What is the best way to do touch up painting to a popcorn ceiling?

Question

And what about covering some areas on the wall where nails, etc. have been before I paint over those sections? By the way, I would need to use a long handled brush or something similiar as my ladder is too hard to use with this (one being it's just slight too short even though I'm tall - I have vaulted ceilings). Thanks.

Unfortunately, my place came with popcorn ceilings. Is there an easy way to fix that and make it smooth? Or does that require a good bit of money and a professional? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can buy popcorn ceiling touchup spray at places like Home Depot. They spray straight up and do a pretty good job but you need to practise first before the real thing. I've actually done it and know it works. If all you want is to paint the ceiling there are special popcorn ceiling rollers also at Home Depot. You can get an extension handle so you don't need a ladder.

Answer 2

I have removed the popcorn from just about every house I have worked on for the last 10 years. No one likes them and the are hard to repair back to original. The reason they are used is it hides all the screw ups from poor construction and allows the home builder to use cheap untalented labor.

Any way, if you want to remove the popcorn simply remove everything from the room, cover the floor with plastic tarps, spray the ceiling with water, no not from the hose, get a garden hand pump spray rig, like for pesticides, ( Available at wal mart for under $10.00) let the water set in for about 10 minutes and simply scrape it off the ceiling. Do not stand directly under the area you are scraping! Do not scrape to hard as you can gouge the Sheetrock, Oh yeah a 12" mud knife works best, but they make a scraper with a long handle and a bag attachment. After it is all scraped, time to float out any bad areas or gouges, primer , then paint 2 coats of flat or ceiling paint. You can rent or borrow a ladder to expedite this and stay safe, short ladders can hurt you.

Answer 3

The BEST way to repair popcorn ceiling is to get a professional. They sell kits to do it yourself, and I'm a pretty handy guy and have a creative bent, but that act beat me up. I could NOT get it right. Plus, word to the wise, follow the directions even if you think it's silly. Like, when it says mask off the area and cover everything in the room and have about 5 feet of masking on each side, and going down. Do it. Got that crap all over everything within about 15 feet. Like a friggin explosion!

As for the walls, that's easy. If the nail hole is pronounced, you want to tap it lightly with a hammer to make it dent in. Then, use some spackle and a wide spackle blade, fill the hole lightly, let dry, then fill again. It helps to sand between fillings and follow up with a fine grain sand sponge. After the paint is on, you won't even see it. Key is to let dry completely between layers. I skipped that step once and the stuff absorbed the paint and I could always see that patch. When I did it right, the repair was unnoticeable.

Answer 4

as we are in new orleans and doing a good deal of work i now feel qualified to answer this. first of all, remove all nails and fill in the holes with wood putty in wood or mud in walls. then once all of the preliminary work is done you can begin with paint and not before if you want a professional finish. i would never have popcorn cielings, but if you must, you can either spray or use a very long shag rolling brush. the devil is in the details and if you do not do the prelim well, it will certainly show that you did not care.

Answer 5

if you get the ceiling too wet, or push too hard on the roller you can cause more damage to the popcorn. You can spray with Kilz and call it done.