Anyone have painting tips? (Update: Project Finished)

[CmFtns]

UPDATE: (June 5 2016)
So it's all done and here's how it went:

We scraped the first popcorn ceiling Thursday night (June 23) after work and after realizing how long it took my GF and I decided to use the 3 day weekend weekend to just do that and told family they could help paint a different weekend. We finished all 5 rooms that weekend on Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we scraped 2 bedrooms the living room the foyer and dining room.

The ceilings in 3 rooms had been painted previously and ended up being a huge pain in the ass. They required to be skim coated over with drywall mud because you could only scrape the popcorn off but were still left with tons of random paint in all the low parts which couldn't be scraped off.

Our family offered to come help the next weekend (which was this past weekend) which was also a 3 day weekend because of 4th of July. Unfortunately my GF could not help because she worked all weekend but we successfully primed and painted 2 bedrooms, a hallway, the bathroom, living room, foyer, and dining room with 3 people. We did not tape anything and decided to just cut using brushes and it turned out pretty good. We used Royal brand primer and paint from ace hardware because I had read it to be a good budget option. It went on thick and smooth and only required one paint coat except for a dark red color that needed 2.

It was a huge project but it looks great now, cost around $300-400 in materials, and probably saved $4-5k in labor in the past 2 weekends vs hiring these projects out...

Next up is making/installing some fancy baseboards for a fraction of the price to match my luxurious lifestyle.






Original Post:
I've got a 3 day weekend this weekend and want to use it to paint my house which I've been putting off. I have done lots of DIY stuff but have never painted before so I was looking for tips and advice on my proposed supplies list.

I plan to:
-scrape popcorn ceilings make them flat then paint ceilings
-paint interior walls/trim/doors

These are supplies I'm thinking I need:

a sprayer to wet down popcorn ceiling
a scraper for roof
respirator/mask
drywall mud/pole sander to fix any inperfections
paint brushes
paint rollers
paint roller trays
primer/paint in all colors i plan to use
mixing sticks
plastic painters drop sheeting
painter's tape
shitty clothes
patient family to help me


Any tips, advice, or other things I might need?

[lizzzi]

Off the top of my head, it sounds like way too much for a three day weekend. But I'll let others comment who can give you advice about the popcorn ceiling. (I've never done that.)

Make sure you wear a shower cap while you work.

[ketchup]

I'd give yourself more dropclothes, more rollers, more painter's tape, and more time than you think you need.  3 days may not cut it, depending on how big and/or complicated your house is.

[horsepoor]

How old is your house?  You may need to get the popcorn checked for asbestos if it's an older house.

I agree that it's too much to bite off for a weekend.  Maybe try doing one or two rooms at a time.  You'll need to clear out or fully tarp each room you're removing popcorn from, as well as painting the ceiling afterwards.  I would allow a day for drying before priming once the popcorn is gone.  Then the third day, paint the walls.

Don't skimp and buy super cheap paint.  However, you don't need to go for the really expensive stuff, either.  I usually use the Olympic from Lowe's and it's a great paint that goes on well and covers with one full coat and a second, lighter coat.  Eggshell is a nice gloss level for interior.  Flat paint is cheaper, but it smudges easily and it's harder to clean and less durable.  Get a good angled brush for painting into the corners at the ceiling.  It will look best if your wall paint wraps up about 1/8" onto the ceiling, vs. leaving little bits of white ceiling paint on the vertical wall.  Pull your blue tape before the paint is dry.

[SoftwareGoddess]

Has the popcorn ceiling ever been painted? If so, I don't think you'll be able to scrape it off. You may want to test a small area to see how it goes.

[Spork]

Regarding asbestos: 
Popcorn ceilings were likely to contain asbestos before late 1970s.  I wouldn't get overly freaked out about it if it were me... but I'd make sure it was really wet down and probably wear a respirator.  And I would promptly change clothes and wash the manky clothes quickly.

I've never had issues scraping painted popcorn off.  But this has come up in other threads, so clearly some people have.  The whole "test before doing trying the whole room" seems like a reasonable thing to do.

[CmFtns]

I don't plan on finishing it but i'm going to go room by room and do as much as I can... Also I have 5 people working

Regarding asbestos I'm not too worried about it because I think there are a lot of levels of safety here:
-I believe the ceiling texture it is too new to have it (but i'm not positive)
-It will be wet so not much will become airborne anyway
-I will have fan exhausting air outside
-I will be wearing a respirator
-And I've read that risk involved with asbestos really isn't too high unless it's inhaled in high quantities for long periods of time.

