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Painting textured ceiling

44K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  meiersenterprises 
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#1 ·
Looking for tips and advice about the best way to paint a textured ceiling. We've done a couple rooms so far and are attempting the living room soon, problem is lots of specks fall off and lose the texture. It's been a pain in the a**, so there has got to be a better way than loading up the roller and rolling it. I've looked into airless paint sprayers but am not convinced those would work better. I've also heard of roller 'techniques' where you just roll over the area once and let it dry, then repeat. Does anyone have experience in this? Much appreciated!
 
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#2 ·
Done it many, many times. You are going to lose some popcorn no matter what, however you can reduce it down to almost nothing with the proper roller cover, paint and technique.

Get a roller cover that is designed to do pop corn ceilings. It is really fat and made of foam and has little cuts all over it.

Use paint that will cover with one application, because the secret is to roll only over a spot once.

Technique is as said minimize rolling over a spot more than once, you want to just roll over without going back and forth, back and forth.
 
#3 ·
Another good technique to use is I spray it down with Zinsser's GARDZ. Protect everything in the room, carpet, furniture, etc. with plastic or dropcloths. Tape and mask off the walls at least 3' down from the ceiling. Also wear a hat and eye protection. Use a garden pump-type sprayer. Pump it up to full pressure and evenly spray the whole ceiling. After it dries about 4 hours or so, you can paint it no problem and it will only lose a tiny bit of popcorn.
 
#4 ·
The only way to paint textured or popcorn style ceilings if not using a sprayer is to roll in one direction and if needed a second coat then roll the ceiling in the other direction or cross direction. No matter how you do it just remember to only roll in one direction for each coat your going to apply. Use a nappy roller or similiar preference.

How much of the paint you will lose on a popcorn ceiling will be determined by how you apply the paint and how it was oringinally installed. If the popcorn was installed mixed with water then good luck. If it was originally mixed with paint then it will be much more durable and will be a little easier to work with.
 
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