# High Ceilings



## instock (Nov 17, 2012)

I have a job coming up painting a living room/foyer/staircase/hallway area with 20 foot ceilings. I'm painting the walls only. This is new territory for me. I'm planning to just cut in with an extension ladder and do the walls with an 18" roller on a pole. But I'm not really sure. Can I do 20 feet in one shot with the roller? Or should I break it up into high and low sections? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


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## Quality_PTG (May 9, 2011)

instock said:


> I have a job coming up painting a living room/foyer/staircase/hallway area with 20 foot ceilings. I'm painting the walls only. This is new territory for me. I'm planning to just cut in with an extension ladder and do the walls with an 18" roller on a pole. But I'm not really sure. Can I do 20 feet in one shot with the roller? Or should I break it up into high and low sections? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


Do all your cutting first (two coats). When rolling full strips, if you do the high then the low you'll get lap marks. 
I doubt you'll get full even coverage in one coat though, so plan for two


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## carzie (May 21, 2013)

What PTG said about cutting is correct, although I usually just do the extension ladder cutting twice before I roll. Box all your paint prior to cutting. 

It depends on how fast the coat is drying, sometimes I can step it across and then down. When you step it down put the paint on then back roll with the last motion of the roller going upwards and gently lifting it off the wall at the lap without stopping the motion upwards. It doesn't always work but on the first coat you should be able to see if it will.


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

20ft in one dip and movement? That's not how it's done. Let's say you can reach 20 ft with a pole extended 16 ft, how far away are you from the wall when you get to the bottom? Not like you can get even coverage from top to bottom in one movement.

Hire a painter.


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## carzie (May 21, 2013)

avenge said:


> 20ft in one dip and movement? That's not how it's done. Let's say you can reach 20 ft with a pole extended 16 ft, how far away are you from the wall when you get to the bottom? Not like you can get even coverage from top to bottom in one movement.
> 
> Hire a painter.


 You're starting to sound like another seasoned pro that posts in here.:whistling C'mon Avenge tell us how you would tackle this....besides hiring me to do it.


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

I like to split the height difference when rolling high walls like that. Stand on an 8ft step ladder, with the roller pan or bucket on the floor. Don't have to extend your pole as far. Reach down and dip, reach up and roll. 

It also makes it possible to get a full stroke down the wall, or very nearly so anyway. Put a lot of paint on and finish with as long of a down stroke as I can manage is how I do it. 

Here's a sanctuary we did couple weeks ago. Don't think I got any pics of the rolling.


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

carzie said:


> You're starting to sound like another seasoned pro that posts in here.:whistling C'mon Avenge tell us how you would tackle this....besides hiring me to do it.


I'm willing to give tips but not teach. Post your phone number.:laughing:


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

Jmayspaint said:


> I like to split the height difference when rolling high walls like that. Stand on an 8ft step ladder, with the roller pan or bucket on the floor. Don't have to extend your pole as far. Reach down and dip, reach up and roll.
> 
> It also makes it possible to get a full stroke down the wall, or very nearly so anyway. Put a lot of paint on and finish with as long of a down stroke as I can manage is how I do it.
> 
> Here's a sanctuary we did couple weeks ago. Don't think I got any pics of the rolling.


Where's Casion when I need him, too much for me to even comment on.


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## carzie (May 21, 2013)

avenge said:


> I'm willing to give tips but not teach. Post your phone number.:laughing:


No way...I get too many calls from India as it is


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## carzie (May 21, 2013)

avenge said:


> Where's Casion when I need him, too much for me to even comment on.


 I agree, the first thing that caught my eye was the blue shirt clashing with the dark ceiling.


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## Quality_PTG (May 9, 2011)

carzie said:


> I agree, the first thing that caught my eye was the blue shirt clashing with the dark ceiling.


At least he's wearing white paints, right JM


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

avenge said:


> Where's Casion when I need him, too much for me to even comment on.



Is that the guy that was recently telling the CT painting forum that it was a joke? 

Haven't stepped over to CT painting forum for a while, good to see it's still such a friendly place. 

That's my apprentice cutting in. I thought she did good using the brush extension and mini roller to compensate for limited ladder sets amongst the pews. We knocked that out in a day.


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## Ohio painter (Dec 4, 2011)

Here are my thoughts. How much light shines on the walls? Light shining across the walls will show the lap marks, if this is the case then consider a flat paint if possible. 
If using satin paint then consider two painters one painting high and one low, a wet edge is maintained and that reduces the lap marks.

Nothing wrong with cutting in from an extension ladder but I prefer to roll from a 6' (or in this situation a 10') rolling scaffold, if there is room. 

Rolling from top to bottom a 20' wall with an 18" roller is a bit unrealistic if good looking walls is the goal.


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## Jmayspaint (Apr 20, 2014)

Years ago I had this high foyer to do, the clients picked eggshell. I about drove myself crazy trying to make those high walls look right with eggshell, and finally switched to matte and made it work. 

Not too long after that I read the side of some paint can (don't remember what brand) to finish with all the finish roller strokes going in the same direction. I started trying it and was amazed at how much flashing is reduced if I rolled like that. 

Rollers leave a different texture depending on which way they are rolled because of the weave of the fibers, or microfibers. That textural difference can show up as flashing. 

On the wet edge idea, with Gennex paints like Aura and Ultra Spec, I've been advised to not try to keep a wet edge, even on normal height walls, but rather let the cut in dry before rolling. I think I'm a fairly fast applicator, but I can't keep up with Aura or US and keep a wet edge except maybe on small walls like in a bathroom or kitchen. Perhaps a crew who was really on top of it could do it on large walls, but it doesn't seem to be necessary. 

Super fast drying acrylics, and water based colorants are changing things rapidly.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

Your best option is to talk them into all one color and spray it. Worked on my last tall ceiling and I'm not even a painter. :whistling


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## instock (Nov 17, 2012)

avenge said:


> Hire a painter.


I am the painter. I've painted hundreds of rooms with 8 foot ceilings. Is it that difficult or are you just being condescending? I'm actually pretty excited about it. I feel like I'm moving up in the world.


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## instock (Nov 17, 2012)

I don't really understand the advantage of cutting twice before rolling. Why not just cut, roll, cut roll? Just to avoid putting the ladder on the fresh paint? This is a pretty radical color change.


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## Quality_PTG (May 9, 2011)

instock said:


> I don't really understand the advantage of cutting twice before rolling. Why not just cut, roll, cut roll? Just to avoid putting the ladder on the fresh paint? This is a pretty radical color change.


What cutting in twice does is avoids just that. Because your risking removing the fresh paint off the wall. It'll also give you an idea of how coverage will go.


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

instock said:


> I am the painter. I've painted hundreds of rooms with 8 foot ceilings. Is it that difficult or are you just being condescending? I'm actually pretty excited about it. I feel like I'm moving up in the world.


If you were a painter you wouldn't be asking the questions you posted. The answers are pretty basic and common knowledge to a painter. Then you question what a painter has suggested in cutting it in twice before rolling. Something a painter would already know. A radical color change has no effect on it at all.

Like I said "I'll give tips but I won't teach". As Casion said at times the painting section is sometimes more like a DIY section.

If you've painted hundreds of 8 ft walls and you think you're a painter then you're right it's not that difficult for a painter to figure out how to to do 20 ft walls.


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## Anti-wingnut (Mar 12, 2009)

avenge said:


> Where's Casion when I need him, too much for me to even comment on.


Yea that


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