If you’re wondering how to paint a ceiling, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most commonly skipped steps in a DIY room makeover because it feels overwhelming. You’re working overhead, dealing with drips, and worried about lap marks or roller lines. But here’s the truth: a freshly painted ceiling can completely transform a room—making it feel brighter, cleaner, and more finished.

Many homeowners repaint walls without touching the ceiling, only to realize afterward how dingy it looks in contrast. Don’t fall into that trap—give your ceiling a chance to shine, too.

Step 1: Clear the Room and Protect Your Floors

Start by removing as much furniture as possible. Cover what remains with plastic sheeting or drop cloths. Protect your floors using canvas drop cloths, plastic, or masking paper. RepcoLite offers options if you’re unsure what’s best.

Step 2: Prep the Room and the Ceiling

Use painter’s tape to protect fixtures, trim, and anything else that shouldn’t be painted. Make sure your lighting is bright enough to catch missed spots. Clean the ceiling thoroughly—dust, cobwebs, and grease can affect paint adhesion. If you have water stains, spot-prime those areas with a stain-blocking primer.

Step 3: Choose the Right Paint

Most professionals recommend flat ceiling paint because it hides imperfections and keeps reflections to a minimum. Benjamin Moore’s Waterborne Ceiling Paint is ideal—it stays ultra-flat even when tinted. If you’re budget-conscious, consider Super Hide or Final Touch, both great options available at RepcoLite. Check out these inspiring ceilings to spark your creativity.

Step 4: Select the Right Tools

Use a roller with a 3/8″ to 1/2″ nap for smooth ceilings. For textured surfaces, go up to 3/4″. An extension pole will save your back and help you maintain a consistent stroke.

Step 5: Cut In First

Before rolling, use a brush to cut in around the edges—2 to 3 inches from the walls. This keeps you from having to roll too close and risk splashing paint onto the walls.

Step 6: Roll It On

You’ve got two main methods:

1. Work in 4-by-4-foot sections, overlapping as you go.

2. Roll the entire length of the ceiling in straight lines, overlapping slightly and always maintaining a wet edge.

Roll toward the main light source to minimize visible imperfections. For longer ceilings, method one may give you better results.

Step 7: Keep a Steady Pace

Don’t rush, but don’t dawdle either. If the paint dries too quickly, you’ll see lap marks. Use a thick enough roller cover to carry a good amount of paint, and consider turning down the room temperature slightly to slow drying time.

Step 8: Apply a Second Coat (If Needed)

If the ceiling’s original color was dark or uneven, or if coverage isn’t perfect after the first coat, wait until it’s completely dry and then apply a second.

Step 9: Final Touches

Remove painter’s tape while the paint is still a little wet for cleaner lines. Then, step back and enjoy the clean, bright new look of your ceiling.

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Pro Tips

• Don’t overload your roller. Drips and splatters are a sign of too much paint.

• Keep your roller flat and apply even pressure.

• Don’t obsess over perfection—most people aren’t scrutinizing your ceiling.

• Always use high-quality paint. It saves time, effort, and money in the long run.

Painting your ceiling might not be the most exciting project, but it’s one of the most rewarding. Done right, it can make your entire room feel brand new. And if you ever get stuck or have questions, the team at RepcoLite is here to help.

Swirl marks—sometimes called “pig tails”—are a common frustration when using an orbital sander. They might not seem like a big deal when you’re sanding, but they can stand out dramatically once you apply stain or paint. Even painted surfaces aren’t immune; those faint circular marks can sometimes show through, undermining all your hard work. Fortunately, swirl marks are avoidable if you understand the proper techniques. Here are 8 tips to eliminate orbital sander swirls—whether you’re using a high-end model like the Festool sanders we carry at RepcoLite or a standard DIY-friendly version.

1. Start Right

Always place the sander flat on the surface before turning it on. Starting the sander while it’s in the air and then setting it down at full speed can cause it to skip, gouge, or leave swirl marks.

2. Use a Slow, Steady Speed

Avoid zipping back and forth too quickly. Orbital sanders are designed for slow, controlled movement—about 1 inch per second is ideal. This gives the sander time to work evenly across the surface.

3. Keep the Sander Flat

Tilting the sander—even slightly—can cause the leading edge to dig in, creating swirls or gouges. Keep the sander flat to allow the full sanding disc to work evenly.

4. Use Light, Even Pressure

Let the sander do the work. Applying too much pressure slows the motor and increases your chances of swirl marks. If you hear the sander bog down, ease up.

