I'm living with a crappy interior paint job right now. Our ceiling looks similar to yours, actually, but the entire house is a mess. In our situation, we believe the contractor did not prep the drywall nor prime it. I'm sick over it. We have blistering over the mudded areas, flashing and you can easily scrape paint off with a thumbnail even though it's been "curing" for six months. We asked the contractor to make it right and he came back to repaint, but it did no good.

This is fresh on my mind because we mailed a certified letter to him this morning with our notice of intent to file a complaint with the state CCB. The people we have talked to have told us we have to scrape and sand the ENTIRE house because there is no adhesion between the drywall and the first coat of paint. That's some serious $$$ and time.

Do not let them leave and do not pay them until it is to your satisfaction. Our painter was highly recommended, licensed, bonded, no complaints, etc. and I made the mistake of writing a check while the paint was still wet. Lesson learned.

Looks like they might have used two different kinds of paint? an eggshell and semi gloss?

Thanks for the replies.

Right...supposed to be low luster but not flat. I will need to look at what the architect specified. The issue per the SW rep is that the finish builds up as they keep touching up and a low luster becomes more like semi gloss.

When I used to paint we did rolling with the sun to minimize lap marks.

Spraying is probably best but we are mostly moved in.

I feel horrible for you, benjesbride. What a mess.

I don't want to accept a terrible job either. Like I said, we have been unbelievably flexible and willing to make compromises. I hope that hasn't given people license to take advantage.

Also, like benjesbride, blame was placed on the drywallers who they said didn't prime properly. But I don't know what ever happened to that theory.

What is the rep's solution? start over with primer and spray the whole thing?

It sounds to me like they aren't repainting, but touching up. You will always see a haze where the wet paint went on top of dry paint. It's also a problem when you're painting an area too big to handle. If you aren't putting a wet roller onto paint that's still wet, you'll get this. This is why my painters prefer to spray, because then they don't have to worry about keeping a wet edge. But spraying makes SUCH a mess.

I have to talk to the builder so that is why I am asking for help. His guy has already said the new paint isn't working so the builder knowsthere is a problem. The painter sub hasn't been out since the SW rep was here last. My guess is he won't be back.

Is it out of line to request the entire ceiling and some walls be repainted? Not touched up...but repainted from scratch?

I don't think it's out of line to ask them to repaint the whole ceiling. However, if your entire main floor is one ceiling with no walls or bulkheads, they may not be able to fix it without spraying. And having seen the dust produced by spraying, I would live with that rather than repaint. But that's me. I am so sick of the dust, and I don't even live there yet!

Go for it. You have nothing to lose. You don't ask, you don't get. You ask, you might get or be able to negotiate. Do ask.

I think I just figured out why they do popcorn ceilings. ..

When I redid my condo (a reno) we had a painter who didn't do the best job. We had the GC redo the areas that weren't done right with a new and better painter at the GC's cost.

What locality is it where the drywall crew also paints the primer? That is not a good system, leads to finger-pointing like we are seeing here.

Casey

I reviewed the architects documents...the primer is specified as PVA. The sheen of the paint is not specified, but the brand and type are specified. SW Harmony. The contract specifies PVA primer and a satin sheen but neither brand nor type are specified. The painters used SW products and the walls and ceilings were Promar 400 low luster.

I realize the Promar 400 is an average grade paint. As I have noted before, I was building this house from 1400 miles away and only noticed the paint when we came out prior to our supposed completion date. I felt at the time that it was too late for me to object to the 400. As with other things, I believe my distance from the project enabled the builder to cut some corners.

I did require that the architects selection document be made a part of the contract. I don't know if that helps or not in this situation. My assumption in doing that was to ensure that those things not picked up in the contract specifically didn't fall through the cracks. This helped when, for example, I noticed that two interior doors were incorrect. Now he did reorder them, but he reordered them with clear glass as opposed to obscure glass which was specified in the document. I agreed to accept them to keep things moving. This really has been a messed up process...

I wouldn't use satin paint on a ceiling. It reflects every little imperfection.

I'd currently be up in that attic and investigating the air sealing and insulation levels overhead. I have a suspicion that it's not just the paint itself, but how the paint interacts with humidity. I have an idea that you may be getting some moisture vapor issues there because of a thin spot in the insulation or break in the air seal.

Sophie, that's not what I wanted to hear!

The area in the photo is not under an attic...there's a floor above. However, as I understand it, the plywood subfloor above did have a moisture problem which delayed laying the oak flooring on the second floor for a month. I was assured it was dry when it was insulated and sheetrocked. I had it inspected and no moisture was detected (by some device I had never seen before).

In fact, the SW rep had at one point postulated that the sheetrock was too dry and soaked the paint up before the sheen could set properly yadda yadda.

I was a big fan of SW prior to this.

When we were getting our condo ready to sell and had to touchup the ceiling (unfortunate explosion of a juicer with green juice!), we couldn't get "touchups" to work so we completely repainted it. Even completely redoing the whole ceiling by rollering we couldn't get the roller marks to stop showing. Someone suggested a high-quality ceiling paint from SW called Emminence- we rolled it on and it worked wonderfully. Maybe they can re-roller it with a better type of paint?

Our painter sprayed our vaulted ceiling using SW Snowbound color. Flat finish and it's perfect. He also did a great job of priming beforehand. We checked daily to insure everything was being done to our satisfaction. I realize not everyone can check daily, but should if possible. Also, I have done painting in houses for more than 40 years and I don't buy the sheen building up. That's crap.... They used different paint sheens, period. I don't have a solution other than reprinting the entire ceiling. I feel bad for you having this happen in your new home.