IMO... You'll have to prime & paint that ceiling! Use a good, Flat white, or LIGHT coordinating color in Flat. Don't put any water or oil Poly up there!! It would be very messy, & impossible to get even. Rule out the Gardz for this as well, although it CAN be used as a primer. Traditional primers would serve better here though. >>> One option...C2 has a "Dead-Flat" paint that might be useful on this ceiling. You could have the White-base tinted to a very light color, and in "dead-flat", it would be very rich up there! I just wouldn't leave the ceiling as smooth Joint-compund only. It's not plaster...it needs to be coated with primer & paint, or any cleaning would be a dusty nightmare! Definately use a 1/2" or 3/4" roller to apply! You'll be re-loading every 5 seconds if using a 1/4"!! These will leave some stipple...unless you're gonna have it sprayed?! Faron

We did veneer plaster for a couple of reasons. In our regional area, no one does it. We had to go to a specialty supplier and order it in. We found someone who trained in Maine to install it and the only reason it was a bit more expensive than drywall is because our original framing was uneven and we ordered 5/8" thick sheets. I had a pretty strong aversion to drywall after the adventures with mold. Veener plaster is freakin' gorgeous, perfectly smooth and we would do it again in a heartbeat. The feel of it perfectly matches the rest of the house - which is all 1920's plaster. Here, people call the supposedly water resistant drywall "blueboard", so I was surprised by what it looked like (gray, gray and more gray) and that it was made up of two slightly different layers and that it is much harder and denser than drywall. It works pretty well as a sound deadener too! @casey Wow, that is really nice!

Yep, if you dont like it now, it will be bugging you later. You dont necessarily need a level 5, but thats your call. And gray is right, if you’re going to do it, now is the time.

Ask a plasterer in the boston area.