Painting - Painting ceilings, but not walls.
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wildbill7145
04-16-09, 10:23 AM
Hey folks,
So, went to a customers place to talk about painting "a couple of hallways, and a ceiling". The hallways were a no brainer, very straight forward. Some patching, sanding, some caulking, priming, paint and away you go.
The "ceiling" was the front hallway ceiling and is textured popcorn finish. Only problem is that it's directly connected to the ceilings of the entire main floor with no breaks! They didn't think it was a big deal to have the entire main floor ceiling done, without touching the walls in any other area of the main floor of the house which is a good size. The really scary part is that the walls in the living room are DARK blue, and kitchen is a darker colour as well.
I tried my best to explain that it would mean moving all/most of the furniture on the main floor, drop sheeting everything, masking all sorts of stuff off. Explained that textured ceilings either have to be sprayed, or rolled with a fairly thick nap roller. Thus there will be spatter running off the roller/spray gun, which could land on the lovely DARK blue walls. Could turn into a disaster.
The ceiling doesn't even look bad to begin with. The long and short of it for me is, that the customer didn't seem to realize the amount of prep work that would be required to paint the entire main floor ceiling without having white paint raining down everywhere. I'm making it sound like a storm of white paint, but if you've painted textured ceilings you'll know what I mean.
On top of that, wouldn't cutting in a textured ceiling without touching the walls be a painfully slow process and incredibly expensive?
I realize this isn't a DIY type question since I'm doing it (or not) for them, but I am looking for any feedback. As well, any responses might help a DIY'er understand whether or not this is a good idea to ask of a painter or do themselves.
I just realized that I can type as quick as I can think...and take far too long to tell a story. Sorry about that. Darn grade 9 typing!
So, went to a customers place to talk about painting "a couple of hallways, and a ceiling". The hallways were a no brainer, very straight forward. Some patching, sanding, some caulking, priming, paint and away you go.
The "ceiling" was the front hallway ceiling and is textured popcorn finish. Only problem is that it's directly connected to the ceilings of the entire main floor with no breaks! They didn't think it was a big deal to have the entire main floor ceiling done, without touching the walls in any other area of the main floor of the house which is a good size. The really scary part is that the walls in the living room are DARK blue, and kitchen is a darker colour as well.
I tried my best to explain that it would mean moving all/most of the furniture on the main floor, drop sheeting everything, masking all sorts of stuff off. Explained that textured ceilings either have to be sprayed, or rolled with a fairly thick nap roller. Thus there will be spatter running off the roller/spray gun, which could land on the lovely DARK blue walls. Could turn into a disaster.
The ceiling doesn't even look bad to begin with. The long and short of it for me is, that the customer didn't seem to realize the amount of prep work that would be required to paint the entire main floor ceiling without having white paint raining down everywhere. I'm making it sound like a storm of white paint, but if you've painted textured ceilings you'll know what I mean.
On top of that, wouldn't cutting in a textured ceiling without touching the walls be a painfully slow process and incredibly expensive?
I realize this isn't a DIY type question since I'm doing it (or not) for them, but I am looking for any feedback. As well, any responses might help a DIY'er understand whether or not this is a good idea to ask of a painter or do themselves.
I just realized that I can type as quick as I can think...and take far too long to tell a story. Sorry about that. Darn grade 9 typing!
marksr
04-16-09, 02:22 PM
It's never fun to paint the ceiling and keep the walls clean. What I'd suggest is to have seperate pricing on your bid, price the hallways w/repairs seperate from the ceiling and then the total. When they see the price breakdown and see how much that ceiling adds to the bill, they may reconsider painting the ceiling at this time but still contract you to do the hallway.
wildbill7145
04-16-09, 03:37 PM
Thanks again Marksr. Yep, I'm hoping that we can just do some colour matching and find an acceptable patching paint for some small areas of the ceiling that require attention.
It would almost be more efficient to just paint the whole room rather than just the textured ceiling! However, that's not in the cards at this point.
What we eventually decided on was that we'd go hourly with a cap. Most likely the ceilings will remain the way they are.
I hope! Thanks again to diy dot com. Best site on the net for getting good feedback and information about your DIY needs!
It would almost be more efficient to just paint the whole room rather than just the textured ceiling! However, that's not in the cards at this point.
What we eventually decided on was that we'd go hourly with a cap. Most likely the ceilings will remain the way they are.
I hope! Thanks again to diy dot com. Best site on the net for getting good feedback and information about your DIY needs!