[andy85]

alcohol. makes painting a lot more enjoyable.

[Spork]

One thing to keep in mind:  People loved popcorn because you could do a pretty shitty job with drywall/taping/bedding and no one would notice.  You may find that you need to do a little more drywall work to re-hide that workmanship.  And a little texture goes a long way to hide it.  A subtle knockdown texture gets rid of the awful popcorn but still provides a decent amount of hiding bad taping/bedding. 

[horsepoor]

One thing to keep in mind:  People loved popcorn because you could do a pretty shitty job with drywall/taping/bedding and no one would notice.  You may find that you need to do a little more drywall work to re-hide that workmanship.  And a little texture goes a long way to hide it.  A subtle knockdown texture gets rid of the awful popcorn but still provides a decent amount of hiding bad taping/bedding.

Oh yeah, that is a good point.  I did a ceiling with a sanded paint from Lowe's several years ago to deal with this.  Worked great, and I believe it acted as the primer too.

Glad you've done your research on asbestos, just wanted to make sure you'd thought about it.

[mankyle]

I'd figure at least 3 days per room and maybe 4.  We did this last winter and it was definitely more involved than I expected but I love the look of smooth ceilings.

Day 1 is scraping the popcorn off then letting the drywall dry overnight.
Day 2 (and maybe 3) is for mudding.  Depending on how the ceiling was originally finished was this might take 2 coats.  Our ceiling had 1 coat of mud on all joints, screws, etc. A second coat, letting that dry overnight and then a quick sanding fixed most everything.  However, we did have a few spots where I needed to add a 3rd coat which meant another day of drying.  If I did the mudding in the AM though I could often sand and get a primer coat on in the PM which helped.

Day 3 is finally painting.  You will need to prime the drywall if it was never painted under the popcorn.  This dries quickly though so if get a coat on in the morning, can usually get one or even two coats of paint on after that depending on humidity etc and how well stuff dries.

I left out the 3-4 hours of prep we did getting ready for each room.  Moving everything out, taping up plastic to protect the crown molding and walls (which were already painted) and then covering the floor with plastic and then contractors paper.  We often did that on a Thursday night, scraped on Friday night, mudded Saturday, and and painted Sunday.  With good ventilation/drying you might be able to scrape in the AM and get a coat of mud on in the PM.

You can stagger your rooms so while waiting for 1 to dry, get started on the next.  We have a small house (1400 ft2) so our limiting factor was space to put everything from the rooms we were working on.  We could do 2 rooms at a time max.

To scrape, we found the things sold at Lowes/HD specifically for scraping popcorn didn't work or did more damage than we wanted to deal with.  We simply used a couple of mudding/putty knives that we designated as scrapers.  This meant working on a ladder or step stool but we had much better control  Go slow, the less you tear the drywall the easier the mudding will be later.

The other thing that was a revelation was the use of the contractors paper.  By putting it down over the plastic things were alot less slippery.  It soaked up the excess water and caught all the popcorn.  Then we simply rolled it up and put it in a trash bag.  **This was the important part**  If you leave it on the floor all of that water makes it very humid and things don't dry as quickly.  We did this once and it lost us a day.  We just put down a fresh coat of paper for the mudding and painting.  I am sure newspaper etc would work too but we didn't think ahead to collect any.

I am glad we did it but I hope to never buy a house with popcorn ceilings again!

Good luck.

[CmFtns]

I am glad we did it but I hope to never buy a house with popcorn ceilings again!

Good luck.

It's hard to imagine why scraping some crap off the ceiling would be this hard without having done it before but I've read similar stories elsewhere too... We will see how it goes and if it takes this long so be it but it has to go... it's just awful and considering the floors walls doorways trim will all be redone the ceilings will look very out of place and they collect so much dirt and dust.

[lizzzi]

alcohol. makes painting a lot more enjoyable.

Well, yes, I'm not disagreeing, but OP and friends should go lightly on the booze while they're going up and down ladders and such.

[tonysemail]

I don't plan on finishing it but i'm going to go room by room and do as much as I can... Also I have 5 people working

Regarding asbestos I'm not too worried about it because I think there are a lot of levels of safety here:
-I believe the ceiling texture it is too new to have it (but i'm not positive)
-It will be wet so not much will become airborne anyway
-I will have fan exhausting air outside
-I will be wearing a respirator
-And I've read that risk involved with asbestos really isn't too high unless it's inhaled in high quantities for long periods of time.

exhausting fumes outside is a terrible rationalization if your assumptions about asbestos are wrong.
You can choose to accept risk of cancer for yourself.
But choosing for neighbors, friends and family.. that feels negligent and grounds for a lawsuit.

apart from that, my wife liked these tips, especially painting out of a bucket instead of a tray-
http://www.nononsenselandlord.com/2016/06/paint-rental-property/

[Cyaphas]

18 in roller - it's a real time saver.
Wooster 2in rubber handled paint brush.

