ROLLING ON

All of our woodwork doors, windows, cabinets and trim has been cleaned, sanded, caulked and primed, with the exception of the grooved paneling which I will discuss later. It is time to do a little rolling, starting with the ceiling.

We need our five gallon bucket, a roller screen,our one half inch roller cover and frame, a roller extension pole (or a screw out mop handle), our clean trim brush and a paint pot. By the way, the only thing harder than rolling a ceiling with a extension pole is rolling a ceiling without one.

Forget about paint trays, they are awkward to move around the room and seem to be a magnet for feet. Pour the ceiling paint into the five gallon bucket, in this case two gallons. When a task is going to require more than one gallon of paint it is a good idea to "box" the paint together in a five gallon bucket. This will eliminate any slight color variations between the gallons and allow for better mixing and thinning , if required.

Since our ceiling is of the "popcorn" blown textured variety, I do recommend thinning this paint. We can safely add about a quart of water to our two gallons of paint. A good way of doing this is to pour the water into one of the gallon cans we just emptied, tap the lid on and shake, remove the lid and pour the water into the second can and repeat, now pour it into the five gallon bucket. This will make use of all the paint and give us a couple of clean paint pots.

Stir the paint in the five gallon bucket. Next pour about a quart or so of paint back into one of our paint pots. With our trim brush in hand we are ready to "cut in" the ceiling.

It is an unfortunate fact that a roller will not paint into corners, and for that reason we need to paint along the edges, where the ceiling meets the wall, with a brush. The term for this procedure is "cutting in". I like to cut in wide, that is, to paint three or four inches out from the wall and on to the ceiling. Painting a wide strip makes it much easier to roll to the edges without missed spots and skips. Start brushing in a corner and work your way around the room, Do not try to cut a straight line at the walls, in fact be sure to get some ceiling paint on the walls, this will ensure that the corner is completely covered.

Oh yeah, don't forget to brush around that light fixture.

Now that the ceiling is cut in we can turn our attention to rolling the paint on. With the floor completely covered with old bed sheets and drapes, Let's hang our paint screen over the inside rim of the five gallon bucket. With the roller frame and cover attached to the extension pole, roll the cover down the screen and into the paint. Do not plunge the roller down into the paint, daub the roller cover in the paint and roll back up the screen then back down until the cover is saturated all the way around. Before we start rolling, I want you to imagine that the ceiling is divided in a series of giant tic tac toe grids, with each block being about four foot square. Roll off the excess paint on the screen and, starting in a corner, roll a giant "W" in the middle of the first imaginary block. Load the roller again and fill in the block rolling from front to back. Move across, then forward from block to block, making sure to lap each one. Repeat until the ceiling is completely covered.

 
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Roger Woodward is a painting contractor with over twenty five years in the Painting Trade. Over the years R. Woodward & Co. has established a reputation for high quality workmanship, honesty and fairness. Roger's professional and sometimes innovative approach to the house painting craft has garnered him the respect of his fellow Craftsmen and provided a customer loyalty that is seldom seen. Roger is also the Founder and Publisher of Painter Forum,  an outstanding free home painting resource for DIY and professional house painters.
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Painting Frankenstein
by Roger Woodward
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