Painting water damaged ceiling w/sand finish

Hi all. I posted awhile back about a water problem I had due to condensation in a tubular skylight. It seems like that problem is fixed, but around the bezel in the ceiling the paint sort of lifted a bit. The drywall seems finel I almost have to say the drywall is probably just for bathroom use. We are planning on repainting the whole room anyways. So like a lot of homes the paint has sand in it, I guess to hide small variations, pretty common, the whole house is like this, I'm sure just sparayed on with a gun.
So for a couple small areas, anyone have advice on how to get it to look good? I was thinking get the areas smoothed down, then blot some sanded paint on to the smooth area with the ends of the paintbrush bristles, then follow up with a roller with sanded paint? I'd hate to have to redo the whole ceiling.

 

Is it a sand finish? or orange peel?

While a sand finish was somewhat popular 30-40 yrs ago, it's not used much anymore. Basically it's an additive that is mixed in with the paint and then brush and rolled on the wall/ceiling. It can be difficult to just touch up sanded texture. I'd try touching it up, see how dries and then re roll the entire ceiling with sanded paint [if needed]

Orange peel texture is probably the most used texture. Basically it's thinned down joint compound sprayed on with a hopper gun. They also sell texture in an aerosol can, I never use the cans but I think they have a 'dial' on the tip to adjust the texture. Often small repairs can be textured using thin j/c and a sponge. Orange peel can normally be touched up.

Are there any water stains that need to be addressed?

 

I really thought it was sand. I even had (17 yrs ago) a small container of touchup which I thought was paint or primer with sand in it. It's dried up a long time ago now. My recollection is that they sprayed all the drywall with this stuff (large compressor-powered sprayers, looked sort of like what they use to paint cars with, you could see overspray on the subfloors before the carpets went in). It feels sort of like sandpaper even. I have even bought a small bag of "sand" I can add to paint, when I needed to some up with more touchup to cover small marks (like moving furniture or appliances in/out of the house and the drywall would get the unavoidable scrape).
But thanks, it sounds like I am on the right track. What I thought was get some paint with sand stippled (SP?) on to the bare areas, then like you said, do an overall sand paint with rollers and hope the texture is good after that. I can post a picture of the area of concern if you'd like. Yes there is a small amount of staining in this same area, should I just scrape that off as well?
Gilly

 

I did a quick search for "orange peel vs sand" and the only thing that comes up is the defect "orange peel" that cars get if the body isn't prepped properly. I am more of a car guy than a DIY guy, and have heard of orange peel in car paint. But never heard the reference to this for a house paint finish. Very possibly they textured the wall as you describe, but I still thought what I have is generically referred to as a sand finish. Mainly used as a way to hide imperfections in tape joints, nail heads, stuff like that. We may be talking about the same finish, it's just that I thought they actually put this sand additive in the paint like I bought at the store.

 

Sand finish is an additive that's mixed into the paint, it leaves a gritty texture. Orange peel texture is similar to the orange peel you get from thick paint sprayed on a car..... only more so and it's achieved with thinned down joint compound. I don't ever recall seeing any sand texture sprayed - I would think it would be hard on the pump and plug up the filters. Orange peel texture is normally sprayed.

If there are water stains, they need to be sealed with a solvent based primer as they will typically bleed thru latex primers/paints.

A pic or two would be nice. Depending on how the pic turns out, I may be able to tell if it's sand texture or orange peel. It's probably been over 30 yrs since I've applied sand texture to new construction..... but different areas often have different standard practices.

 

Here is a link, if the pic is big enough you should see the stain. The small hash marks were made with a red pen to help me tell if the stain was growing or not (it seems to have stopped, been about a week), the bezel is a sun tube (tubular skylight), which had a condensation problem I seem to have fixed. The gray splotch is the drywall, it seems to be a different sort of stuff made for baths and other humid areas as it seems hard, not softened at all.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

 

Here is a link to a fairly close close-up of a wall in our house showing the texture:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

 

That appears to be a sand texture.
I'd recommend using a pigmented shellac like Zinnser's BIN on the water stain and ink mark. Ink is one of the hardest stains to seal but the BIN will take care of it, oil base primer might work ok. Go ahead and make the repairs first, then prime.

 

So maybe that type of texture is just more common here, or maybe was more common during the 90s building boom? Anyways, thanks, i hope I can get just a small quantity of the BIN, I think I have heard of that. The pen mark i just made to see if the stain was spreading, never thought of using pencil or something else, they are tiny marks.
Gilly

 

BIN can be bought in a quart can and I think an aerosol can also.

I don't think sand texture has ever been real popular in the S.E. although it was used on some of the lower priced housing back in the 60's and early 70's. It must be a regional thing

 

Must be, i've never noticed at least a wall finish I would describe as "fish eye". Sand, panelling, wall paper, that's about it. Or a log home like my sister has

It does hide the imperfections though!