Sunday, December 1, 2013

I Hate Popcorn!!

Actually, I like the eating kind of popcorn. But that stuff used to texture ceilings in the 60's, 70's and 80's has risen to the top of the list of things I hate!

We volunteered to paint the inside of the Assistant Superintendent's house here at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The position is currently vacant, but is expected to be filled by mid-December. They want to get the house freshened up before their new hire moves in, and since Teri and I have become such experienced painters we volunteered. We kind of need to stop doing that, I think!!

Things were going very smoothly until I started to roll paint onto one of the bedroom ceilings. The popcorn texture immediately started pulling off of the ceiling, and the harder I tried to avoid it the worse it got. We got the park staff over to the house and all decided that the popcorn texture needed to be removed. So, I've now scraped popcorn texture from the ceilings of three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Scraping Popcorn Texture from Ceiling
The popcorn flaked right off of about 50% of the ceiling area, but was stuck like glue to the other 50%. We decided to re-texture the ceiling with a much finer sand texture, which meant that the ceiling had to be very smooth before new texture could be applied.  So lots of scraping, wetting, more scaping, joint compound and sanding later, I was ready to apply the new texture.
New Ceiling Texture (Sand)
The new sand texture was mixed with Kilz Primer and a little bit of joint compound. The result was a thick textured paint that was rolled onto the ceiling. Two coats later we were ready to actually paint the ceiling (again) with the finish coats.
Rolling on the New Texture
We'll have the entire house finished in another week or so. We'll have a follow-up blog showing more of the fun!!

Mark



8 comments:

  1. Sounds like murder on the neck and shoulders. Good thing your DG work has you in shape. The house painting will be a really satisfying project when you're done with it. -Rick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ugh! That's worse than painting 200 posts. :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I seem to remember that you were out in some pretty unpleasant weather while post painting. I guess it's lucky that we are in an air conditioned/heated house!!

      Delete
  3. While I don't exactly love painting, it's a job I frequently get... however... that over the head (into the eyes?) job doesn't look like fun to me! Glad you'll be showing us the "after" photos....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! Enchanted Rock is soooo lucky to have volunteers like you and Teri! -- Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  5. The popcorn story reminds me of the house we build in the 80"s when the popcorn ceilings were really popular. Our popcorn ceiling had an added twist - glitter- they mixed it in the stuff that they sprayed on and over the years it dried out or something and you would find little glitter peiecs all over the place! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice!! I might add a little glitter to the new ceilings. Classy...

      Delete
  6. That's one tough job, but I'm sure it will look great.

    ReplyDelete