To achieve excellent results after painting the ceiling, it is necessary to observe the technology of preliminary preparation of the base. If you apply the paint on an old coating or an unprepared concrete surface, defects (minor cracks, scratches, chips) will be noticeable, especially in daylight. In addition, the paint applied to the old coating quickly loses its whiteness and darkens.
So, when you have to paint the ceiling in the kitchen, you must definitely get rid of the old layer, since it accumulates fats and dirt, which cannot be masked with fresh paint. Proper preparation of the base will ultimately allow you to get a smooth and uniform surface, and such a repair will last much longer.
Concrete Ceiling Preparation
So, how to prepare the ceiling for painting with water-based paint? This process consists of several stages, but first of all you need to stock up on materials and tools.
Necessary tools and materials
The following tools will be required to organize the preparation of the foundation:
- stepladder or goats;
- roller with fur skin;
- brush width 150 mm;
- wide spatula (400-500 mm);
- spatula 150 mm;
- capacity with a ditch;
- mixer;
- capacity for the preparation of putty mortar;
- knife;
- grinding device (manual or mechanical).
From the materials you will need:
- acrylic primer;
- dry putty mixture (for the first and coating layer);
- serpyanka.
When performing work, it is necessary to observe protective measures, therefore it is recommended to purchase protective clothing, a respirator and safety glasses.
Surface cleaning
Removing the old coating is performed in the following order:
- To remove the old lime whitewash, it is necessary to wet the surface with warm water. Further, if the whitewash layer is thick enough, you can remove it with a spatula, and if the layer is thin, it is enough to use a damp cloth. After removing whitewash, it is necessary to thoroughly rinse the ceiling plates so that there are no stains;
- It is more difficult to remove water-based paint from the ceiling, but the procedure is the same: the surface of the ceiling is abundantly moistened with a hot roller (up to + 70oC) with water, after which they begin to remove the paint with a spatula. Stains are wiped with a damp cloth;
- It is much harder to remove a moisture-resistant emulsion of water, which is usually painted on the ceilings in the bathroom. In this case, it is better to resort to a mechanical method of removal and use a drill with a special nozzle;
- To remove enamels and oil paints, there are special solutions, but when working with them, you should be careful and use personal protective equipment;
- Wallpaper is removed from the ceiling in the same way as from walls: the surface is moistened, the trellises are removed with a spatula. If under the influence of only water the sheets do not leave, you can use special solutions to remove wallpaper;
- Decorative polystyrene panels are removed with a spatula, especially carefully cleaning the remains of the adhesive solution.
Ceiling repair
Before directly preparing the ceiling for painting, it is necessary to eliminate all defects of the base, for which the following work is carried out:
- Cracks found on the ceiling of the room should be expanded with a spatula, primed and sealed with putty. To seal large cracks, you will have to use a reinforced tape, which after drying is also treated with putty and leveled to the ceiling level.
- In new buildings on the ceilings often find the influx of mortar or ledges. They must be removed using a punch or chisel. Prime the cleaved areas and level them with putty.
- It is especially important to carefully prepare the joints of the wall and ceiling plates. It is necessary with the help of putty to bring them to a clear right angle.
- Drywall base or wooden ceilings are prepared in the special ways described below.
Primer
Upon completion of the repair work of the base, it is necessary to treat the concrete surface with a primer.
The application of the soil solution is carried out by a roller with a fur skin with a pile length of up to 10 mm. In the corners and places of contact of the floor slabs with the wall, a brush is used. If it is necessary to paint a large area with soil, it would be wiser to use a spray gun, which can be rented.
Many owners do not attach much importance to this procedure and often skip it, considering it unnecessary. In fact, the primed surface provides reliable adhesion of concrete with putty (about which in the next section of the article). In addition, the soil protects the ceiling from the negative effects of microorganisms.
A deep penetration primer is best suited for processing concrete floor slabs. In stores, you can buy ready-made mixtures or concentrates, which must be diluted in accordance with the instructions.
Putty
For filling the surface of the ceiling for painting, ready-made putties or special dry mixes are used, which are prepared according to the following technology.
To prepare the putty for the ceiling, it is necessary to pour dry ingredients into a container, add water in accordance with the requirements of the instructions, stir the resulting mixture with a hand mixer to obtain a homogeneous substance.
A wide spatula is used for applying and leveling the mixture, onto which the solution is applied with a smaller spatula. Work is performed from a stepladder or goats, it is more efficient to use a wide plane, which will allow you to place a container with putty and give more free access for processing the ceiling.
In the corners and in places where the base adjoins the wall, a spatula with a width of 150 mm and an angular spatula are used.
For a good leveling, usually two layers of putty are enough. The first, the main layer is applied up to 3 mm thick, and the finish - from 1 to 2 mm.
Grinding
Aqueous emulsion paint is able to smooth out some defects of the base, but, to obtain an ideal result, you should carefully sand the surface with sandpaper with fine grain. Sanding will remove both noticeable marks that remain when working with a spatula, as well as minor imperfections that will subsequently be visible on the painted ceiling.
The ceiling can be processed using hand graters, on which sandpaper is fixed, or using a mechanical tool. Some finishers use graters on long handles to be able to work while standing on the floor.
For high-quality grinding, it is necessary to provide bright directional light, for which they use carrying with an incandescent lamp of high power. Only good lighting will allow you to notice even the slightest flaws and eliminate them.
Grinding is performed in circular motions, moving from one wall to another, capturing about 0.5-1.0 m of the ceiling width. Having finished one strip, proceed to grinding the next.
When working with grinding tools, a lot of fine dust is formed, which gets into the eyes and respiratory organs, so when you start processing the ceiling, you need to stock up with a respirator and protective glasses.
A fully leveled surface is once again treated with a primer. For this purpose, you can use diluted acrylic primer with the addition of a small amount of water-based paint, intended for the final painting of the ceiling. Such preparation will reduce paint consumption and provide good hiding power.
Wood ceiling preparation
In a wooden house, preparing the ceiling for painting with your own hands is quite simple. First, the entire surface is cleaned with sandpaper with fine grain, after which it is recommended to treat the surface with special means that protect the wood from decay and mold.
The treated surface is examined for cracks and bumps that are masked with putty on wood and sanded with sandpaper. To ensure better adhesion of the paint and the wooden base, the ceiling is impregnated with a primer before painting, which also reduces paint consumption.
GKL ceiling preparation
When installing the ceiling coating from GKL, they get a flat surface that, it would seem, can be painted immediately, but here you will need to try a little. So how to prepare the gypsum ceiling for painting?
To prepare the ceiling of drywall for painting, you must take the following steps:
- carefully seal joints and small irregularities with putty;
- mask the place of screwing screws;
- primer the surface;
- cover the ceiling surface with a thin layer of leveling putty.
Before installing gypsum plaster, it is necessary to remove chamfers at an angle of 22.5 degrees from the edges that will be in contact with each other, so that the masking putty can get maximum adhesion with gypsum when sealing joints. The next step, the joints must be glued with a serpentine and again closed with putty.
When working with fasteners for self-tapping screws, a screwdriver is required to hold the screws to the required depth. If the self-tapping screw is too deeply sunk into the drywall surface, it is necessary to remove it, putty the hole, and next install the self-tapping screw again, but it’s already correct.
Before filling the entire surface of the ceiling, it is recommended to apply a primer, which will prepare the GCR for painting with a water based emulsion. For this purpose, a diluted acrylic primer with the addition of dye is most often used.
Putty for painting is carried out with a thin layer, for which a wide (400-500 mm) putty knife is used. After the putty dries, the preparation of the ceiling for painting with water-based paint is completed.