Painting Ceilings

[Robson]

Can anyone give me some good advice on how to paint a ceiling?
I usually go for Dulux Trade vinyl matt.
Cut in as usual. Roller as usual. The problem I keep getting is when the light catches the ceiling I see roller marks, overlaps, areas where the paint seems too thin. As hard as I try its just not good enough.
Can anyone help me get a nice solid flat ceiling.
Should I use a paint with no vinyl, like a super matt or flat matt?
Thanks guys!

 

[Hysteresis]

In my experience which is limited to a lot of DIY decorating, vynle paint finish is ALWAYS a problem due to reflections. Any imperfection in the wall or ceiling is amplified by the reflecting surface. ALso paint thickness variations deposited which is difficult to detect when wet, produced at the edges of the roller always shows up when dry. As result I always use Matt finish emulsions.
I am sure professional decorators don't suffer the same problems as we DIYer's, but they have years of experience and practice and another important thing, proper expensive professional equipment.
A friend of mine was very successful with vynle emulsion by using a relatively inexpensive Spray unit. This eliminated the edge of roller problem but the surface imperfections still showed up and amplified by the vynle finish.
I am even going to Spray my next matt paint as the result is so good.

 

[Symptoms]

Robson - the trick is in the wrist action when rolling; try to avoid 'even' pressure across the roller surface when applying the paint otherwise you get an 'edge'. What you have to try to do is introduce less pressure on the trailing-edge of the roller - this has the effect of feathering the paint over the previous line of wet stuff.

Use Trade Supermatt as this has more 'body' than other types and is less reflective than a vinyl or a silk.

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

Use a 12" roller on a double arm cage like this

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Roller-Frames/Professional-Roller-Frame/invt/600096

You get a good coverage with this, try a long pile roller if you need to cover minor imperfections. Use a long pile roller slowly to avoid spatter.

Use a good quality roller, use good quality paint.

 

[imamartian]

Can't you get a ceiling paint these days, that you paint on and it's pink, (so you can see where you've been) and it turns white as it dries. Don't buy pink paint though

As for rolling technique, as a diy'er i'd say practice..... there is no simple advice to solve all your problems...

 

[Hysteresis]

I've tried that Pink Stuff - sounds like a good Idea and it does dry white as it says on the can. The trouble I had with it was that it turned white very quickly and I still had the same problem of determining where I had painted and where I had missed, so it didn't solve the problem of painting white on white for me.