Painting Popcorn Ceilings Part II | Southwest Florida Painting

Nov 19, 2014 -- Posted by : ajpereira

Many of you have popcorn ceilings and have wondered about painting them. Last week, we covered one option: painting the ceilings with rollers. Now, we’ll talk about another option: spray-painting the ceilings.

Spray-Painting Popcorn Ceilings

When we have a large ceiling or an entire home to paint, we always spray the ceilings.  There is a lot of prep involved when spray painting popcorn ceilings in the interior of a home.  Anything that you do not want to get paint on must be covered up completely.

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Lights, smoke detectors, A/C vents, cabinets, doors, door handles, windows, sliding glass doors, furniture, carpeting, handrails - you name it, it has to be covered up.  We use a lot of pre-taped plastic that we get from Sherwin Williams, also large drop clothes and sheets.

Once everything is covered up, then seal in any water stains that you have in the ceiling. If you don't, the stain will bleed through the paint. We usually use Cover Stain from a spray can, as it dries in 15 minutes.

When we spray paint ceilings we use Sherwin Williams Harmony in a flat finish.  It is a low VOC paint and does not have the strong odor as it dries.  We always set up our airless outside and run our hose into the home. Be sure and cover up the door and the walkway to the door on the outside with a drop cloth as the overspray will be drawn outside with the door being open.

Be sure and wear goggles, and a very good respirator; do not use a dust mask to do this.  Shut off the furnace or air conditioner until you are finished.

Once you start spray painting, go back and forth from side to side applying the paint to the ceiling. When the room is done, change your direction and spray paint the ceiling again while it is still wet.  By doing this you will fill all the areas of the popcorn. If you just spray paint the ceiling in one direction, the other side of the popcorn will not get paint on it and you will see many areas that you have missed.  However, by applying paint in both directions all areas of the popcorn will be covered.

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Once you have all of the popcorn ceilings painted, close the door, clean out your airless and go to lunch for an hour.

When you walk back into the home, the ceilings should be dry and the overspray should be settled on all of the drop clothes. Plus, the smell probably won’t be so bad so that you have to wear a respirator.

Now you can start painting your walls.  The walls will usually take two coats of paint, especially near the ceiling where you got overspray on the walls.

Contact us if you have any other questions about Southwest Florida painting.

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