Wife went away to visit relatives and I took a couple vacation days to get our downstairs and upstairs hallway ceilings repainted, plus fish wire for a new, second hallway light where we could use it.

This house was built in 1951 and we are only the second owners. Apparently the wife of the gentleman who had it built smoked like a dammed chimney all her life and passed round 2002 or so.

The hallway ceilings were NASTY. They were brown from years of smoke and nicotine and it was a royal PITA to get them white again.

I first cleaned them with TSP. Then patched and did my cutting to fish wire, then patching of the two holes I cut.

I had bought Kilz Premium (water based) which had worked well in the dining room which was grubby but not near as bad as the downstairs hallway for some reason, it's as if all the smoke just collected there and soaked in. The plan was to do one good coat of Kilz Premium, then one good coat of Glidden pink-to-white ceiling flat white. I had used the Kilz Original before in our old house where we had water leak stains from a bad roof section that made bad stains in plaster and lath walls, and it worked well but is NASTY stuff, oil-based, that splatters and drips like crazy as its thin and is very hard to clean up.

First coat of Kilz Premium goes on and dries. The stains bleed right though. OK, second coat will do it! Nope, smoke and nicotine stains are bleeding through. Sunofabitch, I need to break out the heavy artillery and use the Kilz Original after all.

FINALLY after 2 coats of Kilz Premium and 1 coat of Kilz Original and 1 coat of Glidden ceiling paint, the ceilings are snow white again and look good.

That was a lot of work and I HATE painting. I'm good at it, but don't enjoy it.

I really dislike smokers, that stuff just makes a mess everywhere, inside you and out.

I was gonna say start with TSP but you're way ahead of me. Over and done with now, huh? Congrats for surviving.

Stains from smoking are very hard to kill, as you found--particularly because yellow is a "bleeder" colour.

Yup, cleaning with TSP as a starter is a good idea, because, if nothing else, it will allow the stain-kill to stick better.

As you found: If you need a stain-kill, best not to screw with it. Go with the nuclear option and be done with it in one go

Glad to see you go through it.

while delivering tv's to customers , we offered to haul the old tv's away .

I've seen many old tv's that had so much nicotine and dust on them that you could not see the rca plugs on the back of the set.

they were filthy .

When I was young a lot houses had only one phone and it was often located on a small table in the downstairs hall along with a chair, and beside the phone was an ashtray.

Its important to know that water based stain killers like Kilz Premium are characterized as surface sealers. What this means is after one good coat the stain is "sealed in" even though you can still see it. When you apply your topcoat it should no longer bleed through. These products are really quite good and considerably easier to deal with.

I had the same problem renovating a 1970's house that also had popcorn ceilings. I scraped the ceilings and went through exactly the same experience. In particular the spots by the ceiling vents and over dining room table where evidently someone smoked a lot.
Two coats of Kilz Original was the fix. Since I had ripped the carpets off the floors the mess wasn't a problem.
There may have been other paints that would do it but I was on a tight schedule and wanted to move on.

I don't hate painting as much as prep-

quote:

Originally posted by lbsid:
Its important to know that water based stain killers like Kilz Premium are characterized as surface sealers. What this means is after one good coat the stain is "sealed in" even though you can still see it. When you apply your topcoat it should no longer bleed through. These products are really quite good and considerably easier to deal with.

Good to know for the last place I need to get; the kitchen. So I don't need to obsess over seeing a little staining showing through the Kilz and the ceiling paint is actually going to cover it?

Before I retired for good I was working in a computer store. Many times after opening a computer case to do diagnostics, etc. we would have to leave the computer outside to try to air it out. Yellow smoking stains on all the equipment and very nasty smell. Almost as bad as opening one up and finding it full of roaches.

quote:

popcorn ceilings

?

Kilz Original is alcohol base, hence the very thin viscosity and strong odor. Drys fast too.

quote:

popcorn ceilings

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The ceiling looks like popcorn sprayed on it. Google images will show it. Popular in 1970s for finishing ceilings. Hides defects well, ugly and it collects dust. Pre 1979 may contain asbestos.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by lbsid:
Its important to know that water based stain killers like Kilz Premium are characterized as surface sealers. What this means is after one good coat the stain is "sealed in" even though you can still see it. When you apply your topcoat it should no longer bleed through. These products are really quite good and considerably easier to deal with.

Good to know for the last place I need to get; the kitchen. So I don't need to obsess over seeing a little staining showing through the Kilz and the ceiling paint is actually going to cover it?

Suggest you do a little test on any obvious bleeding to be sure but that's the way it's drawn up.

quote:

Originally posted by lbsid:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by lbsid:
Its important to know that water based stain killers like Kilz Premium are characterized as surface sealers. What this means is after one good coat the stain is "sealed in" even though you can still see it. When you apply your topcoat it should no longer bleed through. These products are really quite good and considerably easier to deal with.

Good to know for the last place I need to get; the kitchen. So I don't need to obsess over seeing a little staining showing through the Kilz and the ceiling paint is actually going to cover it?

Suggest you do a little test on any obvious bleeding to be sure but that's the way it's drawn up.

I just had to repaint a hallway with black sharpie all over it. Killz did the trick in one coat despite the marker being visible after that coat. White paint went on and no marker visible.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

popcorn ceilings

?

Yep, I was amazed at the price a controlled-material approved contractor wanted to scrap/remove/paint ceiling/dispose of potentially hazardous material. The ceiling was done around 1980 but he was concerned that there was the off chance there was asbestos in the popcorn.

I did the safe route, did it myself with full protective gear, respirator, hood, booties, etc. Disposed of the bagged waste at a facility that handled that stuff. Contractor wanted over $3,000.00 bucks (+ open-ended price contract) to do the job and repaint ceiling. I did whole thing for less than $160.00.

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:



Yep, I was amazed at the price a controlled-material approved contractor wanted to scrap/remove/paint ceiling/dispose of potentially hazardous material. The ceiling was done around 1980 but he was concerned that there was the off chance there was asbestos in the popcorn.

I did the safe route, did it myself with full protective gear, respirator, hood, booties, etc. Disposed of the bagged waste at a facility that handled that stuff. Contractor wanted over $3,000.00 bucks (+ open-ended price contract) to do the job and repaint ceiling. I did whole thing for less than $160.00.

Yep, asbestos abatement seems to be a real racket these days.

Watch any of these home reno shows where they find asbestos then tell the poor buyers that it's going to be like $5,000...$8,000...$10,000 to get rid of.