Hi there
Have a property that was built in early 70's, 2 story, concrete slab ceiling. The ceiling is covered in textured popcorn (vermiculite) and it's never been painted. It's a living, dining, kitchen space.
It feels like brittle plaster to the touch and is easy to break little bits off. Have had it tested and no asbestos by the way.
Decided to tackle it with a roller first. Did a small section - it was really slow, used a load of paint and didn't look fantastic so decided to hire a sprayer!
The sprayer worked fairly well but its using a LOT of paint. Have applied 3 coats of water based sealer/primer with the sprayer spread over 24hrs and used about 30 litres of paint (40sq metres in area).
It still looks a little patchy, some slightly darker spots and the worst bit is the section that was rolled is noticeable as being a little whiter. It isn't showing any signs of sagging or separating from the concrete slab though which is something I've read in other posts as being an issue.
I've dropped back the hired sprayer and was going to leave it for at least 12hrs to try and let it dry out fully.
Not sure where to go from here! Options I see:
1) Tackle it with the roller again. Now that there is a good layer of paint on it hoping that it will take a final coat of primer easily, to make it all an even shade, before giving it one more layer with the actual paint (vivid white colour).
2) Rehire the sprayer and try and apply another layer of the primer and a coat of the white paint in 24hr period and hope that's enough.
Couple of other options which involve admitting defeat but not sure I'm ready for that yet!!
Any advice greatly appreciated. Space is obviously completely out of commission with plastic covered walls and drop cloths and wife is getting uneasy!
Attached is a pic showing original finish alongside rolled section. No spraying done at this point.
Thanks.
John