Painting flat raftered garage ceiling

[Muse]

The roof job is done, I've got the materials to fix the east wood wall (sill, 2x4 joists, OSB sheathing, Hardieboard, etc.) but having finally removed everything from the garage and swept out the roof-job debris, etc. I figure now's a good time to paint the ceiling. If I don't paint the ceiling, it looks crazy, a combination of the old grey painted rafters, unpainted plywood, new rafters, sistered rafters. Plus, with the east wall completely open now, there's good light inside which will making painting easier.

The floor is concrete, which is dirty and stained (I spent over an hour yesterday scraping off dried paint, dried gunk of unknown origin, etc.). I don't want paint droppings on the floor, so I suppose I'll tarp as I paint.

I was thinking roll and brush, but searching online I see that some people spray a job like this. I've never spray painted, but I have an apparently unused Wagner 120 Power Sprayer. I have a 5 gallon bucket of Zinnser oil based white primer and a partly filled (enough) of Kilz 2 water based white primer. I have some semi-glass acrylic white, I could top coat too, or maybe just a coat or two of Kilz 2 would do.

I figure first I want to cut off most of the exposed nails that the roofers left. Mostly misses when they were nailing down from above, and for that I figure my reciprocating saw, a hack saw or even hammering flat if cutting off is too much trouble.

I am sweeping off dirt with a broom, figure I should maybe wash at least some of the surfaces before applying primer.

I want to do this pretty quick because I need to finish the wall and another project before the rains come. The wall presents problems, so I want ample time to work that out.

Suggestions and guidance, appreciated before I tackle this.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Get a tyvek suit and a wagner or other spray unit. It's just quicker/easier.

I have a Milwaukee Spray unit that I picked up from Home Depot a few years ago, but still haven't used it and they don't sell them anymore. They say they're great...I'll be trying it out in another couple of months on 1000 square feet of ceiling.

 

[Muse]

I'm uncertain. I may just roll and brush it. Thing is, that east wall is nothing but a few framing members now (to be replaced) and just the other side of it is my kabocha squash patch which is full and bearing now. I don't want paint to waft out to it and cover the plants, squash, blossoms etc. with paint. I could wait until I fix the wall and spray then. It would keep the paint inside. Yeah, a suit. I used to have one or two used ones from when I was doing temp jobs many years ago. I may have somewhere. I could buy something for sure at Home Depot.

I saw in a thread where you can get an extension hose for the Wagner that you can drop in a big bucket of paint so you don't have to refill the quart container. If I do spray (after fixing the wall), hopefully I can get the extension hose.

 

[TechBoyJK]

How's air control in the garage? Have fans and such to air it out when you paint?

Also, I rented a concrete floor scraper from Home Depot for a little less than a $100, and it scraped the top 1mm off my basement floor and made it look like new. Would probably take 1-2 hours to scrape a 2 car garage floor, which I plan to do for my garage as well.

 

[Muse]

It's a 1 car garage, but is extra long at around 28 feet. Has a hoist up door (not automatic, i.e. it s a swinger with springs, which I replaced myself when I rebuilt the door 15 years ago). There are two vents on top that I had the roofers put in. They also installed two skylights. Contracted for one, but the put that in the wrong place so I had they install a 2nd skylight at their expense (but I paid for both the skylights materials-wise). I suppose I wouldn't want to spray unless I repair the open wall first. I'd also need a suit and respirator, I suppose, a full body suit. It's not all that big which has me thinking just brush and roll it all instead. The ceiling is about 10x28 feet. What with the vents and skylights it seems like it would be tricky to spray and not get paint in the wrong places. Also, the back and west wall are cinder blocks. Don't want to get paint on them. I think I can handle just brushing and rolling, rolling what I can, of course. First thing I want to do is cut off or grind off protruding nails. There's a lot of those. Also, the old rafters are dirty in a lot of places, very dirty, figure I have to clean them up to some degree before hitting them with Kilz 2 primer.

I have some fans, a couple of big box fans I could use if spraying. Might help.

 

[Mike64]

I'm uncertain. I may just roll and brush it. Thing is, that east wall is nothing but a few framing members now (to be replaced) and just the other side of it is my kabocha squash patch which is full and bearing now. I don't want paint to waft out to it and cover the plants, squash, blossoms etc. with paint.

First, a little overspray at a distance isn't likely to harm the plants. I guess there's a chance it might prevent currently open flowers from being pollinated, but that's about it. And more to the point, a cheap lightweight plastic tarp laid over the patch for a couple of hours (weighted down with stones or whatever at strategic locations would deal with that and certainly wouldn't do them any harm.

 

[Pick2]

I would suggest talking to your roofer about the nails poking through the roof. They are probably holding your shingles on , it might not take much to loosen them. Have you considered putting up some paneling to hide the whole rafters/nails/old-new wood unsightly mess ? You'd have to box in the skylights and panel the rest.

 

[TechBoyJK]

If you just paint over the nails they'll likely not be easy to see so I'd probably not bother.

 

[Muse]

If you just paint over the nails they'll likely not be easy to see so I'd probably not bother.

Yes, to some extent this will be it. There are so many of those nails and some are hard to deal with because of where they are (can't get my recipro saw on them or a grinder). My local library's tool lending library has 16 grinders and they were all out on Saturady. I think a hand-held grinder will work OK on some of the short nail tips that are showing through the plywood where they installed the two vents. There's around 100 of those nail ends sticking through (up to 1/4") just near the vents. Not important to grind them off but I think I will anyway.

Yesterday I clinched down some nails, cut off 1/2 dozen others with the recipro. Some others I'll just ignore... the ones that are hard to cut/grind off.

Paneling? Too much trouble, I figure. Besides, I wouldn't know what's behind that paneling once installed. I'd rather see. I like the idea of white paint. It will brighten the space some. One or two coats of Kilz 2 may be OK. Maybe one with a semi-gloss white top coat.

I think I'll leave the painting until after I repair the wall. The painting can wait until after next winter, actually, I don't know why it can't, but the wall needs to be done before the next rain.

As far as spraying with that wall open -- well, the squash plantation right next to that open wall can't be covered with a tarp. The vines are considerably trained up long (12 feet and higher) bamboo trellis that I reconstruct every year after the plants get fairly well developed. In fact, a couple of the vines have reached over the upper portions of bamboo and are running laterally across the top of the roof. The plants come within a foot or two of the open wall. I've never spray painted except from aerosol cans. It might be OK, I just figure maybe it should wait until the wall's done.

 

[Mike64]

As far as spraying with that wall open -- well, the squash plantation right next to that open wall can't be covered with a tarp. The vines are considerably trained up long (12 feet and higher) bamboo trellis that I reconstruct every year after the plants get fairly well developed. In fact, a couple of the vines have reached over the upper portions of bamboo and are running laterally across the top of the roof. The plants come within a foot or two of the open wall. I've never spray painted except from aerosol cans. It might be OK, I just figure maybe it should wait until the wall's done.

Ah. Yeah, no... I was assuming the plants were just trailing along on the ground...

 

[Muse]

Yeah, if I spray it will be after the wall's complete. Otherwise, it will be brush/roll.