Signature Surfaces LLC

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my clients, suppliers, family, and friends. Thank you for all of the opportunities you have blessed me with this year. I am forever grateful. It’s been another amazing year in the painting business. I have continued to learn and perfect my craft. I’m just so grateful to serve and work along side so many great people. I am truly blessed by God. Looking forward to making 2024 a colorful year with you.

The most challenging project I've done in 13 years of painting.

The client had Venetian plaster applied to the ceiling and walls of their hearth room. The plaster had cracked and started to peel from the drywall ceiling. They had it repaired and the same thing started to occur. Typically when I've seen cracking and peeling on ceilings, you scrape those areas and eventually it stops. You are lefted with various sized areas that need to be repaired and the ceiling repainted. Not this one. The entire ceiling came off down to the drywall (and removed some of the paper facing of the drywall), the joint compound on the drywall seams, and to some of the original sand swirled ceiling.

Now we have two problems. One, I now have 360 square feet of ceiling to restore instead of several various sized areas where the peeling was occurring. Two, what caused this to happen? I had Carl Reineke from Reineke Decorating (my paint store) and Jim Archer from Benjamin Moore (paint rep) look at it. Carl has been in the paint business for over 50 years and Jim for 35 to 40 years. Neither one has ever seen a ceiling peel completely off like this one.

With some input from Bill Warmbrodt at Reineke Decorating, we came to the conclusion that it was moisture from the heat and humidity in the attic space of the vaulted ceiling. The client had their roof replaced last year because there was some indication of it leaking. The soffits of the hearth room were vented allowing air into the attic space. But the old and new roof didn't have any vents on the ridge of the roof or elsewhere. So with the combination of the air flowing in through the soffits and the sun beating down on the roof, this created humidity in the attic space and it had no where to go. The moisture from the humidity passed through the drywall ceiling into the hearth room. The client didn't have any problems before with the original ceiling because the moisture could get through the latex painted ceiling. Once the Venetian plaster was applied to the ceiling, it trapped the moisture in the drywall. The plaster is a thicker, heavier material than the original painted ceiling. Eventually the moisture broke down the bond of the plaster to the ceiling causing it to crack and peel. The client is having their roofer install some vents on the ridge of the roof to allow the attic space to breathe. Air flows in through the soffits and will be allowed to exit through the vents. We think this will solve the problem.

So how do we restore the ceiling? First, truth be told, I was questioning my ability at times on this project. I had never seen this happen as well. The answer, a little at a time. I broke the ceiling down in to segments. Work on this area, move on to the next. To look at the entire 18' × 20' ceiling could be a bit overwhelming. It was 13' from the floor to the peak of the vault too (you could feel the heat up there too on hotter days).

After 4 days of scraping and cleaning up the debris, I got it stripped. I sanded the entire ceiling with my Festool sander and dust extractor (I couldn't have done the job without it). This removed any loose drywall paper and any uneven joint compound, which there was a lot of (oh, and no dust. This machine is unbelievable). I tried to get the ceiling as flat and tight as I could. I spot primed all of the areas where the paper facing of the drywall tore off exposing the brown paper of the drywall with an oil based primer. I then primed the entire ceiling with the oil based primer. The ceiling was now stabilized and sealed and ready to repair. I applied two coats of joint compound to most of the ceiling to finish evening out the surface. I sanded the ceiling and primed the ceiling with a tinted latex primer. I finally applied the ceiling paint three weeks after starting the project. My client was in awe of their new ceiling (as was I).

A big thank you to Carl, Jim, and Bill for their time and input to hopefully bring a solution to my client's ceiling problem. Also, my belief and trust in God walked me through this project step by step. Without Him, none of this is possible. I questioned my ability but He provided the answer.

I worked in the Rockwood Summit Wrestling Room (The Sanctuary) today to update the walls for the achievements from this year and to finish adding the team accomplishments from last year. I couldn't help to think about the countless hours of work these athletes, teams, and coaches spend in this room while I was there. It was an honor to spend some time there today rewarding those who have their name or team added to these walls.

Today I added Madeline Haynes to the state placement wall for her 2nd place finish. It's her second straight 2nd place finish (and she is only a sophomore). I have a feeling next year I will be adding her under a different place finish. Congratulations Madeline!

I also added Caelin Stegmann to the state placement wall for his 5th place finish. Caelin also set a new record for career pins with 102 breaking the old record of 101 set by Sam Frankowski. Now that is impressive! I have painted Sam Frankowski's name more than any other name on the walls. Congratulations Caelin!

I added the girls team from 2022 for their 6th place finish at state and their conference championship. Congratulations ladies!

I also added the boys team from 2022 for their conference championship. Congratulations gentlemen!

Continue to Rise!