Uh oh. Really think something got screwed up here, but I'm not even sure if it is fixable at this point without spending alot of time or money. Here is my dilemna...

We just noticed an area of ceiling that is a little bit uneven. We have just taped and floated the entire ceiling area with new drywall last week, and primed and painted the ceiling a couple days ago. I just now noticed the uneven rippling in the ceiling once the windows were opened and the sunlight made this error apparent. I am not really sure what to do.

 

There really is only 2 choices - fix it or live with it.

Have you laid a straightedge across that area to see how far off it is? You can apply joint compound over the paint, sand smooth, remove dust, prime and paint. Some ceiling paints touch up better than others.

 

I did lay a straightedge across that area, and it doesn't seem to be off by much. I would say the uneveness is about a 1/4" higher than flat, and maybe a bit less than that, but it is noticeable when the sunlight hits the room.

Oh btw, while searching for a solution I did find another person who posted a very similar problem here - Hometalk | How to fix uneven ceiling drywall

In my situation, the entire ceiling was completely redone with new drywall. And the area where there is uneven rippling is from an area where a wall was removed dividing two rooms just like the other person in the link in the paragraph above. The only difference is that in my situation, I redid the entire ceiling. I really thought I had the ceiling part done well, but once the light shone on it I could see the unevenness. I'm sad that I found this error after the primer and paint were applied.

 

Is the rippling where a drywall joint is? What sheen paint did you use?

 

I used a flat white ceiling paint which because it is a flat sheen is supposed to not show this rippled error as much as a shiny sheen, but I can still see it in the sunlight.

I think the rippling is where a drywall joint is. In fact, I am almost certain that the rippling is indeed where two drywall pieces butt together because I can see a very straight linear rippled line where the unevenness is which leads me to believe that it is where two drywall pieces butt together.

Is this a tape & float error? And if I do try to fix it by putting more joint compound and sand smooth, will it be noticeable that I had this area repainted? I should mention that we did paint the ceiling with a sprayer, and I still have access to the sprayer to do a touch-up.

 

It does sound like a finishing issue. Latex paints don't sand well [ the paint heats up, melts and plugs the sandpaper] so it's usually best to float more j/c over the area. The wider you spread the mud the less likely it is to show.