5. Work Through the Grits

Don’t skip steps in your sanding progression. Each grit removes the scratches from the previous one:

• Start with 80 or 100 grit
• Move to 120 grit
• Then 150 grit
• Then 180 grit
• Finish with 220 grit

If you’re staining, avoid going past 220 grit, as it may prevent proper stain absorption.

6. Use Dust Extraction and Clean Often

Fine sanding dust can get trapped between the disc and the surface, acting like rogue grit and causing scratches. Use a sander with dust collection, and clean between grits:

• Vacuum the surface
• Use compressed air
• Brush off any remaining dust

7. Stop Correctly

Just like starting, stopping matters. Never turn off the sander while it’s still touching the surface. Instead, lift it off, then power it down. This avoids sudden stops that can leave swirl marks behind.

8. Do a Final Check Before Finishing

Before applying stain or paint, do a quick inspection:

• Wipe the surface with mineral spirits to reveal hidden swirl marks
• Or use an LED flashlight at a low angle to spot imperfections

Taking a minute for this final check can save you hours of frustration later.

8 Tips for Success

Follow those 8 tips to eliminate orbital sander swirls and you’ll soon be sanding like a pro!

When it comes to painting, it’s important to choose the right roller cover. That’s because the roller cover can make or break the job. Wooster Brush Company offers a lineup of top-tier roller covers—Microplush, Microfiber, Pro/Doo-Z, Pro/Doo-Z FTP, Super Doo-Z, Super Fab, and Super Fab FTP—each with unique strengths and fabrics (knit or woven) designed for specific situations. Whether you’re a DIYer refreshing a room or a contractor tackling a big project, this guide breaks down the benefits and best uses for each, making it easy for you to choose the right roller cover for your next project. Let’s dive in!

Wooster Micro Plush: The Spray-Like Finish Master

• Fabric Type: Woven

• Strengths & Benefits: Wooster’s Micro Plush uses a white microfiber woven fabric that delivers a near-spray-like finish—smooth, flawless, and professional. It’s shed-resistant, holds paint well, and releases it evenly, making it the perfect choice for high-gloss or fast-drying paints, high quality paints. Its fine fibers minimize stipple, and are packed densely, making it easy to achieve that smooth, spray-like finish.

• Best For: Doors, trim, and cabinets where a smooth finish is key. Perfect for gloss paints or low-VOC, high solids enamels on smooth surfaces—think furniture or kitchen cabinetry. Pre-wet it for even better release!

Wooster Micro Fiber: The High-Capacity All-Rounder

• Fabric Type: Woven

• Strengths & Benefits: Wooster’s Micro Fiber roller, made from woven European microfiber, is a high-capacity champ. It holds a ton of paint, reduces spatter, and lays down a fine finish with minimal lint. It’s versatile across eggshell, satin, and semi-gloss paints, maintaining shape better than polyester alternatives.

• Best For: Walls and large surfaces with eggshell or satin finishes. Ideal for DIYers painting a bedroom or pros covering new drywall—skip it for high solids products like Benjamin Moore’s Aura and Regal Select, though. The Micro Fiber covers might leave you struggling to apply high quality, high solids paints evenly.

Wooster Pro/Doo-Z: The Reliable Workhorse

• Fabric Type: Woven

• Strengths & Benefits: With its high-density woven polyester fabric and golden pinstripe, Pro/Doo-Z is built for smooth, lint-free finishes. It resists matting, handles all paints (flats to epoxies), and pairs with a tough polypropylene core that withstands water and solvents. It’s a contractor favorite for consistent coverage.

• Best For: General wall and ceiling jobs. Great for new drywall or any surface needing a dependable, no-fuss finish—your go-to for everyday painting.

Wooster Pro/Doo-Z FTP: The Modern Paint Specialis

• Fabric Type: Woven

• Strengths & Benefits: The FTP (For Today’s Paints) version upgrades the Pro/Doo-Z with HydroFlow technology for controlled paint release. This shed-resistant woven cover excels with modern, high quality high-solids paints like Benjamin Moore’s Aura and Regal Select just to name a couple. These products are thicker and dry quickly, which means standard rollers might not pick up enough paint, may release it unevenly, or leave streaks if the flow isn’t just right. The controlled release in FTP covers solves this by ensuring the roller picks up an optimal amount of paint and distributes it evenly onto the surface. This avoids overloading (where paint drips or spatters) or under-delivering (where you get patchy coverage and have to reload constantly).

