We taped the ceiling to paint the walls. The ceiling paint started coming off with the tape. Does this look like mold.
We just this house a couple months ago. No discoloration in the paint.

 

Nope. It looks to me like rusty metal lathe bleeding through the old plaster from a water leak.

There is no "paper" there.

 

Forgive me as I am a new home owner and young at this stuff. House was built in 1979. I don't think the walls are plaster but drywall. If it's not mold. How would I go to repair this.

 

Just spackle over it and use what you need to match the texture. A coarse sponge and some sand mixed with the spackle would prob do it. Wet the substrate first so it doesn't suck all the moisture out of the spackle.

 

.... and learn not to rely on tape! Get a good paint brush and practice, you'll be slow at first but the speed will pick up and any errant paint can always be touched up like you'll have to do with the repair. A 2" sash [angle] brush works well for beginners.

I'd use joint compound for both the repair and the texture [thin it down for texture] I've never used spackling for texture so I'm not sure how well that would work.

 

From the close up picture there are three crack lines running through the exposed material. You can then see those lines continuing across the ceiling a bit in both pictures. What that is indicating to me is the plaster was damaged at some point by (probably) moisture as mentioned and that is why it came off with the tape.

Two problems. First is identifying the source of the damage. They probably painted over that ceiling before selling.

And two, your repair should extend to include all of those crack lines.

I don't work with plaster way up here in the north, but that does not look like drywall. If drywall, there would be paper from its covering and tape in the corner. Plus the exposed material would be rather soft.

The others are more familiar with repairs on plaster, but I would want to stabilize those cracks before I cover and finish.

Being a ceiling, is this on an outside wall and what is above the damaged area?

Bud

 

This area is above my dining area, I. The center of the house. On the other side of the wall are 2 bathrooms. Above I am not sure. But it's does not touch the outside. I took more pics. Also it indeed is hard, like a rocky substance.


This is the tape that pulled the paint.


This is area of the house. If you can see, they have repaired something there. I figured all it needed was sanding and texture. But I'm beginning the think it's going to be more of that. We belive there used to be a room in this area. Removed walls to open it up. And never finished the ceiling correctly. Here are more pics

 

Being able to see the outline of a sheet of drywall is a tell tale sign. I'm fairly certain that a plaster house built in 79 would be a plaster veneer over blue board [drywall] While the first pic does look odd, the next pic looks like drywall.

 

My poor eyes are struggling to see those faint lines, but agreed there is more to this than just what the tape removed.

If that is an AC duct in the ceiling they and all associated ducts are notorious for condensation, ie water problems. Is there an attic above this ceiling and if those ducts are up there are they sealed and well insulated. Leading question, because if you haven't done it, they are not. A leaky duct can create a cold spot where hot humid air can form condensation.

I agree with Mark, the 4x8 outline sire looks like drywall, but wonder if it was original or part of a larger repair.

Also, a bathroom above could be a source of water.

Bud

 

The ac ducts where replaced not very long ago. All the way from. The ac compressor to each room. The roof was done about 2 years ago.

I believe it's drywall to or at least the other side of the ceiling is. But I'm confused about this area. It looks like it's starting to get a little over my head. When we got the house the inspector mentioned there are drywall cracks on the ceiling, he said it was cosmetic. So I belive it was a simple fix with drywall tape. But looking at this it looks a deeper than that. Does drywall look like that when the tape comes off?
Here's another pic of another already that the paint came off


It's pretty hard like a rock right here

 

My guess would be that someone repaired the drywall with a product like Fixall, that gets rock hard. That whole ceiling has big problems with all the obvious seams. IMO you need a skilled drywall finisher for all the "cosmetic" problems. Ducts with a/c condensation problems can rust so maybe that's where the rust colored spot is coming from.

 

Drywall tape is 2" wide by however long. It would come off in a straight line although it could chip some mud along the edges.

There should be folded tape in the corners if it's drywall so the last pic is a bit confusing. What does the top of the hole feel like? is it paper? The peeled area is a little strange too, I wonder if maybe a texture paint had been applied to the ceiling ??

 

It's pretty wierd to me too. On the edges of the rust color rocky hole. It looks like there is paper.

 

Am I hallucinating or does it look like there's a tape line in the second picture?

 

Second picture If the first post?

 

Yes, sorry, second picture in post # 1.

 

To the right that looks like the edge of some tape coming loose to me but there is no evidence of tape where the damage is ...... maybe the tape failed and some yahoo who didn't have clue repaired it without tape.

 

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be as much texture right in that area as well - I think that could have been a lousy repair.

 

That whole are of the ceiling is really ugly and doesn't have much texture. I figure I would get to it later and fix. My main concern tho is mold. If it is. I'll have to fix sooner than later

 

Mold is usually kind of black and fuzzy looking. I do see some black dots in the pic in post #7, altho it's hard to see it clearly. It's usually not so small that you can barely see it tho.

 

I wouldn't be overly concerned. As mentioned above mold is usually fairly easy to spot. Also it needs 3 things to grow; water, heat and a food source - eliminate 1 of the 3 and it shouldn't grow. I'd make the repairs and keep an eye on it just to be safe.