repairing ceiling paint

vmccann

Hi, I have radiant ceiling heat (hot water coils) throughout most of my home. The kitchen and living room have popcorn ceilings with multiple cracks and the bath, hall and bedroom have flat painted ceilings that are peeling. Suggestions would be appreciated on how the refinish these rooms. thanks

jsheridan

V, are these plaster ceilings? I'm not sure what to tell you but the one or two times I've encountered radiant ceilings, cracking was an issue. Can't say I've ever seen widespread peeling of flat paint on drywall.

IMO, the popcorn needs to be removed, permanently. Repairing cracks on popcorn surfaces and fixing that finish is a huge headache. If cracking is an issue with radiant ceilings, you're looking at fixing it now and dealing with it again in the future. I would suggest, and Chrisn might be able to further this, that you actually line the ceilings with a wall liner and paint them. I've done jobs in Victorian plaster homes where extensive spider cracking made patching impractical, and the result was plaster walls that looked brand new perfect. There are steps involved in that but if you choose that route you can get the advice to do it here.

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Gymschu

Gotta agree with Joe on this one. Remove the popcorn. That's really the only way to see what's REALLY going on under that stuff that is causing the cracks. It's very possible that someone "pop corned" over a messy/poor drywall finishing job and that could be the cause of the cracks. I don't like the idea of radiant heat in the CEILING area as this could pose all kinds of potential problems such as pinhole leaks, some sort of light condensation, etc. that could contribute to the cracking. Also, it may be something such as poor framing. The builder may have under built the framing to save a few bucks and those floors/ceilings have a lot of movement that could be the source of the cracks. Just my two cents.

Brushjockey

And the heating/cooling of the ceiling causes expansion/contraction.
If the popcorn is is removed, I think it could be repaired to a flat ceiling- but you need to use things with a bit of give.
If not lined, it might need to be skimmed.

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Brushjockey

I have never encountered a radiant ceiling- any one know how they are installed?
Is it like a floor- embedded in a plaster?

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wkearney99

Ceiling heat? Or do you mean there are coils up there for heating the floor above?

Brushjockey

Seems like it would be very inefficient- as heat rises.
Wall panels giving off heat makes sense- (I have invented in my head) a snap together electric system that could be used that way-

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vmccann

thanks for all the thoughts; from what we can tell the coils are sandwiched between sheet rock. When my husband installed a ceiling light he found the double layer. This has been an interesting house; built in the 50's a ranch 3/4 on a slab the an addition put on at some point with a basement connected to the old. The radiant heat actually is pretty efficient just the ceiling issues we have to address as we remodel. I am not sure if there is plaster or just a skim coat then paint, I guess we will find out when we start this project. Question: what is wall liner?

Gymschu

I'm guessing this system runs throughout the home and is actually a FLOOR radiant system. Is it technically in the ceiling? Yes, for the 2nd floor and the 1st floor should have coils in the basement ceiling.

wkearney99

After a bit of STFW, I'm surprised to hear such systems were actually installed, go figure.

This was an interesting link:
http://www.doityourself.com/forum/wa...ks-normal.html

cdaniels

These are quite common In older homes and apartments where I'm from.No they don't heat the floor above...I have seen a lot of them in one story houses.They are not very efficient.

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Charlie Daniels painting and repair

cdaniels

Yes the coils are between two layers of drywall.I used to live in an apartment that had this type of heat.In the place I lived there was plaster over the drywall.Wall liner goes on sort of like wall paper most are for prepping walls for wallcovering but some can be finished with paint.

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chrisn

wall liner

http://www.stevesblindsandwallpaper....all_Liner.aspx


and I have seen this type of heating around here a few times. I treat it like any normal ceiling, get it smooth,prime and paint. The cracks always come back.It is a bad design

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ToolSeeker

I have absolutely no idea if this would work or not. What if you used an isolation membrane like Ditra on the ceiling then used hot mud to float it. They use it over radiant heat in floors so the heat should't affect it. It is used toy keep tile from cracking with small movement like the house settling.