Ceilings
Ceiling painting in Melbourne
We paint ceilings and cornices, preparing cracks and stains before applying the finish. Lighting can make uneven surfaces and roller marks particularly noticeable on a ceiling.
Preparing ceilings for an even finish
Every other surface in a room gets looked at straight on. A ceiling gets looked at from underneath, at a shallow angle, with the light raking across it from a window or a downlight.
That angle shows everything. A roller mark, a join where a wet edge was lost, a patch that wasn't sanded flat, a strip that got two coats next to a strip that got one. Careful sanding and an even application help avoid these marks.
Water stains, and why they come back
The most common reason people ring us about a ceiling is a brown ring from a leak that's already been fixed.
Painting straight over it does nothing. The stain is a soluble tannin and it migrates up through water-based paint and reappears within a few weeks, usually slightly larger than it was. It has to be sealed with a stain-blocking primer first, and on a bad one that means two passes before any topcoat goes near it.
We'll also ask whether the leak is definitely fixed, and if the answer is vague we'd rather you found out before we paint than after.
What we find up there
Cornice cracks where the ceiling meets the wall. On an older house that's usually seasonal movement rather than anything structural. It gets raked out and filled with a flexible filler, because a rigid one just cracks again in the same line next summer.
Sagging plasterboard between joists, which is a repair job before it's a paint job. Sheets that have dropped need refixing or replacing, and no amount of paint holds a sagging ceiling up.
Old lath and plaster in Victorian and Edwardian places. It's fragile, it flexes, and it doesn't like being scraped hard. It can also carry lead paint, same as everything else pre-1971.
Textured and stipple finishes from the seventies and eighties. They can be painted as they are, they can be skimmed flat at real cost, and if the house is old enough they need checking before anyone sands them.
Ceiling colours and finishes
Ceilings get a flat, dead-matt paint, never anything with a sheen, because sheen is what makes an imperfection visible at that raking angle. Flat white hides the small stuff. It also marks more easily, but nothing touches a ceiling, so that trade is free.
Ceiling white isn't quite the same as wall white either. If you want the ceiling to match the walls exactly, say so, because the default is a slightly different, cooler white on purpose.
Painting the walls at the same time
A fresh ceiling can make older wall paint more noticeable. We can quote the walls at the same time, or help you decide which areas to prioritise within your budget.
What affects the price
- Height and access. A stairwell void or a raked ceiling needs trestles or a scaffold and takes far longer than a flat 2.4m one
- How many stains need sealing, and how heavily
- Cornice, roses and mouldings, which are all hand-cut
- Whether the existing surface is flat, textured or sagging
- Downlights, fans and vents, all of which get cut around
Doing the walls at the same time is on the interior painting page, and what a room costs is in the interior pricing guide.
From our work
See a related project
Warehouse Ceiling and Walls · Reservoir
A warehouse ceiling and wall project in Reservoir. View the before and after photographs and an additional view of the finished space.
Preparation and aftercare
Read our painting preparation and aftercare guide for arranging access, protecting belongings and checking when the painted surface is ready to use or clean.
Want a price on your ceilings?
Send a photo of any stains or cracks. We can usually tell you what caused them before we come out.
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