LESLIE: Bill in Texas is on the line and has a textured ceiling painting question. How can we help with your project?
BILL: I’m remodeling my bathroom and it had popcorn on the textured ceiling. I scraped that off. My question now is: is there a special sealer I need to put on there, other than a KILZ primer, before I paint it?
LESLIE: Well, yeah. A primer is exactly what you’re going to need. You’re going to want a primer. A KILZ primer is fantastic, especially if you have any uneven surfaces or uneven finishes, I should say, or areas of mold or areas of discoloration. That’s the type of primer that you’re going to use to really seal everything in. And once that’s dry, you can go ahead and top it with any latex topcoat, a good-quality ceiling paint. Some people go with white. Some people will tint a ceiling paint slightly just to give a softer space. Totally up to you.
BILL: I’ve got all that textured ceiling off – the popcorn off. Do they make a paint with a texture – a lot light texture in it now?
TOM: Well, I mean I think they do have textured surfaces, kind of like stippled surfaces. But I don’t know if you want to go back there. The thing is if you did a good job of scraping all that old popcorn off – and can I just say what a dumb idea that was for somebody to put popcorn on a bathroom ceiling? Oh, my goodness.
LESLIE: Steam is going to make it all fall down on your head.
BILL: Right. Yeah. Yes.
TOM: Yeah. Let’s not only put it in a damp location, let’s give it lots of nooks and crannies where it can grow mold, right, and make it impossible to clean. So well done scraping that away. But I would say that if you’ve got it all scraped away and if you applied a good-quality primer, like Leslie suggested, followed by an equally good-quality flat – very important it’s flat, Bill. Because if you use anything with a sheen, it’s going to look terrible.
BILL: Yeah. OK.
TOM: But flat latex paint – I think you’re going to be good to go. I dare say that people are not going to be going into your bathroom looking up and go, “You know, Bill, love your house but that ceiling’s a bit rough.”
BILL: Yeah, OK.
TOM: I think you’re good on that.
BILL: Alright. Very good. Thank you. I appreciate it.
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