We have an unfinished basement, low ceiling, old house - ductwork, conduit and pipes run beneath the ceiling joists in some places so a finished ceiling is not an option for us. We sprayed our entire basement, the previously mentioned mechanicals, the ceiling joists, the underside of the subfloor, the cement walls - everything - with white blockout primer. My husband rented an airless sprayer (before we had our own) and bought 5 gallon buckets of the primer. First thing was to empty the basement totally and hose it down - as I said, old house, lots of cobwebs and decades of dust. Once dry we taped off outlets, light switches and windows but everything else got painted. Made the space much brighter than having the old, age darkened wood, gray ductwork and pipes. It's still just an unfinished basement but perfect for my studio on one side and what used to be used a rec room for my boys.

Hello ycmomm >>> Correct...2 coats sprayed on a popcorn ceiling would be appropriate, BUT...since yours is a smooth surface, ANY little variance in surface will be noticed. >>> What concerns me is---some of your surface is primed, and some is existing paint. OFTEN, paints will dry slightly different on a primed surface vs. existing paint. How old is the existing paint?? >>> If this were MY ceiling, I would have the WHOLE thing primed (spray or rolled), THEN 2 coats sprayed. Some do it this way, & some don't. REASON: Priming everything means the actual "paint coats" will have the same appearance everywhere. Some will spray 1st coat going "north/south", and the 2nd coat sprayed/rolled "east/west". >>> I can pretty much guarantee if he just sprays one coat of color, and not prime all, you'll be able to see where your two different areas are!! Faron

Lyban, I'm sorry!! I absolutely love the floors, though I'm already wishing we'd sealed them (I think this will pass as I add furniture, rugs, etc). Unfortunately none of the pictures are very good so far, but here are some anyway. So, approaching hte basement, before you'd have seen really nasty old linoleum with dirt ground in and shiny dirty-looking paint Now you see fresh flat white paint and new charcoal carpet. The new basement floor is visible, but pretend you don't see that yet! Walking into the basement, before there were dirty dark shiny paneled walls (I don't even have any pictures of those), a moldy old dropped ceiling, flourescent lights above gross old panels, and dark brown vinyl tiles that were releasing from years of neglect. This represents a halfway picture, with older paint, the dropped ceiling removed, and new lighting. Then we painted the ceiling flat black (the subject of this thread, of course!), painted the walls bright flat white, and replaced the flooring with diamond-set white and grey vinyl tiles (the commercial stuff by Armstrong). The pictures of the new floor aren't very good...we don't have any of the new furniture we're planning to get and frankly I'm not even sure what I want. So I am definitely open to decorating ideas...I'm thinking charcoal couch, huge area rug (perhaps an accent color?), and a loveseat or additional chairs. Even now, as I sit here, we've placed some of the furniture--TV, our one chair, and the exercise stuff, but I dare not take pictures because DH finally has his TV back after almost 1.5 months! Laundry room main living area, with furniture all pushed to the middle (this was right after installation) To sum up, this is what's happened over the last 6-7 weeks: 1. ripped out old/moldy/disintegrating/incompletely installed dropped ceiling 2. installed can lights (removed old, in some cases nonfunctional, flourescent tubes) 3. painted the unfinished ceiling black (huge ordeal, involved moving almost everything upstairs and then taping off all walls and remaining items with thick plastic sheeting before renting a gigantic power paint sprayer...) 4. demolished huge, old, smelly, dusty-----but surprisingly (and unfortunately for me, the demolisher) well-built!----plywood/particleboard/pegboard/wood closets 5. ripped up nasty old floor tiles that were coming up and breaking into small pieces all over the place (thank you victoria---horrible job); we then lived with nasty black mastic for almost two weeks, until #8 happened this week. 6. Had an asbestos-wrapped copper water pipe professionally removed 7. painted old dark shiny paneled walls flat white, including the stairwell walls and ceiling. 8. installed new VCT tile and base molding, and carpeted the stairs with charcoal-colored carpet

Thanks! Unfortunately, this is our "forever home" for now, and I can't imagine living in it as is. If the wood were nicer, sure, but it will be tough otherwise. At the very least the window trim (which is new) will have to be painted, and the basement apartment panelling too. We overpaid for the house because it's in a great school district, so for future I don't think many individuals looking for authenticity will be interested in our area (lots of cheaper options elsewhere). The next buyers our home will attract will be young people with kids who are looking for the least expensive house in the most expensive neighbourhood, much like we were. That age group will likely want something more modern. At least that is my thinking! I would hate to devalue our home, but at the same time if it's not going to make a difference I wouldn't want to cater to a "niche" community. What do you think? Is my reasoning sound? (Really I am new to home-owning and the market so I may make some faulty assumptions).