Painting the ceiling with a water emulsion using a roller

Starting to renovate their home, whether it be an apartment in the city or a house in the countryside, any developer understands that finishing the ceiling remains a rather difficult stage in the work. Today, there are all sorts of solutions for the ceiling: ceiling tiles or wallpaper, suspended and stretch ceilings. But not every owner can afford such options. Since the cost of painting the ceiling with water-based paint is quite democratic, this type of finish is still relevant. And if you use the most ordinary roller for work, then even more so.

Choosing the right paint tool

Since most ceilings are large and flat surfaces, the most practical tool for applying paint is a paint roller. You can, of course, paint the ceiling with a brush, but all the strokes will be obvious, and for the ceiling such a picture is completely unacceptable, since it will be perceived as unevenly colored. Therefore, it is customary to use the brush only for painting corners and hard-to-reach areas.

There are quite a lot of different types of construction tools on the market for construction tools, which makes it difficult for beginners to select the procedure. These are velor, foam and fleecy rollers. The price for them does not differ much, which can be misleading about their supposedly identical qualities. But the differences are actually very significant. And the chosen roller will have a greater influence on the painting of the ceiling.

Of all the variety of rollers, the best result is achieved when using a roller with pile (s). In such a situation, foam rubber is not suitable due to the fact that it absorbs too much paint that accumulates on the ceiling surface, and because of this, bubbles appear on it. But velor tools take little paint.

If you are going to paint a large area, it is important to choose the largest possible roller, since it is about the area of ​​the painting surface. You can also paint the ceiling with water-based paint with a spray gun, but today we will talk about the simplest option.

It is best to choose a medium pile of a roller because the large one absorbs too much paint and thereby applies a rather large layer of paint, and a small pile will most likely leave unpainted areas. The rougher the ceiling surface, the longer the pile at the roller should be chosen so that the paint covers the entire texture and fills all the recesses. We also recommend that you do not use rollers with a bolt handle or foam rubber, because they quickly fail.

In addition, you should know how experienced craftsmen select rollers, and how to distinguish a high-quality tool from a low-quality one:

1. When choosing a roller, it is recommended to squeeze it in your hand: in this case, a high-quality roller will not deform as a result of compression.
2. Carefully inspect the seam on the roller: a high-quality product does not have an obvious joint of the fabric, since such seams can leave stripes on the ceiling during the dyeing process.
3. Check the strength of the villi by pulling them towards you: a high-quality roller will not allow any villi to stretch, while cheap fakes will leave a noticeable clump in your hand.

Under your roller, you need to choose a plastic painting dish into which paint is poured and where the substance is then rolled out with a roller. Remember, when dipping the roller into a bucket of paint, you don't expect a beautifully painted ceiling! In order to use the roller from the floor without using a scaffold, you need to purchase a special telescopic tube. With this long, fold-out handle, you can reach wherever you want.

Use a brush to access the different corners as well as similar places on the corners. For this type of work, a flute brush is used. There are special types of this tool in retail trade. These brushes do not leave characteristic streaks behind and provide almost the same result as a roller. Regarding the width of the brushes, it is better to purchase a brush with a very small thickness (3 centimeters) and a slightly wider tool (8 centimeters).

Removing old trim from the ceiling surface

Before painting the ceiling surface with water-based paint, you need to do preparatory work and protect floors, window sills, radiators and furniture from splashes and dirt (it is better to take it out altogether). You can cover them with plastic wrap, newspaper or cloth, securing with low-tack tape. She also needs to glue the walls around the perimeter, risers of gas and heating pipes. This sticky paper tape is easy to remove and leaves no residue afterwards. You can remove it as soon as the paint thickens.

After that, the ceiling should be freed from layers of old paint or whitewash. In order to get rid of lime or chalky whitewash, it is necessary to moisten it abundantly with water using a paint roller, then scrape it off, while using a steel spatula or chisel. At the end, wash the ceiling with a sponge.

To renovate a ceiling painted with water-based paint, you need to spend more time on preparatory work. All this is due to the fact that the process of removing old paint is a laborious work, since the previous layer practically does not dissolve in water, and therefore it is not possible to completely scrape off the ceiling from the ceiling.

Such work most often consists in removing the peeling paint with a spatula, as shown in the photo about painting the ceiling with water-based paint. To facilitate this not entirely pleasant work, you can use the following technique. Wet the previous coating with plenty of water using a foam roller or water spray. This procedure must be repeated twice with an interval of twenty minutes.

The moisture should thoroughly saturate the previous coating. After that, you need to make a draft by opening all windows and doors. The layer swollen from water forms swellings of the old water-based paint, which are not difficult to remove with a spatula. Such work must be done rather quickly so that the surface on which the work is carried out does not have time to dry. Next, you need to treat rust and stains from smudges with a 5% solution of copper sulfate.

If your ceiling has hard-to-remove stains, you can apply the following composition: 2 or 3% hydrochloric acid solution (gently wipe the stains, being careful not to get on the skin). Such recipes are also known: a solution of twenty parts of crushed lime, which is diluted with one part of drying oil, a thick solution of lime and water with the addition of denatured alcohol (about 50 ml). Either of the last two mixtures is applied to the dirt for 10 to 15 minutes. And repeat all this until the pollution is completely removed. Usually two treatments are sufficient.

