Advice on painting a ceiling please

[Penny29]

Hi,

It's a long story but basically we have converted three smaller rooms into one large sejour (50m sq) & have been left with a huge ceiling problem. The ceiling is chestnut planks interspersed with oak beams. Sadly, the previous owners painted the ceilings in two of the previous rooms in various shades of gloss paint & this has proved impossible to move (we even tried industrial sandblasting) so we are left with a room with three different shades of ceiling - grey, cream and natural wood & we have no option left but to paint the whole into a uniform colour.

We decided to give the whole lot a good coating of white emulsion paint (bought from the UK) first - trouble is the paint simply soaks into the wood and at this rate the ceiling will take us months and months to complete.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice on a product/products to use prior to painting? Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

 

 

[Anton Redman]

Heresay / French DIY ? Home Magazines but cheap oil based gloss on everything first them emulsion. Are trying it now on our beams please post in a year to see how it works out.

[Tresco]

Sorry, there is no easy answer;

I would:

Empty the room as much as possible, et least cover large peices of furniture.

Lightly sand the enormous ceiling. Hoover

Paint with undercoat (sous bois)

Sand again, lightly (don't forget the covers). hoover

Paint with your chosen paint - eggshell in english, low gloss would be my choice under these circumstances. It will probably need at least two coats.

I have an appalling repetitive stain injury from 15 years ago, doing ceiling work. It wasn't a house, but a charitable project I took two weeks annual leave to get involved in. Please DO NOT try to do this in a day, or even a week.

I would advise, for any work where you have to have your arm in the air, to only do two hours at a time, at most, with a huge break in between. Please please take note of this, as you will not have any noticeable major ill effects, probably, for 2 weeks, even if you do it for ten hours a day.

The mess and chaos is bad, but, not as bad as the alternative, and you should be done before Xmas.

tresco

 

[Penny29]

Thanks both of you for the advice.

We were hoping to get the work done within the next few weeks before the new floor goes down but, after reading Tresco's warnings, we have decided that this will have to be a long-term project instead (because, after the white base coats have been applied we will need to finish the entire ceiling in two different shades of cream) -  if we are going to be sensible then this job will take us the best part of  4 months! Oh joy!!! But the warning has been gratefully heeded.

[Dave&Olive]

as an amateur cabinet maker, (bit of a norm abrams freak) I use his method a lot to seal porous wood before painting he uses sanding sealer american term in blighty its called shellac will have to find out what its called myself when we move in feb, for plaster I use wicks emulsion for new plaster cheep as chips for a big tub but its wonderful for a first coat good look. try www.axminster.co.uk or rutlands  or go to the screw fix forum for tips

                   hope this helps

                                    Dave  Olives in bed

[zeb]

Hello Penny - we sympathise with you. Hubby painted a ceiling for folks during the summer and after a coat of PVA and two coats of Dulux emulsion patches were still soaking through.

Someone suggested an aluminum primer/sealer (which was brought over from the UK),  so the ceiling was painted a delicious shade of silver and then, praise be, it took the final coat of Dulux very well.

Hubby doesn't want to paint another ceiling for the next five years as that one was soooooo huge and such a bummer! But, the end result is lovely.

regards......helen

PS Tresco - couldn't resist but where is this stain which keeps reappearing!