Painted Basement Ceiling (How-To, Tips, and Lessons Learned)
This guest post comes from a co-worker and friend, Chuck. This post is the detailed follow-up from Sunday’s Before and After featuring Chuck’s basement ceiling. With no further introduction, here’s Chuck’s post:
In an effort to upgrade my unfinished basement, I wanted an alternative to acoustic tile or a drywall ceiling. Fred told me of his tentative plans to paint his open basement ceiling dark brown. After some research, I decided to go with a light color to keep a more open feeling. Airless spraying seemed the only viable option to achieve this, and Fred offered me the use of his Wagner Airless Sprayer. Here’s a picture of the ceiling before the job:
My plans were to spray a primer followed by a flat, off-white paint. I had some Killz2 primer left over from a previous project, so I decided to get more of the same for this one. I’m sure any primer/sealer for bare wood would work.
I was hoping that 2½ gallons would cover the area, but the open beams and bare wood took almost 7 gallons to cover with a light second coat. 5 gallons of flat latex paint was enough for a first and second coat over the primer. Overall, I’m very pleased with the results. My wife will use this as her craft workshop for stamping, and with a some more finish work, it should work very well for that. Here’s what the ceiling looked like after the job:
How-To, Tips, and Lessons Learned for Spraying the Ceiling
1. Isolate your work area with drop cloths on the floor and hanging plastic sheets covering the walls / other areas. Paint sprayers produce some overspray, and you’ll want to protect all the surrounding areas from paint dust. Cheap .3 mil plastic sheeting from Walmart works great and is only $1.39 for a 9′ x 12′ sheet.
2. Use an airless sprayer. Attempting this job with canned spray paint or a traditional brush and roller will not yield good results. The airless sprayer I used is particularly nice because the hopper is on the ground with a long, pressurized hose leading to a lightweight nozzle. (Some airless sprayers hold the paint in the nozzle area).
2. Set up fans for ventilation so that air from the area you are painting is pulled outside. No matter how well you isolate your work area you will get some overspray, but this should help minimize it.
3. Cover the outside of the paint sprayer, hose, and spray handle with spray silicone to make clean up easier. Cleaning up the painter sprayer was very tedious. After cleaning it up from the primer I decided to put a light coating of spray silicon on the body of painter and spray handle. The silicon prevented the paint from sticking and made cleanup the second time much easier.
4. If the ceiling is a bare wood ceiling, it will require a lot of extra primer/paint. I needed 7½ gallons of primer and 5 gallons of paint on an area 20 X 25 ft area. (Remember, with joists the surface area is more than two times that of a flat ceiling).
Additional Painted I-Beam Joist Pictures
Here’s some additional before pics of the unpainted joists and steel i-beam:
The following pictures shows the hanging plastic sheeting from the ceiling, essential to keeping the overspray from floating into other areas:
And finally, here’s some additional finished shots, and one showing a side-by-side comparison of the before and after shots:
What do you think? Are you planning to paint your basement ceiling? Does Chuck’s experience make you more or less likely to pursue this route?
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
35 Responses to Painted Basement Ceiling (How-To, Tips, and Lessons Learned)
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April 8th, 2008 3:24 pm
Wow! What a perfect solution for a basement ceiling. I would love to do this in mine. Unfortunately there is insulation in between the beams. Can you paint insulation? Probably not.
April 8th, 2008 4:37 pm
Will have to consider this when I renovate my basement. I have a low ceiling height, so this could help the space feel a bit larger.
Also, do you know the electrical rules about running wiring through the basement? I had thought if the basement was unfinished, that the cables had to be in conduit. Do you know if this is true? If so, the above basement may not be quite up to code (though I’m sure it is safe).
April 8th, 2008 6:21 pm
Corey, don’t quote me on this because I’m not an expert, but here’s my understanding: If the basement is completely unfinished, you can have neatly secured romex wire that is not in conduit. This also applies in a garage. If the basement is converted to living space, you cannot have any romex showing and all exposed romex must be in conduit.
Now, I don’t know what officially constitutes converting a basement to living space, but I would guess it has to do with how a house is marketed. You can’t include unfinished space in the square foot count, and you can’t advertise bedrooms in unfinished spaces. There’s probably some judgment involved in this. I’ve never heard of a locale penalizing someone for using an unfinished basement as living space, even if you haven’t converted the space.
In Maryland, the codes differ from county to county and Baltimore City. I’m only familiar with Balto. County, so this might be different for you.
April 8th, 2008 11:12 pm
It does look a lot nicer! I would say that is a fairly quick, easy, and cheap way to create a good looking basement space.
April 9th, 2008 12:10 am
This looks great, although, as I said before, I don’t think it’s what I want for my basement. Just personal preference.
But check out my blog, Fred, as I know you’re brainstorming your basement ceiling as well…the hamsters are turning the wheels in my head now.
June 4th, 2008 1:40 pm
This is EXACTLY what Im looking for! I have an unfinished basement but with a little (affordable) Love – a white ceiling to brighten it up, a classy color on the concrete walls, and maybe some all-weather carpeting, it could turn into a very functional space! Your pics have inspired our new summer project. My husband will be pissed!!!
