# Blending popcorn



## dubinpainting (Feb 16, 2010)

Today was my first time spraying a popcorn ceiling. An apartment bulding I do re-paints for had an extensive amount of water damage to the ceilings they wanted me to repair. I scraped the stained area, and mudded where I needed to. Then I applied a coat of stain blocker and today I sprayed the popcorn. I noticed that the area I sprayed did not blend at all with the rest of the ceiling. It looked like two completley different products were used. Since I was just doing areas of the ceiling and not the whole ceiling I could really see the difference. Is there away to make the areas I spray blend better with the rest of the ceiling? Also what product do you recommend using? This is the stuff they gave me to use.


----------



## In Demand (Mar 24, 2008)

I have never had any luck with the spraycan stuff.
I dont repair much popcorn, mostly I just remove it and re-texture with knockdown, but I have been able to use my small hopper and do a few decent blends. I just use the smallest tip and lightly spray the area untill I have the same build-up as the original texture. I dont use any additive, just slightly watered down joint compound.


----------



## brushmonkey (Jan 4, 2010)

They gave you the wrong product. You need "Homax Popcorn Texture Easy Patch" Its good for small jobs like a couple square feet. If your doing whole ceilings your going to need a compressor & a hopper with acoustic mix in a bag & LOTS of plastic for masking off.


dubinpainting said:


> Today was my first time spraying a popcorn ceiling. An apartment bulding I do re-paints for had an extensive amount of water damage to the ceilings they wanted me to repair. I scraped the stained area, and mudded where I needed to. Then I applied a coat of stain blocker and today I sprayed the popcorn. I noticed that the area I sprayed did not blend at all with the rest of the ceiling. It looked like two completley different products were used. Since I was just doing areas of the ceiling and not the whole ceiling I could really see the difference. Is there away to make the areas I spray blend better with the rest of the ceiling? Also what product do you recommend using? This is the stuff they gave me to use.


----------



## johnthepainter (Apr 1, 2008)

"today was my first time spraying a popcorn ceiling"??????

dude, you didnt even spray a popcorn ceiling with that little can of schputz.

get a hopper gun, and a compressor, dial it in on a pc of cardboard, and shoot it.


----------



## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

high fibre said:


> get a hopper gun, and a compressor, dial it in on a pc of cardboard, and shoot it.


This is the best way to go to ensure a nice look. However...


brushmonkey said:


> They gave you the wrong product. You need "Homax Popcorn Texture Easy Patch" Its good for small jobs like a couple square feet. If your doing whole ceilings your going to need a compressor & a hopper with acoustic mix in a bag & LOTS of plastic for masking off.


I agree with BM that if you have to use a can for a small area then this stuff is pretty decent.


----------



## nEighter (Nov 14, 2008)

time patience and a LOT of trial and error. Oh and the right equipment to do the job. Look around. I scored my RTX1000 a couple years back (a $1200.00) machine at the time.. for $540.00. I cannot tell you how many times that damn rig has paid for it's self over and over. I love it. I used to wipe it all down.. I still keep it nice and presentable.. just not as anally clean as It used to be. PLUS customers get chubbies when you bring it out.. it says "I know what I am doing".. but you better have the mustard for the sammy if you know what I mean


----------



## In Demand (Mar 24, 2008)

Your machine might be a bit much for the guy Tater, unless he is gonnna do more then the occasional touch up then a hand held hopper gun would probably a better investment.
My experience doing ceiling textures is all based on trial and error, I bought a hopper at Harbor Freight and started playing with it, read a little online about doing textures, screwed up a few ceilings in my old house before I got it right.
I still use the Harbor Freight gun with the world oldest Rol-Air compressor that I picked up for $50, that compressor kicks ass, it will not die. All together I have $75 wrapped up in the hopper and compressor, the first time I did a job using them I made over $1000, pretty decent ROI.
Around here they call knockdown texture "Spanish Lace" and everyone is crazy for it. I usually do around 10 jobs a year applying knockdown. I have looked into getting a larger machine, but since the majoriy of my texturing is only one room at a time, it just doesnt seem worth it yet.


----------



## dubinpainting (Feb 16, 2010)

Thanks for all the advice. This is just a small time gig a spot here and there nothing to big. I dont think I will be needing a hopper gun or compressor on this job. On moday I will buy a couple cans of this stuff 







Hopefully it works better, Thanks!:thumbsup:


----------



## Capt-sheetrock (Feb 10, 2008)

dubinpainting said:


> Thanks for all the advice. This is just a small time gig a spot here and there nothing to big. I dont think I will be needing a hopper gun or compressor on this job. On moday I will buy a couple cans of this stuff
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Cool, after that don't work either, re-read the previous posts


----------



## Capt-sheetrock (Feb 10, 2008)

I got to thinking, that was a pretty glib answer. 