Leveling the ceiling before roller painting

After complete cleaning of the ceiling surface, it must be leveled. For this purpose, a thin-layer putty is best suited, which has good adhesion properties. It has excellent plasticity and gives an almost flat surface that can be perfectly processed with fine-grained emery paper. Using a spatula, the substance is applied to the ceiling. Quite often, the ceiling is leveled by applying an oil-based glue-based whitewash putty on it, which is distributed evenly over the surface with a brush, spatula or roller.

Remember that it is necessary before that in the ceiling to close up all the cracks and cracks by watching a preliminary video about painting the ceiling with water-based paint and filling them with a specially prepared composition. To completely fill the gaps with putty, it is necessary to widen them before applying. The next preparatory operation is surface priming, which is done with the same paint. It is applied in a very thin layer, then the composition is allowed to dry thoroughly so that the putty does not tear off.

Preparatory work before painting the ceiling

First, open the prepared paint and, according to the instructions, dilute the paint to the desired thickness. Manufacturers very often recommend adding about 5-10% water to the solution. If, nevertheless, the manufacturer does not recommend thinning the paint, then it only needs to be mixed. This is easily done using a mixer attachment on an electric drill. For painting the surface in one layer, this mixing will be quite enough.

You cannot use the roller with which you applied the primer to paint the ceiling with a water-based emulsion; it is better to take a new one or replace the fur coat with an old one. Take a roller in your hands and dip it into a bowl of paint. It is important to note that, according to the technology of painting the ceiling with water-based paint, you should not completely lower it into the container, but only dunk it. The roller usually gets wet on one side and the edge that gets wet becomes heavier. But you need to ensure that the entire circumference of the tool absorbs the paint evenly.

To do this, you roll the roller over a trough (special utensils that are sold in special painting sets), mesh or a clean sheet of hardboard, linoleum, but not on the ceiling surface. By pressing the roller a little against the sheet, you can evenly saturate its entire surface with paint. After that, you need to dip the roller in the paint again and roll it out again. If suddenly you cannot wet the roller evenly, then upon completion of the repair, non-paint will appear. After drying, it is they that form the ill-fated spots, which we talked about at the very beginning.

Sufficiently experienced painters do this automatically, but you, of course, need to practice. This work is not very difficult, but here you need to be careful. For greater confidence, you can practice on an area of ​​an unprepared wall, a piece of drywall, or any surface that you do not mind using for an experiment.

Painting the ceiling with a water emulsion using a roller

Once you have rolled out the roller and the threads are evenly filled with paint, start painting the ceiling with water-based paint. All work is best done during daylight hours, starting from a distant corner. The main thing is to remember that the paint must be applied evenly to the ceiling surface, without delaying the whole process. Refining the ceiling even in a large room takes only 15-20 minutes.

Apply water-based paint to the ceiling in parallel stripes. Try to make stripes that are close to 50 centimeters wide. You need to paint with an overlap, each new strip should be superimposed on the previous one by 8 - 10 centimeters. Rub the paint thoroughly and make sure that the edge of the paint does not dry out on the layer.

When working, do not tear the roller away from the surface, increasing the pressure as the ink is consumed. The marks from the edges of the roller must be rolled out in the perpendicular direction. If you plan to paint the ceiling with water-based paint in several layers, then remember that the last layer should be placed in the direction of the windows, and the previous one - in the perpendicular direction.

Use a paintbrush to paint the corners of the ceiling. Dip it in the paint by one third and squeeze excess composition on the edge of the can. Apply paint with small strokes around the perimeter of the ceiling with a strip that is about 5 centimeters wide, and rub thoroughly. You will get a thin and even layer, which will merge in the future with a fresh layer of paint on the main surface.

The painter painting the ceiling looks at him at a right angle and does not see the place where he has already "walked" with a roller. His vision also does not allow him to see how many times he touched a certain area with the roller. The entire ceiling for him has acquired a damp uniform shade and therefore visually it seems that the entire plane is painted the same way. Here another bobble is hidden. In this case, painters with extensive experience sometimes step aside and look at the ceiling from a different angle, as the unpainted ones immediately become visible.

When non-beautiful things have arisen, they must be dealt with. It happens that stains remain after even your efforts to resuscitate the ceiling. Further work is useless and only leads to waste of material. This kind of work needs to be redone. The only way to correct mistakes is to sand the entire ceiling with fine sandpaper. If you painted over only 1-2 layers, then everything will work out. But if you went much more with a roller, then you will have to grind and putty and paint everything again.

Eliminate all drafts in the room, curtain the windows so that direct sunlight can be avoided on the ceiling surface. You cannot use additional heating devices in order to accelerate the drying process, because the temperature regime in the room must fully comply with the instructions indicated on the label of the can with water-based paint.

And finally, remember that you should not focus only on the low price of painting the ceiling with water-based paint, you must strictly follow the technology! It is best to do the work in the afternoon so that you can repeat the process in the morning. Remember that the surface should dry well after each coat of paint. If the first layer is not allowed to dry, the second layer will get wet and pick up the existing paint.