June 4th, 2008 9:10 pm
Cincy, I’m really glad this inspired you! Chuck did a wonderful job on their ceiling. We considered doing a brown-out ceiling in our room (a little different look). We’ve since decided to go ahead and sheetrock it … but I still think a painted ceiling can really go a long way in making a space look better on the cheap.
July 9th, 2008 10:25 pm
This was the greatest solution for an unfinished small efficiency apartment I have. Worked great. The Wagner Crew Plus Painter was terrific. Didn’t take as much paint as I thought it would. The process was great and the room ceiling looks awesome for the type of ceiling that it is.
September 23rd, 2008 8:56 pm
im a beginner do it yourselfer. i love the look of the ceiling. we currently have a drop ceiling that take away probably more than a foot of headroom and have been looking for an alternative
anyways my questions are (1)how did u go about insulation. we live in chicago and out basement is curently not insulated. but we plan on doing this to make it more livable. from the pic it look as if u just pained over the insulation (or at least thats what i think i saw) what kind of insulation do u recommend and question (2) does it matter about spraying paint over the pipes?
September 23rd, 2008 10:02 pm
Hi krystal, here’s your answers:
(1) I would definitely recommend insulating. You can use standard R13 “pink” insulation on the walls. If you plan to frame out the basement, you’ll space the studs on 16″ centers and put the insulation between the studs. Otherwise, you can buy R13 in large sheets that can be fastened directly to the concrete walls with a special tool.
(2) No, it doesn’t matter about spraying over the pipes with standard latex paint. The paint may not form a good bond and might peel, though.
September 23rd, 2008 10:50 pm
the basement is already framed and has some paneling up but no insulation so needless to say that during winters in chicago no one went down there.
we had a closet or what someone considered a weird version of a closet on the back wall. i say this because it had only one door but expanded the entire length of the wall and was only maybe 18 inches deep. so anything that was in the back u had to either crawl over a mountain of other thing to get to it or take everything out to get to it. last week i took the paneling off that wall and put up some drylok.
i want to insulated the other three wall because there is nothing behind the panels other than frames and brick.
ok so the R13 i should use is that fiberglass or the styrofoam ?
September 26th, 2008 11:43 pm
Krystal, either will be fine to use…
November 22nd, 2008 5:07 pm
Is it ok to paint your waterpipes with this kind of paint? I read in a magazine to use cold/heat resistant paint.
November 22nd, 2008 11:02 pm
Jennifer – it is something to consider. It certainly won’t damage the pipes to paint them with latex. The concern is that under constant temperature fluctuations, the paint might peel. That hasn’t happened in the basement where this was applied; however, time will tell.
November 27th, 2008 12:30 am
can I paint over insulation and duck work in the ceiling in the basement. Thank You
December 27th, 2008 8:52 pm
I’m inspired! I just started revamping a creepy basement and am only at the point where I’m scraping paint and fantasizing about how the space will be. Not only am I going to paint the ceiling and steel beams white, but I’m going to color code all the various pipes. The cold water pipes will be painted blue, hot water red, grey water pipes will be painted grey and the sewage pipes will be painted chocolate brown.
Gas pipes will stay copper.
Aside from that, electrical wires will get yellow lightning bolt tags, phone lines will be tagged with little soundwave tags. I’m keeping the heat ducts silver, but wrapping them with silver insulation wraps.
I’m also planning on putting plaques on everything labeling, for instance, what each knob will turn on or shut off (i.e. main water source, bathroom cold water, kitchen cold water, etc.). I have a chalk board in the basement that I will use for scheduling the maintenance of the water heater, furnace, etc. Essentially, I’m going to make it purdy and dummy-proof!
I’m psyched! Thanks for sharing–I’ll be taking before pictures tomorrow, but it’ll probably take me months to finish up.
January 19th, 2009 10:59 am
Did you by chance put any moulding at the top of the drywall? We are considering painting our ceiling, by the drywall at the top is kinda choppy. Any suggestions?
Your basement looks beautiful!
January 19th, 2009 11:04 am
Just one more question…in the side by side photos it looks like the insulation up in the basement ceiling on the exterior walls had “foil” over it in the before photo. Was that just painted over? thanks again!
July 11th, 2009 3:52 pm
Hi folks, LOVE this idea. I was wondering the same questions as Sandi’s last two as well. Any chance you can post an answer on those? I would really appreciate it!
Also, is it necessary to turn off the electricity before painting ceiling electrical boxes/conduit lines? Thanks a lot!!!
July 11th, 2009 7:10 pm
Hi Tricia (& Sandi),
Sorry for missing this. Yes, I believe the insulation was just painted over. Although, in most finished basements it would be unusual to have insulation in the ceiling itself (since you would want heat transfer between the first floor and the basement).
If the conduit is tightly sealed you’re fine painting it while the power is on. You’ll probably want to cover up the receptacles though…
As for the top of the ceiling, crown molding is certainly an option, or some other type of molding.
