A customer called me last week about stucco spraying his rec room ceiling and asked for some pointers. I explained how to go about it to him.

First of all I let him know you have to prepare the ceiling the same way as if you were going to paint it, this guarantees perfection. And if further, you could even finish paint it and then spray the stucco on. This is done when you want the stucco to be evenly thin not very heavy. The white background will camouflage the discrepancy of the stucco.

Next we cover up all things from the spray; basically anything the spray can land on or stick to. You need to now take some two sided tape and stick it to the wall butt under the ceiling, being careful not to go too low or too high onto the ceiling. Once you have gone all the way around the room with your two sided tape, you can now stick a light plastic drape onto the wall. Starting from the entrance where you will be spraying from, go all the way around the room and overlap the starting point by about 2 ft to ensure the spray is contained.

Now that your floors and walls are covered you can get your spray mixture ready. I use a medium texture which comes in a 50 lb bag. Fill a 5 Gal pail a little less than ? full of water and pour the mixture in slowly. Stirring it with a paddle, I use my ? inch drill and keep on adding mixture till it's a milkshake consistency (Not Blizzard or Wendy's but runnier) relatively light. Make sure the mixture has no lumps in it; if it is too thick it will clog the gun. After you have this soupy mixture ready, pour it into the hopper and start spraying a corner with a short blast to prime the gun. Once the gun seems to be spraying properly, start in the corner spraying sections about 2 square feet and work down the ceiling watching the way your gun is depositing the spray. Correct as you spray for density and evenness. As you work across, move backwards and continue the other way watching your overlap, as it is quite forgiving. You have to stay in one spot for a long time to really over do it. Once you have done the entire room, look around the ceiling for flaws and just touch them up in short blasts.

Make sure you are happy with the job and double check it. You won't be able to fix it after you removed the coverings.

Finally, when you are finished spraying, the cleanup starts. Have a large garbage bag ready for your cleanup. Remove the plastic from the walls, pulling down and away from the ceiling, careful not to scrape off the stucco. As you're pulling down the plastic, wrap the wet side into the center, keeping everything clean and dry. Finally, wrap the drop sheet inward not to spill its contents on the floor. Place all waste into the large garbage bag.

Finally, if you see somewhere that you have some over-spray, it's still not too late to scrape it and wipe it off.