• Best For: Walls and ceilings with modern paints—flat, eggshell, satin, or gloss. Perfect for pros or DIYers using tricky coatings where efficiency and a flawless finish matter.

Wooster Super Doo-Z: The Economical Smooth Operator

• Fabric Type: Woven

• Strengths & Benefits: The Super Doo-Z is an economy cover, meaning it doesn’t offer the top tier benefits the Pro/Doo-z offers, nor the controlled release that Pro/Doo-Z FTP rollers bring. However, the Super Doo-z covers still offer a shed-resistant woven fabric, and are capable of delivering smooth finishes and solid paint capacity. They’re tough, reusable, and are a reliable choice for DIYers looking for a good quality cover at a savings.

• Best For: Walls and smooth surfaces with flat, eggshell, or satin paints. A great pick for DIYers painting living rooms or contractors needing a steady performer for standard jobs.

Wooster Super Fab: The Rough Surface Powerhouse

• Fabric Type: Knit

• Strengths & Benefits: Super Fab’s knit fabric is shed-resistant yet loose enough to hold heaps of paint—ideal for semi-rough surfaces. It’s durable, applies flats and satins with ease, and tackles texture without breaking a sweat, though it might leave a slight stipple.

• Best For: Textured walls, stucco, or ceilings with flat paints. Perfect for exterior jobs or interior spaces with orange peel texture—your heavy-duty coverage king.

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Wooster Super Fab FTP: The High-Production Hero

• Fabric Type: Knit

• Strengths & Benefits: Super Fab FTP adds HydroFlow technology to the knit Super Fab, boosting paint release control for faster, easier application. It holds massive amounts of paint, retains bounce-back, and excels with today’s paints on rougher surfaces—less dipping, more rolling!

• Best For: Large-scale textured surfaces like stucco or popcorn ceilings with flat or satin paints. Contractors love it for big exterior projects or DIYers covering imperfect walls fast.

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Knit vs. Woven: Quick Recap

• Knit (Super Fab, Super Fab FTP): These hold more paint for rough textures—think stucco or ceilings—but might shed slightly. Use them where coverage trumps smoothness.

• Woven (Microplush, Microfiber, Pro/Doo-Z, Pro/Doo-Z FTP, Super Doo-Z): Tight and lint-free, they’re your pick for smooth finishes on walls, trim, or cabinets with higher sheens.

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Final Tips

It’s important to choose the right roller cover by matching your roller your paint and surface: knit for texture and volume, woven for finesse. Nap height matters too—3/8-inch for smooth walls, ½-inch or more for rough stuff. Experiment with these Wooster options, and you’ll find your perfect fit. And remember, every RepcoLite Paints location is ready to help you select the right cover for your project!

The Fascinating Evolution of Caulking

If you’ve ever wondered about the history of caulk, caulking guns, and the materials we use today, you’re not alone. I was curious, too, and what I found is a story that stretches back thousands of years and is filled with fascinating twists and turns.

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The Oldest Reference: The Gilgamesh Epic

To uncover the roots of caulking, we have to travel back to around 2100 BC and look at the Gilgamesh Epic. This ancient Mesopotamian poem, considered the oldest complete story in existence, contains a tale strikingly similar to the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark.

In this epic, Gilgamesh receives a divine warning about a coming flood and is instructed to build a large boat to preserve life. The text even describes him gathering animals and releasing birds to check for receding waters. But here’s where it gets interesting for our story about caulking: the Gilgamesh Epic includes a reference to using caulking to make the boat watertight.

One passage reads: “For the caulking of the boat, to Puzuramurri, the boatman, I gave the palace together with its contents.” Think about that! Puzuramurri’s caulking job was so appreciated that he was rewarded with a palace (though, with the flood looming, how great a gift was that really?).

This marks one of the earliest references to caulking as a process critical to shipbuilding, ensuring boats could stay afloat.

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From Ships to Structures: The Evolution of Caulking

To further explore the history of caulk, let’s fast-forward a few thousand years. Here, we see the term “caulk” emerge from the Old North French word caquer, meaning “to press down.” Early caulking methods involved pressing fibers like cotton and hemp soaked in pine tar into the seams of wooden ships. Workers used tools like caulking mallets and caulking irons to seal the joints, preventing water from seeping in and sinking the ship.

As wooden ships gave way to iron and steel, caulking techniques adapted. Instead of fibers, builders compressed metal edges to create watertight seals. Around the same time, in the early 1800s, the concept of caulking expanded beyond shipbuilding to construction, where tar-like materials were used to fill gaps in wooden structures.

