use 3m Basic blue or plain old 1 day masking tape for now on for any job that has to resist gravity like that. The 3m blue with orange and with green writing was so delicate it barely held for priming. Primer made it peel back because I'm guessing the tape got saturated in enough water/liquid to lose it's grip. Thanks for the information, good to hear the discussion and I, too, would probably opt for a power roller on the next one if more than 3 colors to do.


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## Lazerlnes (Sep 9, 2017)

CTSNicholas said:


> Figured it was worth coming back to chime in on the experience.
> 
> Ceiling was indeed finished before walls were painted. Not my preference but it is what it is. The ceiling was hand textured...very good looking, and about 1/2 gal paint per bucket of mud. Normally I get a bucket with the leftovers which is perfect to use for touch ups by just using a paint brush and diluting the mud a little! (Tip for anyone working new construction).
> 
> ...


Thanks for the update.Glad you pulled it off without a hitch


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

You should have at the very least, been able to prime before ceilings were textured... Thats some back asswards management. Oh well, lesson learned, and everything worked out, so no biggie.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

CTSNicholas said:


> Figured it was worth coming back to chime in on the experience.
> 
> Ceiling was indeed finished before walls were painted. Not my preference but it is what it is. The ceiling was hand textured...very good looking, and about 1/2 gal paint per bucket of mud. Normally I get a bucket with the leftovers which is perfect to use for touch ups by just using a paint brush and diluting the mud a little! (Tip for anyone working new construction)
> 
> ...


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## CK_68847 (Apr 17, 2010)

CTSNicholas said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I have been rolling some small jobs and rooms but want to do this new house. The ceiling texture had pain mixed in it so the ceiling is perfect and good to go. Well, I am wondering if I can spray the walls if I just mask 48" of the ceiling along every wall? Has anyone had luck with this or do you just cut the last couple feet to be safe? I assume as long as the tip of the gun stay facing the plastic and wall, then I will be safe drift.


You should prime the walls first. This way your walls don’t get too rough when you spray your ceilings. You will then paint your walls after. I typically put one coat of finish and wait until the end of the job to put the last coat on.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

CK_68847 said:


> You should prime the walls first. This way your walls don’t get too rough when you spray your ceilings. You will then paint your walls after. I typically put one coat of finish and wait until the end of the job to put the last coat on.


The OP's intention was to never paint the ceiling because it was already "finished". He was basically asking if he should spray or roll the finish on the walls. I suggested he roll. Others suggested he spray the walls. I just couldn't see any reason to mask off so much of the ceiling to paint so little area of walls. 

Obviously, most production painting recommend spraying of either the ceiling or the walls first (in the case of contrasting colors) followed by masking of one or the other before the final finish. I've found that it is easier to spray the walls first followed by the ceiling, because it is so much easier to drape plastic on the walls than it is to cover a ceiling.


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## [email protected] (Jun 29, 2018)

kmp said:


> Yup, you will have drift on the lid.


I disagree.... if you reverse mask with 48” plastic or even 2 rolls of 12” paper unless you’re just a careless spray guy you should be okay. I always use an adjustable swivel wand so that on my upstroke it is not shooting straight up.
Although in new construction I prefer to spray walls first, then mask ceiling line with 99” plastic.
Spray lid ... pull plastic and wola it’s done.


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## [email protected] (Jun 29, 2018)

CK_68847 said:


> You should prime the walls first. This way your walls don’t get too rough when you spray your ceilings. You will then paint your walls after. I typically put one coat of finish and wait until the end of the job to put the last coat on.


I’ve also done this. But I always run a 360 pole sander with 220 over the walls before final top coat


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## [email protected] (Jun 29, 2018)

CApainter said:


> The OP's intention was to never paint the ceiling because it was already "finished". He was basically asking if he should spray or roll the finish on the walls. I suggested he roll. Others suggested he spray the walls. I just couldn't see any reason to mask off so much of the ceiling to paint so little area of walls.
> 
> Obviously, most production painting recommend spraying of either the ceiling or the walls first (in the case of contrasting colors) followed by masking of one or the other before the final finish. I've found that it is easier to spray the walls first followed by the ceiling, because it is so much easier to drape plastic on the walls than it is to cover a ceiling.


Exactly!!


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## PP& Deco (Jan 20, 2021)

Woodco said:


> Hes talking about one house, not a tract of cookie cutters, and while i have done it, masking the ceiling itself is a nightmare. If I was gonna go that route, I would rather spray the walls, then mask 48" down the walls and spray the lid afterwards.
> 
> You could use some cardboard sheilds, but there will be some touch up on the ceiling, so I hope thats an option the way they did it. Only do this if its flat paint, btw!
> 
> Are the walls at least primed?


He not painting the ceilings they are already finish.


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

What is with the thread necromancy????


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## Masterwork (Sep 13, 2020)

Woodco said:


> What is with the thread necromancy????


Bad website design.


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## finishesbykevyn (Apr 14, 2010)

@[email protected] . Apparently your having a conversation with yourself on a 4 yr old thread. Just sayin.


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## Susan (Nov 29, 2011)

edit


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## jr.sr. painting (Dec 6, 2013)

Csheils said:


> I'd probably take the Ravens for the superbowl that year. But I'm really not much of a gambler.


The bills took care of that last week!


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