Patching a popcorn ceiling, is like touching up egg-shell, you can get close, but if they want perfection, you have to do the whole thing. There are several differant size textures, such as USG med is the the same as GoldBond fine. So if you can't tell by looking at it what type it is, you will have to guess (99% use USG med). If you explain that you can get it CLOSE but not perfect, your okay. What I do is the area that has to be scraped and stainblocked ends up bare (right) so spray the bare spot first and get it as close as you can to the original. let it set, then pull back a bit (farther away) and feather the patch into the old ceiling texture. Of course this will all have to be painted, as the old texture is a bit more yellow.


----------



## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

Just like with any kind of touch up it is going to depend on lighting how visible the spot is, how picky the HO is and all the other variables that go into trying to just touch something up rather than just redoing the area.


----------



## Capt-sheetrock (Feb 10, 2008)

another thought,

the stuff they gave you was patch for orange-peel, Why would you try to patch pop-corn with orange-peel?

Not all texture is the same,,, in fact none of it is the same


----------



## Capt-sheetrock (Feb 10, 2008)

NEPS.US said:


> I never see, paint or patch popcorn ceilings, that is until last month. I had a 6x6 area to do and I used the Homax crapola. It makes a mess, doesnt spray well and I had a crap load of wasted cans. 1/2 second bursts and the still blew the gas too soon. The job came out "ok" but if the HO gave a crap what it looked like I would of scraped it down and bought a hopper.
> 
> If there is a next time I will invest in the right tool.


Neps, you can rent one at the local tool rental place, so if you just need it on occasion, just rent it man.

Heres a tip that might help ya. When you have a patch that size, staple plastic up to the ceiling in a 12x12 area (twice the patch size. That will give you a "paint booth" to work in, throw down a drop cloth on the floor and have at it. Patch the spot, let it set and then feather it in to the rest of the ceiling.


----------



## Capt-sheetrock (Feb 10, 2008)

Oh yeah, when you staple it to the ceiling, roll the plastic in your fingers to about the size of a drinking strw, then staple it up with a stanley jt-21 stapler with 1/4" staples. When your done, just pull it down and it will bring the staples out with it.


----------



## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Rob got one of those last year, as much as he sprays, it has been well worth it!
I can see it being handy for RRP as well.


----------



## nEighter (Nov 14, 2008)

Capt-sheetrock said:


> I got to thinking, that was a pretty glib answer.
> 
> Patching a popcorn ceiling, is like touching up egg-shell, you can get close, but if they want perfection, you have to do the whole thing. There are several differant size textures, such as USG med is the the same as GoldBond fine. So if you can't tell by looking at it what type it is, you will have to guess (99% use USG med). If you explain that you can get it CLOSE but not perfect, your okay. What I do is the area that has to be scraped and stainblocked ends up bare (right) so spray the bare spot first and get it as close as you can to the original. let it set, then pull back a bit (farther away) and feather the patch into the old ceiling texture. Of course this will all have to be painted, as the old texture is a bit more yellow.



You have to know what you are doing. Here is a couple pics.. I needed to get these uploaded anyway.. and NOT to toot my own horn, but you CAN do it and it can look really good.. you just have to experiment with different things, look at what you are doing and compare it to what is already there.

Pics:
BEFORE:



















DURING:



















AFTER:


----------



## nEighter (Nov 14, 2008)

btw the any difference you are seeing is the new color.. which was ALMOST dead on to the old. They didn't smoke, and had no candles burning or any other funky burning type deal (bad filters in HVAC) so the match up was dead on.


----------



## Wolfgang (Nov 16, 2008)

3 pairs of ZipWalls and they're probably one of the best investments I've made when it comes to equipment. Used to do the staple routine, but the going up and down ladders and moving them got tiresome. There are times I'll still staple; doorways (in top the trim...unless painted), cabinets ( staple to top) and a few others, but the rest is all ZipWalls.


----------



## nypete0520 (Mar 19, 2010)

It's really funny that they gave you a can of orange peel spray to patch a popcorn ceiling. I'd probably have a little chat with the salesman about that one...


----------



## Rick the painter (Mar 30, 2009)

They also sell popcorn texture in a milk carton -like container.Mix it with paint,and brush or roll it.Its much better that those super-aggravating and rediculously expensive spray cans. I will never buy those g damm things again!


----------



## vermontpainter (Dec 24, 2007)

KLaw said:


> I was just curious on why my stuff got deleted. Acting out? It was a harmless question - or so I thought...


I know you only read your own posts, but alot of posts got removed and edited to keep the thread on topic, which we should be doing right now. Enough about you...lets get back on track, shall we?


----------



## KLaw (May 8, 2009)

Did the OP not get totally exhausted. Let's move on to something more interesting.:yes:


----------



## Sir Mixalot (Sep 8, 2009)

All I use is Sheetrock brand popcorn (depending on the size of the popcorn) it comes in "course", "medium" or "fine" $9.00 a bag. Go to your local drywall supply store.









Here's a couple of pics of a popcorn ceiling repair we did.
*Before:*









*After:*


----------



## KLaw (May 8, 2009)

PeckPainting said:


> All I use is Sheetrock brand popcorn (depending on the size of the popcorn) it comes in "course", "medium" or "fine" $9.00 a bag. Go to your local drywall supply store.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice work.


----------

