We had a plaster ceiling that was cracking. We put new drywall up over the ceiling and finished the seams. We have finished drywall before, but only on wall. Apparently ceilings are alot harder. We have a tetured wall and really do not want a texture on the ceiling (we would never be able to match the textures anyway). We have primed and painted the ceiling with flat paint and can see the seams. We do not have alot of light in the room either. Does anyone have any suggestions to hide the seams? Thanks
One problem I can see is that your joints may not be flush which makes the problem worst. If they are level with each other, apply your tape and then apply an 8 wide coat over that feathering the edges. Let dry and lightly sand rough spots. Go back over with a 10, resand to where it looks smooth but don't worry about divits or small blemishes. Finally Go over it with 12 knife with a tight coat. Your basically putting it on and taking it off with more pressure just to fill in any blemishes. Then lightly sand. Make sure to use lightweight joint compound for finishing. If it is uneven, you must do a coat on each side of the joint, sometimes 3 or 4 rows of mud to get it to where you cannot feel a ridge running your hand over it. Remember the wider that you feather it out, the smoother it will look. As for texturing, you can leave it smooth if you want. But texture will hide small blemishes. You can use knockdown, popcorn (acoustic) or stomp the ceilings with a pattern. Use flat paint afterwords.
This is why you see a lot of ceilings with popcorn texture. The acoustic texture hides the flaws. Yes ceilings are harder cause you are working over head. You should use a 12 broad knife on the seams. The topping compound should be at least 12 or more inches wide. This will feather out the seam. A good dry wall-er could do this in no time and he wouldn't charge you much. Spend a few extra bucks and hire out, you already did the hard part. Good luck.
How To Finish Drywall Ceiling
This Site Might Help You. RE: help! Finished drywall on a ceiling and you can see the seams? We had a plaster ceiling that was cracking. We put new drywall up over the ceiling and finished the seams. We have finished drywall before, but only on wall. Apparently ceilings are alot harder. We have a tetured wall and really do not want a texture on the ceiling (we would never be able to...
The seams are called joints. The way to properly finish them is to apply joint tape, available in paper and fiberglass mesh. Embed the tape in joint compound using a wide putty knife held at an angle. When the compound is thoroughly dry, sand it completely smooth and reapply more joint compound, feathering out the joint compound until it is about 6-12 inches in width. Sand again until the surface iof the joint is in the same plane as the surface of the surrounding ceiling board.
