We moved into a new house almost two years ago, and one of the things that we haven’t gotten around to doing is repainting the bathroom. In the downstairs bathroom, it was particularly problematic, as the paint was visibly bubbled up in several sections of the bath/shower ceiling. My plan was simply to scrape off the paint, spackle and sand down the area, and just repaint it.
Well, that plan didn’t work. The instant I scraped the paint off, a whole mess of the ceiling came down. It looks like the paint was covering up an old pink ceiling made of some kind of paper lined tile or something? Basically, the pink layer of whatever was covering the ceiling before resembled wallpaper, and then there was about a 1/8 inch of some kind of fragile tile material behind it, and then the actual ceiling material. I don’t know my building materials very well at all, but I assume it’s some kind of plaster, maybe? It has a powdery, sandstone kind of consistency and is reasonably soft. Dig a flathead screwdriver in there and it will make a dent. It also has a tan-grey color to it.
So my little painting project has become a little more than a painting project.
What are my options here? I have the means to have a contractor just do it for me, but if it’s a project that is reasonably doable by someone reasonably handy what do I need to know? Let’s say I just want a simple, flat, white painted ceiling. I assume step one is to scrape off all that paint and tile and get it down to the plaster. Then what would I want to do?
My first thought was to just toss another layer of drywall over it and start over. Then I saw the pictures, that’s going to be a PITA with the ceiling curved, but at the same time, it looks like you’ll be able to get all that down somewhat easily. If you can knock the rest of it off, I’d do that and then look at skim coating it like you would a popcorn ceiling.
Ah, yes, I see only the second picture shows the curve. Forgot about mentioning that complication. Yes, it’s mostly flat, but about six inches from the edges it starts curving a total of about 3 inches vertically from when the curve starts to where it ends. And it only curves along one plane, just along left-to-right not front-to-back, as well.
So, basically, it looks like as long as I get everything off (the edges are going take a little work–it seems the tile isn’t quite as willing to just flake off as it is in the center of the ceiling), skim-coating it a couple times should be fine, and then just paint it over. Any pitfalls to look out for?
Well, the plaster is just a scratch coat or maybe the brown coat, which is not meant to be the final layer. Finish plaster is much more dense and quite hard. They used the scratch coat to support the tiles. Probably the simplest thing would be to find a plasterer who can clean it and apply the final coat. But after all these years the scratch coat might not be open enough to hold the top coat. It will need to be cleaned and re-scored.
I had a ceiling like this. The base was plaster of Paris, which is used on ceilings because it sets very fast. The plaster of Paris is covered with finish plaster and then painted. It looks like yours was painted with a fancy pattern.
Fixing this is beyond most DIYers. There are probably people you can hire in the area who have experience with this.
OK, sounds like something I should call in the troops for, then! I’m more than happy not to have to do this project myself, but I’m sure it would earn me a few points with the wife if I could.
Are you referring to the pinkish layer as tiles? That’s not tile. It’s some sort of plaster.
I would use a putty knife to chip/pry as much of that layer off as you can, then spread a new layer of finish plaster over the rough layer. Probably do a bit of research on what material would be best for that; I haven’t done a lot of plaster repair. But I do think you can do it yourself, although it’s going to be not so much fun working overhead like that.
Sorry. I meant the painted surface. It it just paint. I thought it was some kind of weird papery tile kind of thing, as it resembled wallpaper coming off, but it appears to just be giant sheets of paint.
Well, I feel like being entertained today, so I just laid down the first layer of Durabond 90. We’ll see what happens. Some say don’t use it with plaster. Others say it doesn’t matter. Meh. If it doesn’t work out, at least I’m entertained for an afternoon or two.
At any rate, in case anyone is wondering, this worked out just fine. I ended up just knocking out as much as I could, and where the previous layer was bonded to the plaster solidly, I just left it alone and then built up the area with a bunch of mud to get it level, a few skim coats at the end to smooth it out, sanded the shit out of the curves, and it looks pretty darn good. A lot easier than I expected. Now, will it last? Who the hell knows, but it’s good enough for now!
Oh, sorry. I just thought a plain white ceiling wouldn’t be that interesting. Here it is. I still haven’t painted it–just put a layer of primer over it at the end.
Oh, I hope so, too. I suspect it will be fine. The thing I learned from this project is that now I am attenuated to every fricking imperfection in ceilings and walls (and there’s a bunch in my work, but now I notice that not a single wall or ceiling in my house is as smooth as it could/should be. I mean, like every wall or ceiling.) That said, I did learn how to mix mud and tape joint compound, and that sanding joint compound produces a holy shitstorm of dust (I was wise enough to use a mask, though.)
