Whomever finished this ceiling, never sealed the sheet rock, but for the nail holes. There was a small "pre new roof" leak spot that I scraped, prior to a fresh coat of paint. Well, didn't the whole layer of paint start to fall. It's not so bad on the edges, as the first coat must have been feathered in and not as thick. But, now I have these serrated edges around all of these spots, where the paint is adhered to sealer (shows how well sealer works)...
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Is this a new home? If so, I'd complain to the builder.
view kelleyk's profile
I have never heard of sealing sheetrock. The nail holes and seams are floated with joint compound to make a level surface. If your surface is not level now, you will want to use joint compound to level it out - spackle is for filling small deep holes, while joint compound will spread nicely and thinly over shallow, wide discrepancies.
After you have applied the joint compound, and let it dry, and sanded it smooth, make sure you use a primer before painting. If this is the whole ceiling, and you have anything to do in the next week before your company comes (like go to work), it will be really tough to finish the job before they arrive...
Good luck!
view lemonadefish's profile
there is a product available at HD (at least here in CA) that is a drywall-prep product -- as you say "thick sealer" (red top -- forget the name... next to the joint compound in 5gal buckets)... but it is not a sealer itself (lets call it primer), but instead something like a paint/joint compound mix. it does not do as well hiding transitions, but it does help to level the surface out... otherwise, you'll likely need to get down to raw material (either paper or primer) then re-mud, feather and sand... then use the above product. and use primer before you paint again...
view redneckmodern's profile
I always use a sealer from Zinsser called Gardz. It is thin like milk, runs all over the place, and smells pretty strong, but it works great to seal drywall compound, drywall dust, and wallpaper paste. It is also good to use before you patch drywall, to give the compound something to grip to.
To fix your problem, I would:
1. scrape all the loose paint off
2. apply a coat of Gardz to the whole ceiling
3. skimcoat over the places between paint/no paint to even out those sharp edges
4. lightly sand to even out
5. apply another coat of Gardz to skimcoated areas
6. paint
A lot of steps, I know, but it pays off to do it right, as I'm sure you've learned. :)
view maryman's profile
Like lemonadefish says - You dont seal sheetrock.
Sounds like someone used an oil-based primer or paint and used a latex paint over it (a big no-no, resulting in peeling paint)
view bepsf's profile
...your local paintstore people (not Home Depot - go to a real paint store) can better suggest what products and methods to use to remediate this situation.
view bepsf's profile