quick painting question.

[GibsonGM]

LOL, no need to neaten that up Phil, I do know what I wrote. I'd only add or "complain" that all modern latex paints aren't the same! Maybe 3 categories - top of the line, mid-quality, and junk.
That's less important for interior, tho. On exterior it can mean repainting years earlier.

I wish you luck man! Ceilings are hard anyway, and anything with a sheen can be brutal. You'll pick it up pretty soon, and you'll know if it'll work...

[phil]

the second coat went on a bit better. I used a 3/8ths roller. I tried to run my roller at slight angles to cover my tracks and it helped a lot. I was running too parallel. Its still not perfect but it's a lot better. I can see some differences in the stipple and what I could loosely describe as "dry spots" but the coverage is OK. while I was doing it I thought gee this is a lot like welding. So many variables and technique all put together, never perfect but with huge amounts of practice you get better and the habits and techniques become unique like a signature.
Maybe I could thin it a wee bit more and do another coat.. or just let it go at that.
the tips helped, Thanks you !

[GibsonGM]

Glad it's working out, Phil! Finishing it up will be a good weekend project!

[mjt]

Your're going to get stippling with a roller unless you slow down the drying process significantly. The extended dry time is really why oil levels better than latex generally speaking. Rather than thinning with water, try something like Floetrol which should help extend the dry time and give the latex more time to level better.

Except for a few rooms, I've used dead flat on the ceilings. Any sort of sheen other than flat is hard to get right on a ceiling. Generally I've used flat on the ceiling, eggshell on the walls, and satin on our millwork. In our attic I used eggshell (slightly less glossy than "satin") because there was no clear delineation between the walls and the ceiling in many places. I ended up doing 4 coats: two each of tinted primer and top coats. I also used a 3/4 nap roller and a long extension pole in the main room where there is a 13-foot ceiling.

[Al F. Furnituremaker]

FWIW, as someone involved deeply in finishing, I still haven't switched over to latex anything in my shop. I don't like the look, oil/lacquer finishes give a much deeper look. Even when I paint something (other than a house) I use a lacquer product tinted with colored pigment. My supplier has hundreds of colors available.

I would prefer to spray a room using the same quality of finish I put on furniture, but it would be a LOT of work and not cost effective. I just redid a room in my house that had a new skim coat of smooth plaster put on (it only had a brown coat on it originally). For painting, I used two coats of oil primer (Zinsser), then two coats of latex paint applied with a short nap roller. Very few marks. The oil primers level out better because they take longer to dry.

Just my .02

[phil]

I had previously primed and skim coated and primed again so everything was pretty smooth to start. the first coat was a little stippled, I didn't like the way it was laying out on the ceiling. I knocked that back and did a second coat but it still wasn't quite to my liking.
Over the weekend I finished the top of the walls and cut in the line that separates the top of the wall from the lower portion and started with the green. with the green I started adding more water and stretched the paint out , I think it was around 700 sq feet or so - one gallon covered it but it's very thin. I probably went a little over on the recommended 10 % but then there is evaporation while I'm rolling so it's difficult to tell. I could see some of the blue start to separate out from the green if I thinned it too much but I just kept going and stirring and it went on super smooth but will need more coats, I expect three at least.

I pole sanded half of the ceiling again and once I finish that,Ill give it a third coat and see how that does. It got a bit warm so I stick an air conditioner in the window. one thing that doesn't help is that it is considerably warmer near the ceiling and that reduces the wet time.
It's really hard to get rid of the latex stipple once it is there but Ill see if I can knock it back again and try a third coat. If I really want to go crazy I guess I could go back to a more sandable primer or just keep going with thin coats and sanding between. The latex is hard to sand but I'm doing my best to try to flatten it out. anyway that was my weekend The trick seems to be to really thin the paint and to carry an absolute minimum on the roller without it drying so much it gets sticky. lots of thin coats, less stipple. I got going with a wee bit too much paint and a wee bit too thick and it' is taking lots of labor to correct the issues that caused, but I'll persevere.