A Special Holiday Greeting from CAM Painters
Here’s a holiday greeting that I sent to all my clients. I love referrals so much that I wrote a song about it! Enjoy!
Can my stucco ceiling in my Toronto home be made flat?
We frequently receive requests asking if stucco (sometimes called popcorn) texture can be removed. Our answer is YES! CAM Painters has the tools and the experience to make your textured ceiling flat.
Let me take you through the process step by step
- The stucco texture has to be sanded down as much as possible. Is this messy? Without the right tools it can be very messy. We , however, have a Festool dust extraction system which greatly minimizes the mess. It’s basically a high-tech power sander attached to a powerful HEPA filter vacuum cleaner. 90% of the dust is sucked into the vacuum canister before it has a chance to float around in the air and settle on your floor. This is one of the greatest cordless vacuum cleaners at busting the dust. This is amazing because it means that you don’t have to waste as much time hoovering up all of the scattered dust afterwards and is much smaller than an industrial system such as the ones avaliable at Integrated Air Systems. Here it is in action:
- We then have to do 1 or 2 skim coats of plaster, depending on how smooth the ceiling is after the stucco removal.
- We then have to sand our skim coats smooth.
- Then we prime and make sure that there are no bubbles or other minor flaws in the skim coats. If we find any flaws we touch these up.
- We apply 2 coats of high quality ceiling paint!
There you have it, that’s the process from start to finish.
A couple of other questions I get asked:
Does it matter if the stucco is painted vs. unpainted?
Yes, it does. Unpainted stucco is much easier to remove. The surface hasn’t been sealed and it comes off much quicker than painted stucco.
Painted stucco, on the other hand, requires a little more time and effort, but we can remove it, just the same.
I’ve heard that unpainted stucco can just be sprayed with water and scraped off, is this correct?
Yes it can. Unpainted stucco becomes very soft when misted with water and can be scraped off with a putty knife. Why don’t we do this? Two reasons:
- Wet stucco makes a huge mess. We have a dust extraction system that sucks 90% of the dust into a vacuum cannister before it even has a chance to hit the floor, which means less mess.
- If too much water is used it can damage the seams in the drywall making additional repairs necessary.
If you hate your stucco ceiling and want to make it smooth and flat schedule an estimate now and have CAM Painters Transform your home with lasting beauty!
What Are The 3 Most Important Questions To Ask Your Toronto Wallpaper Installer?
So you’ve decided to have some wallpaper installation in your Toronto home, that’s great! Wallpaper is an outstanding way to introduce some texture and pattern to your walls.
As you’re going through the process of selecting paper and a reputable wallpaper hanger to do the installation there are a few questions that you should ask.
First, will your wallpaper installer provide resources to help you with selecting your wallpaper?
There are 17 distinct groupings of wallpaper. Additionally, you can custom order wallpaper through many paint stores or order online from many sources. As such, the choices can be very overwhelming.
CAM Painters works with some very talented interior designers who can assist you in the selection of the perfect wallpaper. We would be happy to refer you to them and rest assured, you’ll be in good hands.
CAM Painters is able to assist you in calculating how many rolls of wallpaper you’ll need for your installation. You don’t want to buy too many rolls, and at the same time you definitely don’t want to not have enough to complete the installation.
Next, is your wallpaper installer fully insured?
CAM Painters has both full WSIB coverage and liability insurance. This gives you peace of mind in the unlikely event an injury happens in your home or any accidental damage happens in your home.
Lastly, does your installer have experience working with a variety of different papers?
There are many different varieties of wallpaper and each behaves a little different.
There are 2 types of wallpaper:
- Pre-pasted wallpapers, which have the paste already incorporated into the paper.These can be installed either by soaking in water to activate the paste, or by applying an activator to the back of the paper.
- Unpasted wallpapers, which require a wallpaper paste. These wallpapers are installed either by pasting the wall or by pasting the roll. Non-woven papers are generally installed by pasting the wall. Woven papers are generally installed by pasting the back of the roll, folding it over on itself (also called booking the roll) and left to sit for anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.
An experienced installer will adjust his or her installation methods based on the weight of the paper, humidity in the air amongst other factors.
CAM Painters has been installing wallpaper since 2003. We have installed many different types of wallpaper including flocked velvet, 52″ vinyl, grasscloth, silk weave and other more standard wallpapers.
So, for a great way to add texture and pattern to your walls, think wallpaper installation for your Toronto home. And for Toronto wallpaper installation book a quote with CAM Painters and Transform your home with lasting beauty!
The Caffeinated Painter’s list of Good Toronto Coffee Shops!
Here’s a fun post. As many of you know, I have my own custom coffee blend made by Golden Gecko Coffee, a local roaster. It’s called the Caffeinated Painter.
So my absolute favourite coffee shop is in my kitchen at home, using my very own custom blend. If you are also an avid coffee drinker, you may want to invest in a dual coffee maker. You can click here for a list of dual coffee makers. The beauty of having a coffee machine at your disposal in the home is flexibility. With home coffee machines, you can make everything that a coffee shop would, maybe even better as you can create it exactly to your taste. Whilst the initial cost of a coffee machine can seem like a big expense, the money you will save by making coffee at home will ensure that the machine pays for itself, and when having guests over, it will certainly make you seem like the host with the most.
But what’s a Caffeinated Painter to do when he’s not at home? Fear not, there is The Caffeinated Painters Exhaustive List of Good Toronto Coffee Shops or TCPELOGTCS.
This list has been made possible by years of research and many cups of espresso using a staff of trained espresso aficionados with highly developed coffee palates. Please enjoy the fruits of our labours:
If you have any additions, or comments feel free to contact us.
As always, you can book a painting and/or wallpapering estimate and Transform Your Home with Lasting Beauty!
How do I paint the stucco ceiling in my Toronto home?
Before you start to paint the stucco ceiling in your Toronto home STOP and read this post! You could save yourself some frustration.
The most important thing to figure out is whether the stucco has been previously painted or whether it’s bare.
Isn’t my ceiling painted already if it’s stucco? Not necessarily, stucco when it is initially applied is not sealed and stucco is water-soluble.
If latex paint is applied directly over bare stucco, the water content in the paint wets the stucco and makes it soft and heavy and it can cause the stucco to fall right off your ceiling!
How do I tell if my stucco is bare, or has been previously painted?
The first thing I would check is whether it powders up when it’s touched, if you have a powdery residue on your fingers after you touch the stucco, it’s bare stucco.
I’ve determined that I have bare stucco on my ceilings, how do I go about painting it?
You will have to use a flat sheen oil to paint your ceiling, in this case.
I’d recommend Zinsser Odourless, or something similar. Keep in mind, even though the product says “odourless” it still has a definite odour, so wear a respirator and make sure that young children and pets are not exposed to the fumes. You can buy a respirator from somewhere like www.sciquip.co.uk/products/ppe/ffp3-respirator-mask that will protect you from any harmful fumes.
Actually, my ceilings have been previously painted, how do I go about repainting them?
In this case you can use a flat sheen latex on your ceilings, just like if they were regular flat ceilings.
Regardless of whether the stucco ceiling is bare or previously painted keep in mind that you will get significantly more paint splatter and spray off the roller than with a flat ceiling. Keep this in mind when you prepare the room with dropsheets and plastic and make sure every nook and cranny is covered.
If you’d prefer to have us over to give you a quote for your stucco ceiling or to have your stucco ceiling made flat, you can click here to book a quote online. We’ll have your stucco ceiling looking great!
Transform your home with lasting beauty!