Hi everyone,
Great forum! New user and hope to contribute as well as take on some more DIY projects with your input.

Recently, I had some hairline cracks in the popcorn ceiling (concrete) in my condo. The developers contractor came in, scraped the old popcorn off, patched with drywall compound, sanded the patched/repaired lines and used Ruff-Tex and a wagner powertex to repair the areas.

The condo is only 1.5 years old and the unit has never been smoked in so I was surprised the shading is so far off. Here's an upside down picture of one of the areas.

So now I have to bring in a pro to fix it, hopefully.

My question is whether I could get away with just re-sparying the popcorn on the whole ceiling to get a uniform shade, or maybe even paint on a flat ceiling paint?

Any ideas or input is greatly appreciated,.

Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums Paul!

Hopefully they used drywall tape when they repaired the crack.

It isn't uncommon for ceiling texture [especially popcorn] to get a little 'dirty' especially if you have a forced air heating system. Feathering out the texture over several feet may have made the repair less noticeable. Either texturing the whole ceiling or painting will make the repair disappear providing the repair is flat - no hump or dips. IMO painting is better. Paint will seal the popcorn and prevent the moisture in the air from deteriorating it over time.

 

IMO, the second picture shows a not so great job matching the texture. While I agree painting will help due to the color differences, I think you're still going to see this even if you paint.

 

Yes, great tips- thanks!
Nope, he didn't use tape under the drywall patch.

my goal is to somehow match the areas where texture is off and then proceed with spraying the ceiling using a flat ceiling paint and an airless sprayer.

I know this can get messy but with the feedback seeming positive I'm good to go with it.

 

No tape? Ugh. Don't be surprised if the crack comes back.

 

[HR][/HR]I guess the other question is should I spray on a sealer/primer before spraying the ceiling paint?

 

I should just remove his work and start over with proper tape and prepping.
Oh boy, just when I thought it was easier getting someone else to do it.

 

Someone got paid to do this, I would follow up with them first.

 

Yes I followed up with them. It was part of warranty wrk so I personally didn't pay. But I don't see them following up with another repair. I will have to see what they say.

 

If they just filled the crack with joint compound - it will return!!

There isn't a big benefit from using primer on fairly new popcorn texture - I'd just give it a coat of flat latex paint. I'd also roll it using a 1" roller cover. While I'll spray a popcorn ceiling on new construction, the cover up and clean up involved with spraying in an occupied house makes spraying too time consuming. Any door openings that aren't sealed up tight can allow overspray to come thru to other areas of the house

One thing if you do decide to roll, don't over roll the paint! If the texture gets too wet, it can dissolve and come off with the roller

 

Good point, I think the roller should work great and then I don't need to drape every wall and floor as intensely.

As for stripping and taping, I'm on the fence. We are planning on selling in a year but cosmetic appearance is important. I may as well just do it properly.

 

How did they fill the crack? Sometimes you can get lucky with caulking but the correct way is to scrape a wide enough area so you can tape and mud the crack.

 

Thank you fr the very valuable tips.

One last question:

how wide should I go when scrapping off the repaired popcorn areas?
4" putty knife? OR...

go ahead and remove all the extra feathering of popcorn he did on the repair, about 6" wide.

 

I would want to go at least 7" that allows you to apply the tape with a 3"or 4" knife and a 2nd coat with a 6" knife. Normally you apply 3 coats of j/c using a 10"or 12" knife for the final coat but you can cheat a little when it's covered with popcorn [that's why builders like it]

 

Very good!

so the game plan would be as follows:
-Wet popcorn and scrap off 7" wide path following original cracks
-tape and joint compound x 2-3 coats with a 6" knife
-sand smooth and prime patched areas
-use trusty Wagner powertex to respray new popcorn texture.
-depending on how close shading is, following up with flat ceiling paint x 2 coats.

Yay, it will look great when done.

 

If you go with 3 coats you'll need a wider path. Each coat gets floated out further than the previous. When I finish drywall, I normally tape with an angled 3" knife, 2nd coat with a 6" and finish with a 10" knife. If you do a decent job with 2 coats, you can skip the 10" knife, if not, you'll need a wider path to apply the mud.

 

If I were you, I would try painting a section first and see how it looks. You are looking at a lot of work for a DIYer. If you do decide to procede with scraping etc, make sure you scrape wide enough to get rid of the previous patch. It looks like 18-24". Also you need a good compressor backed spray rig. (You can get a good hand held for under $100 but you still need a compressor

 

Thx again for the tips.

I've started painting a test section and it looks promising.
One area is not matching texture and I'm wondering if I can use the sponge or plastic bag application technique to get that small, 1ft, area to gradually fade in a matching texture?

I'm using the dry synko ruff tex stuff.

Paul

 

It's normally sprayed but you might do ok with a sponge.

 

Texture like that is available in a can and I like to practice on cardboard or other scrap material to perfect my technique before moving to the actual work surface.

 

As no one has mentioned the type of mud yet; links given in post #6; http://www.doityourself.com/forum/pa...ml#post2090738

From the second link; "Fill offsets or voids with a SHEETROCK Brand Setting-Type Joint Compound. Apply additional coats of SHEETROCK Brand Setting-Type Joint Compound
as necessary, after each coat has set, but not necessarily dried. After final coat of joint compound has dried, apply undiluted coat of SHEETROCK Brand First Coat or a good quality latex flat wall paint with high solids content over entire surface and allow to dry. For textured ceiling, apply SHEETROCK® Brand Ceiling Spray Texture–QT in a uniform coat at a rate not exceeding 10 ft.2/lb." I have three different brushes for their individuality. Try one with close bristles and very soupy mix, with a little softer flicking (the cans are pricy when you do small repairs occasionally). Matching a textured wall finish - YouTube Hope this helps.. ps. try painting it first, may look better than worse...

Gary