These two items have made painting a breeze for me. I still can't believe how quickly i can paint a large area with the 18 incher. The rubber handled wooster is what the pro's use in my area. If I can't get it with the roller I grab the wooster.

Edit: and Pandora radio. Usually Enya or The Eagles channels.

[CmFtns]

Well I scrapped the ceiling in 1 out of 4 rooms that need done tonight. It took about 3 hours to hang up plastic sheeting and scrape it all off... Ceiling drywall work seems good can't see any tape seams and only found 2-3 screws which I patched over with mud but other than that not much touch up needs to be done.

Full day of ceiling scraping tomorrow hope I can finish the rest of the rooms.

[Choices]

2 tips
1- also get some sort of handheld guard you can use to keep the tile/carpet clean when you're painting the baseboards.
2- when you paint the walls, use the fat painter's tape on the ceiling edge. That way if you get a little aggressive with the roller it won't paint the ceiling. The thinner painter's tape options are thinner than the roller and you'll end up getting the wall colored paint on your freshly painted ceiling.

[BudgetSlasher]

To scrape, we found the things sold at Lowes/HD specifically for scraping popcorn didn't work or did more damage than we wanted to deal with.  We simply used a couple of mudding/putty knives that we designated as scrapers.  This meant working on a ladder or step stool but we had much better control  Go slow, the less you tear the drywall the easier the mudding will be later.

If I an going to be using the knives as a scraper I like to take a file and round the corner of the blade, I find it makes it less likely that the corners will make marks that have to be repaired later.

[rae]

My DH and painted most of our house and this is what worked well for use:

1. Use canvas drop cloths.
2. Carry a damp rag to clean up any spills/mistakes.
3. If you have a somewhat steady hand, don't bother taping the whole room. Only tape below the baseboard. By cutting in freehand you'll save yourself a lot of time and it looks better. I'm sure there is a youtube video somewhere to show you a good technique.

[exterous]

The glossier the paint the more you'll need to consider the technique you use. With flat you can pretty much roll any ol way and, as long as your surfaces are consistent (ex: no unprimed wall patches) no one can tell. By the time you are up to satin finish you'll need to be concerned about maintaining a wet edge and using a long, consistent roll covering the wall ceiling to floor to avoid 'flashing'

[Sibley]

Ceilings are not a fun task. Be prepared for aching arms, neck, back. I'd wear a hat to keep paint out of hair, and possibly protective glasses. You're gonna want instant foods to eat, and plan to take the following weekend off to relax.

[cockersx3]

I didn't see a painter's pole on your list (ie adjustable length extension for paint roller).  You'll want that for the ceilings, will help speed things up compared with constantly going up and down ladders.  Get the lightest one you can, your arms and back will thank you later :-)

Also, ignore all of the tools at Lowe's that are designed to help cut in corners and ceilings.  None of them work very well, at least for me.  I've painted a lot of rooms, usually works a lot better to either use blue painter's tape (best result, but slower) or freehand (slightly sloppier, but faster).  I use tape on everything, comes out the best.

Also, to eliminate nail holes on walls - one tip I've used routinely is to tap on the hole with a hammer to make a shallow wall indentation where the hole was, then use spackle to fix it all.  I've found this does a better job of hiding holes than just using spackle on the hole alone.

Finally, it will take a while.  Doing your whole hose on a three day weekend is probably not realistic.

[Metric Mouse]

My DH and painted most of our house and this is what worked well for use:

1. Use canvas drop cloths.
2. Carry a damp rag to clean up any spills/mistakes.
3. If you have a somewhat steady hand, don't bother taping the whole room. Only tape below the baseboard. By cutting in freehand you'll save yourself a lot of time and it looks better. I'm sure there is a youtube video somewhere to show you a good technique.

+1.  Finished my basement this past year - painting wasn't so bad, but taping the edges of things never worked for me. It was actually less work to free-hand the edge, wiping away missteps as I went and do a small bit of touch up than it was to tape everything, paint everything, pull tape from everywhere and then have to touch-up anyway.

Also, safety glasses weren't on your list. Get them. Safety is paramount.

[CmFtns]

So we finished the project I put an update up in the original post

thanks for help everyone