Don't blame the painter for bad plaster.

That 's a little more than bad plaster.
The only way to get that back to an actual level 5 would be to float it.

No plaster, all new 5/8â drywall on a perfectly flat ceiling with a glass smooth Level 5 finish. What you think is plaster is paint. Painting contractor was shocked by the appalling paint job applied by the crew he hired and they were fired immediately.

You should not be surprised, they were not the best of pics and it is hard to tell. That was truly one very bad paint job. Just go to show you ANYBODY can paint, how hard is it :-)

Well yea....that is because it looks like a failed attempt at texturing the ceiling. I can't imagine how even the worst painters in the world can get a ceiling to look that bad with just regular paint. I wonder though if the Duration Matte is part of the problem. The Duration Home line has a gritty feel to it, almost like there is fine sand in the paint. At least it did many years ago when I tried it once and vowed never to use it again because I wasn't looking for texture paint. I would recommend though not to use any matte paint on your ceiling if you are really wanting it to look perfect. Dead flat is the only way to go.

Dead flat is the only way to go.

for sure

Paintguy, All the walls and ceilings surfaces were new 5/8âÂÂdrywall with a Level 5 smooth finish. All the walls and ceilings were skim coated and sanded smooth before priming. All the walls and ceilings were covered with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Premium primer and block sanded with 220 grit sandpaper between coats and after the second coat.

The contract specified the living space ceiling be sprayed and back rolled with a 1/4â nap sleeve. All the walls, including the kitchen ceiling were supposed to be cut in and rolled with a 1/4â nap sleeve.

We picked this painting company because the owner was from New York and had 30 years of smooth wall painting experience. Smooth wall surfaces are not common on the west coast and we wanted someone with experience to show off our hard work. The owner of the company painted the powder room a few days before the rest of the downstairs was painted and we were satisfied with the results. We thought the owner of the company was going to paint with another highly qualified painter, but instead an individual who sprays showed up and he hired someone the owner of the company never met before to help him.

The lead painter who also sprayed exhibited disturbing behavior I can only describe as manic. He seemed wound up like a top. I mentioned this to the owner of the company before he left to go to another job, but he didnâÂÂt think anything of it. Maybe he just had too many cups of coffee that morning. A few hours later I mentioned this behavior to the lead painter and he admitted to using meth in the past, but said he could not handle it. I believe the owner of the paint company brought a drug user into our home to paint that was not capable of rational thought and could not control his impulses. A few days later the so-called journeyman the sprayer hired to roll stopped by our home to apologize for the appalling paint job. He said he tried to stop the lead painter because he knew they were fuxking up the house, but the lead painter refused to stop and was determined to finish the job that day no matter what. This was supposed to be a two-day job, but they squeezed into one. I had the local Sherwin-Williams technical troubleshooter stop by and he recoiled and said My God !! when he saw the painted surfaces.

Paintguy, I find the Sherwin-Williams Duration paint gritty also. How do you like Benjamin Moore Regal Select? I have heard the Aura can be problematic to apply.

BTW, the living space ceiling was supposed to be flat, but the painter used Duration Matte without consulting us. All other surfaces including the kitchen ceiling were to be painted with Duration Satin.

This post was edited by Aptos_Station on Tue, Jul 8, 14 at 14:19

Benjamin Moore Regal Select

I will not speak for paintguy but IMO it is hands down better than Duration any day

I don't know about Aura. I find that it goes on just like any paint. These days, you have to move fast as paints just dry too fast. I don't really find that Aura dries any faster than the others. I do have problems with Aura though with lapping marks so that would not be a good choice for a ceiling. Honestly, no shiny paint is a good choice for a ceiling unless you are requiring some washability then there is no choice but to use one. If I had my choice for a washable ceiling paint, I would probably use the Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec low sheen because I find this particular line dries down the best. It doesn't have the durability of the Regal line though because it's just a cheaper middle grade paint. Regal Select should work fine though. I wouldn't recommend a 1/4" nap sleeve though. I know you probably want low visible stipple, but 1/4" is just too small. I don't think I have even used anything smaller than 1/2" on a ceiling.

I had one section between beams that ended up with some of that same problem. Also on brand new drywall, over primer. I ended up having to completely sand it down, and start over. This time, I put floetrol in the paint, and had no problems at all. The problem lies with the new paints, which dry fast, and if someone doesnt move quickly enough, to get the next section blended in, it drags it out and thats the way it looks. Floetrol, keeps the paint from drying too fast, so you will get a nice smooth coat with no streaking. Your paint contractor, should come in and do all this sanding for you, but, I dont think I would trust him to do any more painting. Make sure you stick around while sanding is going on, so you know it is done absolutely perfect.

Looks like the drywall company we hired to restore both ceilings to a level 5 smooth finish will start Tomorrow. We had a highly recommended paint company from Monterey stop by yesterday and they will be able to provide the high level of paint finish we are looking for. The owner of the new paint company could not believe how smooth and flat the walls I just restored were. He said they are not Level 5, but must be Level 7 or 8. He knows Level 5 is the highest, but could not get over what I had done with drywall. I received similar comments from other contractors in different trade before the first paint contractor we hired damaged our walls.

We have sufficient evidence now to prove the paint application done by the sprayer was felony vandalism under California law. The individual who was hired by the sprayer admitted he witnessed the damage and could not get him to stop. The owner of the company will not explain why this happened to us and why an individual he has had problems with in the past was brought into our home. He just wants to come to a financial settlement and move on. Our insurance agent is recommending we file a report with the Sheriffs Department.

Regarding the Sherwin-Williams Emerald paint, we like it very much. I prepared a 4â x 4â piece of 5/8â drywall and painted half with Sherwin-Williams Emerald Greek Villa in satin using a 1/4â roller sleeve and the other half using a 3/16â roller sleeve. The finish on both were excellent.

This post was edited by Aptos_Station on Tue, Jul 8, 14 at 14:21

Sherwin-Williams

not sherman

I was just reading your thread here and was so sad for you.
Such incredibly bad work. Vandalism is definitely what was perpetrated.

I look forward to seeing your end results. I'm willing to bet the end result will be incredible, just given the trouble others now have to make up for!

Take a breath. :) It's gonna be lovely!

The drywall finishers arrived this morning and they are skim coating the ceilings. Tomorrow they will sand and see if a second coat is required. Their primary clientele are located in Monterey and along the Carmel Coast. They just completed a $106,000 drywall job on a seaside home in Carmel. I understand the home will be featured in an upcoming edition Architectural Digest. They were very impressed with my wall preparation. They compared it to veneer plaster or polished stone.

So good to see craftsmen at work in our home today instead of the lunatic who showed up a few weeks ago to paint.

This post was edited by Aptos_Station on Tue, Jul 8, 14 at 16:13

Thanks for keeping us posted.
The original painter and employer need to be taught a serious lesson.

Lunatic! ROTFL.
Crackhead, idiot, but lunatic? hehehehhe
I'm so happy your new contractors seem to be "pedigreed" if you would. :)
I'd love to see pics if you have time.