# Textured Ceiling Screw Up



## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

Just finished painting a textured ceiling. The home owner told me, I believe, that it had been 20 years since it was painted, which is why it looks grey. The ceiling looks great, but after close inspection I am not sure if the thing was ever primed. Do I need to worry about future failure. 

Others ceilings in the house look the same, and it is tough to tell if there is a really cheap primer on it. Tried to put a wet sponge on it to see if it would absorb water. Appears to not have absorbed any, but the ceiling is almost soft..alot of the textured rained on me when I painted.

It took a lot of paint, but did not suck it up like you would expect a unprimed ceiling to do.

Sent from my SM-A600U using Tapatalk


----------



## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

If it’s a sanded stipple paint such as USG Texolite it is paintable not requiring a primer. We used to do tract houses with a similar sanded stipple product by USG, going straight over it many years later without a primer and never having a problem with it. The perlite material does have a tendency to brush off a bit when it’s disturbed but the paint will encapsulate it, locking it down. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

Biggest screw up there is texturing the ceiling in the first place....IMO the only thing worse than textured ceilings is textured walls. But that's what happens when good drywall finishers can't be found.


----------



## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

I agree. I am painting a textured wall next week. Someone painted it with a glossy paint. So, I have to prime with a bonding primer before I paint it.

Sent from my SM-A600U using Tapatalk


----------



## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

Lightningboy65 said:


> Biggest screw up there is texturing the ceiling in the first place....IMO the only thing worse than textured ceilings is textured walls. But that's what happens when good drywall finishers can't be found.


Do you know how many of those ceilings I’ve knifed down and troweled out a couple of coats of mud on to get rid of that texture? Probably upwards a 100 or so. I’ve still got my father’s 6” Baker black and red handled sanded stipple block brush from back in the 70’s. Given the coarseness of the stipple paste and the probably hundreds of ceilings he did with the one brush, the brush is virtually in new condition. Both he and I being as tall as we were would brush apply that stuff all day working overhead doing 8’ ceilings. Boy did my arm hurt come quitting time.


----------



## Redux (Oct 27, 2018)

Correction, 6” brushes were for the wimps, we used 8”s.


----------



## Krittterkare (Jul 12, 2013)

I would be some flat paints would soak in the texture while others may lay on the surface more. I have done a lot of them and did some that never had anything applied to them that took up to 5 coats to cover. I tried rolling one once and quickly started masking. 
I did one a few years ago that had glitter on it hehe 

Their benefit of the texture is reducing sound reflections so when people want to scrape them and install hardwood or tile floors I warn them the room will sound annoying.


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

Ahhhh, yes. The glitter flecked popcorn or swirl ceiling. Now that takes me right back to the days of Crocket & Tubbs! :biggrin:


----------



## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

Lightningboy65 said:


> Ahhhh, yes. The glitter flecked popcorn or swirl ceiling. Now that takes me right back to the days of Crocket & Tubbs!


I have seen those a couple of times. Cannot imagine trying to repair one.

Sent from my SM-A600U using Tapatalk


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

Pete Martin the Painter said:


> I have seen those a couple of times. Cannot imagine trying to repair one.
> 
> Sent from my SM-A600U using Tapatalk


The nice thing about painting a glitter ceiling is you'll put one coat of paint on it, thinking "gee, this thing is looking pretty good with just one coat". Then you'll step back, looking at the finished one coated ceiling....and there it is. Glitter specks showing through when viewed at certain angles. Another coat, same result. 

On the third coat , your praying none of that glitter pokes through....:sad:


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

I hate to admit it, but in the 80's we did popcorn and swirled ceilings. They were in such demand, we had no choice. You gotta give the people what they want.

I still have a glitter broadcast spreader somewhere in my shop. It's for sale, cheap, should anybody be interested!:biggrin:


----------



## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Lightningboy65 said:


> Biggest screw up there is texturing the ceiling in the first place....IMO the only thing worse than textured ceilings is textured walls. But that's what happens when good drywall finishers can't be found.


Then you’d better never move out west where textured ceilings and walls are the norm and smooth is typically only found in older (60’s back) homes. And it has nothing to do with good or bad drywaller finishers (matching textures when repairs are being done is an art form and much more difficult than attaining a smooth finish), just what regional preferences are.
On a side note - popcorn ceilings are just plain evil and the fact that they became “popular” around the start of the cold war just proves they were part of a Soviet plot to bring our country to ruin. And don’t even get me started on the glitter.


----------



## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Our house, built in 76, had popcorn ceiling throughout. We managed to enlist our realtor to obtain a discreet sample for testing prior to making an offer. Had it contained asbestos, we would have passed. We scraped it down room by room and had it skim coated and textured until the entire place was clear of it.

In the early 60’s, my parents built a new home. I can clearly remember walking into the living room after they had just had a popcorn texture, complete with glitter, applied. They were so proud and pleased. Interestingly, I have never come up against paining one.


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

RH said:


> Then you’d better never move out west where textured ceilings and walls are the norm and smooth is typically only found in older (60’s back) homes. And it has nothing to do with good or bad drywaller finishers (matching textures when repairs are being done is an art form and much more difficult than attaining a smooth finish), just what regional preferences are.


Yeah, I hear you there....very few of my friends west of the Mississippi live in homes with smooth walls and ceilings. 

In the NE US I think there is still a bias opinion that texture is merely a means to hide flaws. Probably a holdover from all the great master plasters that once plied their trade in the East. And perhaps the abundance of adobe in the West has rooted the preference for a textured finish in that area. Maybe I'm over analyzing, IDKlain:


----------



## propainterJ (Jan 31, 2011)

Im in Ca,San Juaquin Valley

I cut my teeth on tract homes and custom homes in the mid to late 80's to 99

I never even heard of a smooth wall finish until about 95 or so

Even at that the boss made us back roll the damned place with 1/2 " pads

We had the worst time in that house with touch up,didnt help the Customer was an eagle eyed maniac who evidently had nothing better to do with his time then look for blemishes on his walls


----------



## Ramus8T (Jan 14, 2020)

From Nebraska here. Most ceilings around here are textured with a crows foot and older homes seem to be riddled with popcorn ceilings. 
Generally flat ceilings have beams around them or a homeowner really wants flat ceilings and pays to have it done.


----------



## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

I dont see what you're worried about..

Alos, I dont consider popcorn to be 'textured.' Popcorn is in a league of its own.


----------



## Lightningboy65 (Mar 12, 2018)

Popcorn walls with shag carpet Wainscot...now that's classy! Add a disco ball and a few velvet Elvis portraits, and you've got yourself a room!


----------



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

Lightningboy65 said:


> Popcorn walls with shag carpet Wainscot...now that's classy! Add a disco ball and a few velvet Elvis portraits, and you've got yourself a room!




I could make more money off these than painting a bedroom for a day. https://www.ebay.com/itm/ENORMOUS-E...721543?hash=item36584db4c7:g:R2AAAOSwYu9d1LNH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## AnthonyFalzon (Feb 24, 2020)

I'm only a (*link removed) but this really doesn't look right!


----------

