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Caulking wall to ceiling?

16 years ago

I had a painter paint my entire house a few years ago and he caulked where the wall meets the ceiling. Is this a standard thing? He didn't even paint it the exact color of either the ceiling (which is soft white) nor the all color. So it looks like I have a brighter white line all around the room.

Now I'm getting ready to paint again. This time I'm doing it myself.

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Comments (4)

paintguy22
16 years ago
Nope it's not a standard thing. Was there a gap there or was he doing it to help make a straight line? Caulk should always be painted, not just caulked and left to collect dirt and dust.
decor64
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks paintguy!

No gaps, he told me he does it to make a straight line. However, it really wasn't all that straight and it makes the corner less defined looking since he's slightly rounded it off. I might try to remove it before I repaint.
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steve-va
16 years ago
Yeah sounds like this guy lost his regular job & had neighbor that need a fence painted. So he painted the fence & VIOLA! Another expert professional painter is born!
moonshadow
16 years ago
Huh, that's new. Have any photos of this caulk job? (I'm curious. ;)

Were it me, I'd pull that caulk off before painting. (Gently, very gently. I use a metal putty knife and 'shimmy' it between caulk and caulked surface, gently loosen just a bit, move on, then when it's time to pull it off I keep the putty knife between caulk and surface and gently pull off the caulk, bracing knife against surface/wall. Any remnants I gently scrape off with end of putty knife in a light pushing motion (like shoveling show). Emphasis on gently ;) You don't want to have thin layers of drywall coming off. Perhaps pros here have a different/better method. Removing will avoid future grief and get a nice crisp line made with paint ;)

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