However, applying these materials was a messy business. Workers used putty knives or even their bare hands to spread and seal the material. It’s hard to imagine just how labor-intensive and, frankly, chaotic this process must have been.

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A Game-Changer: The Invention of the Caulking Gun

Enter Theodore Witte, the man who forever changed how we apply caulk. In 1894, Witte invented the first caulking gun, which he called the “Puttying-Tool.” The inspiration? A bakery! The story goes that Witte saw a baker applying frosting with a piping bag and thought, “Why not use something similar for caulking?”

His invention allowed users to load bulk caulking materials into a gun-like device, making the process more efficient and far less messy. Before long, manufacturers began producing pre-filled cartridges designed to fit caulking guns, standardizing the tools and materials we use today.

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Modern Advancements in Caulking

Today, caulking has come a long way from its origins. Modern sealants are designed for specific needs:

• Paintable Caulks: Blend seamlessly into walls and trim.
• Moisture-Resistant Caulks: Perfect for bathrooms and kitchens.
• Mold and Mildew-Resistant Caulks: Keep wet areas sanitary and clean.
• Gap-Filling Caulks: Seal large cracks and spaces.

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What Caulk Should You Use?

With so many options, choosing the right caulk for your project can feel overwhelming. That’s where we come in! At RepcoLite, we’re here to help you select the best caulk for your needs and show you how to apply it cleanly and professionally. Whether you’re a DIYer or a contractor, we’ve got you covered.

If you’ve ever skipped the step of sanding your primer before applying your finish coat, you’re not alone. Many DIYers and even some pros might be tempted to skip this step, thinking it’s unnecessary or too time-consuming. However, sanding primer for a smooth finish is one of the simplest and most effective ways to ensure your paint job looks professional and lasts for years.

Here’s why it matters and how to do it right.

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Why Sanding Primer Is Crucial

When primer dries, it’s rarely as smooth as you might think. Even if you apply it carefully, you’re likely to end up with some texture from brush strokes, roller lint, or small imperfections that accumulate during application. Additionally, certain primers can raise the fibers in drywall or the grain in bare wood, leaving the surface feeling rough to the touch.

If you skip sanding at this stage, these imperfections will remain beneath your finish coat, making the final surface look uneven. Sanding eliminates this, creating a smooth base that lets your finish paint shine!

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The Right Way to Sand Your Primer for a Smooth Finish

Sanding primer is a straightforward process, but a few key tips can make it easier and more effective:

1. Wait for the Primer to Dry!
   • Always ensure your primer is completely dry before sanding. Most primers need at least two hours, but if you need a quicker option, RepcoLite’s Quick Sand Primer is ready to sand in just 30 minutes. Check the product label for specific drying times.
2. Use the Right Sandpaper
   • Opt for 220-grit sandpaper. It’s fine enough to smooth out imperfections without removing too much primer. Your goal isn’t to sand the primer off but to knock down any rough spots and create a flawless surface.
3. Sand Large Areas Efficiently
   • For larger walls or ceilings, use a sanding pole. It allows you to cover more ground quickly while keeping the process less labor-intensive. While it’s still manual work, a sanding pole can make the job significantly faster.
4. Be Gentle on Trim
   • When sanding trim or detailed surfaces, foam sanding pads are your best friend. They’re flexible, easy to hold, and conform to curves and edges, helping you achieve a smooth finish without cutting through the primer.
5. Clean Up Thoroughly
   • After sanding, wipe down the surface with a damp rag to remove dust. Allow the surface to dry completely before applying your finish coat. This step ensures the finish paint adheres properly and prevents dust from getting trapped in the paint.

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Why Quick Sand Primer Helps You Achieve a Smooth Finish

If you’re looking for a primer that speeds up the process, RepcoLite’s Quick Sand Primer is an excellent choice. It’s ready to sand in just 30 minutes, making it ideal for DIYers and contractors alike. Whether you’re working on walls, doors, or trim, Quick Sand Primer helps you save time without sacrificing quality.

And the best part? Quick Sand Primer is on sale all January long at RepcoLite Paints. Stop by your local store and check it out today.

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Final Thoughts

Sanding primer for a smooth finish may seem like an extra step, but it’s a little touch that delivers big results. By taking the time to smooth out imperfections, you’ll create a pristine surface that ensures your finish coat looks amazing and stands the test of time. So, grab some 220-grit sandpaper, take a little extra time, and enjoy the satisfaction of a truly professional-looking paint job!