lornmastro

ok...need an opinion/ask a question....was painting at this house this week and the customer asked me to fix a spot on the ceiling of a room i didn;t paint....a piece of the ceiling paint just kindof came off the sheetrock...no leak no poking nothing...just came off right down to the sheetrock. i scrapped it til it seemed like i got all the loose paint off,spackled, sanded,primed and painted it. then i went back to work on the room i was hired for. went to pull some tape off the ceiling and the same thing happened. pulled the paint off ..right down to the sheetrock. so i went to scape off the loose paint...disaster!! i think i still could have been there scraping!!!when the spot got about 2' x 2'and the pieces where coming off in 6"pieces i went and got the owner.i explained that i thought that the ceiling was never primed...explained that my coat was only as good as the coats underneath it. and therefore i couldn't guarentee my paint job on the ceiling..offered for an additional charge to keep scaping til all the loose paint came off or did he want me to just fix what i had already had pulled off..the customer asked me to just fix what i had already scraped off.upon further investigation i found other small spots where the paint had come down in previous paint jobs.i have never had this happen before so have some questions
1- do you think it could have been something else besides the inital coat not being a primer.the home is about 30 yrs old and these rooms where not additions.
2- is there a way you can tell for sure that is what caused the problem?there was no indication of excessive spackle dust.
3- did i handle the situation the way i should have??or would you have handled it differently..
4- did the additional weight of the last coat of ceiling paint finally cause it to come down in the other room??
any feedback would be appreciated oh mighty and wise ones from the painting forum.

AAPaint

1. Yes, it could have been moisture recently, or even long ago.
2. No way to tell 100%, but it is likely a case of moisture, dirt, and/or no primer.
3. You handled it pretty good. I usually explain it as something that MUST be done. At the very minimal you should scrape the whole ceiling to open up any areas not adhering because if not your paint is hanging in the breeze only attached to the previous coat which isn't holding onto anything.
4. That is quite possible, and if you're using latex paint, it is also likely the moisture helped to speed up the process...but just using latex should not cause previous coats to fail unless something is wrong to begin with.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Richie-C

I'll second the motion--usually casued by drywall dust, lack of primer or moisture. There could also be a ventilation issue (??). Any construction done recently--i.e. new roof?

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Richie-C

slickshift

No primer and drywall dust are high on the suspect list
Moisture at any point also could be part of the problem

Also
It was common in the NE to use a waxy surface sheetrock around then, which even with primer comes down how you describe after 20 years or so
But as far as I know that's a regional thing
Not that I know of
You might see the dust on the back of the chips
If there's no primer, well...that's almost a given that's why its coming down now
I'm not sure you could've done anything else at that point
It bothers me that the H/O just said to fix what was actually falling down
I fear more will fail before your job is done, and you were "The Painter"
I'm not sure I'd want to leave it like that
If the customer is insistant-waiver it- you need it in writing
The act of painting the ceiling pulled it down, yes
Technically not just the weight, but the paint chemicals and action etc...
But like AA says, it wouldn't happen unless there was a (massive) failure that it was going over
No mighty and wise here, sorry
Try next door

KellyPainting

Ya I'd agree but say it was 90% the primer .... I've been in N.E painting for years doing alot of ceilings ... got a restaurant right now ... that just wants me to spot fix each small problem.. all 800 sq ft .... same exact thing.... I won't ever touch a ceiling unless I'm payed to redo the whole thing .. once you start to scrape just a tiny bit... look out, the whole thing could scrape off. I suggest the ceilings on every job when I do the walls, I tell them that it looks o.k now but the new walls will make the old worn ceiling look worse and it will cost more to have me paint them after.... if it's a bedroom... say it's the first thing you'll see every morning.

lornmastro

i don't know if the roof had recently been replaced...ventilation?? please explain...the lack of ventilation would cause the build up of moisture and therefore cause the paint/primer to seperate from the drywall??? the ceiling that the paint was coming down... with no help from me was in a room i didn't paint and was painted probubly aabout a yr ago...in the room i was painting... the ceiling paint came down with some help from some tape and later on a scraper i probubly could have scraped forever...if any primer was used would there have been evidence of it on the drywall??any white spots at all?? because the drywall was dry as a bone and looked (once the paint was scraped off) like it had just come out of home depot. gosh yes i should have waivered it in writing hopefully it won't come back and bite me in the buttocks.

Richie-C

I ran into a similar problem--but never wound up repairing the ceiling--however, when I inquired about here--here is what info I received!

http://www.contractortalk.com/f8/soot-ceilings-4304/

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Richie-C