I will say that we ultimately decided against this plan, even though Chuck is very happy with it. We’re going the drywall route, believing this will be better for resale value…
August 20th, 2009 3:06 pm
great piece of work.
question: did you paint over the pink insulation or first foil it up and paint it?
your project has inspired me to do the same.
thanks.
September 4th, 2009 4:15 pm
Your photos are great! This is what I want my sweetie to do for our home. You did all the research for me thanks again. My husband thought this would make our home even more attractive to potential buyers. Thanks,
Joyce
November 24th, 2009 10:24 pm
would a wagner sprayer work for painting the ceiling?
November 25th, 2009 1:11 pm
Josh – Yes it will. IN fact, this one was done with a $200 wagner model from home depot. You can see our review here:
http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/review-wagner-paint-crew-airless-paint-sprayer/
There’s a link to purchase this model refurbished from amazon for $99.
January 8th, 2010 2:26 pm
I was planning on doing the same thing and found this site when looking for spray painters. I am more confident tahn ever that it will look great. I am also planning to put in ceiling fans (a 8′6″ basement ceiling) but am unsure how to mount them and make them look decent. Any recommendations would be helpful.
I will let you know how the ceiling comes out.
January 10th, 2010 12:51 am
Patrick – the wagner i linked above should work well for you. Good luck and be sure to share the pics – you can do it on our forums (look at the top of the site for a link!)
January 16th, 2010 12:39 am
i used regular paint on my wall heater ; is that ok ?; starting to peel; should i use a different paint
March 11th, 2010 1:10 pm
what about sound travelling through the floors? how would you stop that?
March 11th, 2010 1:18 pm
We did this in our basement according to the above article. it took far more primer than expected. Other than that we love the result. Our summer kitchen and the “grand hall” are wonderful for entertaining. Our family loves the “finished” basement.
March 11th, 2010 9:24 pm
Tyler, there is some discussion on sound proofing at the bottom of this article:
http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/how-to-install-recessed-can-lights/
Joyce, glad to hear it went well. It can take a lot of paint to accomplish this, especially depending on the type of joists.
April 18th, 2010 11:29 pm
hi Fred… i loved what you did on the ceiling…
anyway,… what do you think of Gray for paint?
Can i rent this sprayer(wagner) from Homedepot?
May 17th, 2010 12:43 pm
I have been planning to do this for some time and am glad to find someone with “experience” to ask questions about this project. The color I have chosen is a very deep brown/red color for a rustic look. I DO HAVE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW IF YOU WILL BE SO KIND AS TO TAKE THE TIME TO READ WHAT i WROTE AND COMMENT. Thanks!
1. I probably should make sure all my wiring is done for receptacles and light switches before starting? Correct? Done by a certified electrician?
2. Is there something special to do before, during or after painting over the following things:
insulation,
existing wiring,
existing wires for cable/satelite,
iron beam (with a little rust),
hot and cold copper water pipes,
plastic drain pipes,
heat and cold air return ducts,
light coating of dust remaining on pipes and etc..
Instead of crown molding, I playnto put guttering around the top with lights running inside the guttering for indirect accent lights. Any tips on where to get?
How would I add in a 1/2 bathroom later which would need a ceiling and sound proof walls? I am guessing that I would need a drywall ceiling with insulation in them?
Would I need a building permit to do any of this work for any reason as I am converting my split foyer basement into an activity room/office/family room? After the ceiling, I am going to paint the existing drywall and
May 17th, 2010 9:00 pm
Hi Kathy, welcome to the site. I hope you’ll stick around and read more about our projects.
1) You don’t necessarily have to have the electric done. I probably would, but if you want the wires painted, you’ll want them run first. There is no danger in painting Romex wire as long as the wiring is done to code (certified electrician is probably a good idea, and may be required in your area).
2) Honestly, this work was done by a friend and I think he painted EVERYTHING. Key is to prime first. I’ve never heard of paint doing anything bad to any of the stuff you mentioned. Worse case scenario I think is that it would peel off of vents/pipes etc., but I believe my friend has had a good experience. You shouldn’t need a building permit for this type of work, but if you are doing electrical work you will most definitely need an electrical permit. Note that you can’t just leave Romex exposed in a “finished” area – it has to be inside conduit or inside walls. Technically if you don’t have it “finished” you can’t claim the extra sq. footage when you sell the house and an appraiser will give you at most a “partially finished” marking.
May 25th, 2010 5:19 pm
[...] on a budget, perhaps doing a white on the walls & ceiling could be the trick. I even found a guy who attempted such a feat on his unfinished basement. Now, I just have to convince my mom to go [...]
August 30th, 2010 11:18 pm
Fred,
I like this idea. We have insulation between the basement and the first floor and large hanging hvac hoses.
1. What can we do with the hoses?
2.. Is there a spray product that we can use to insulate?
or
3. Should we just rip out the exhisiting insultion ( may loose noise and heat protection) and spray with wagner after priming?
Dwayne