What causes lines on ceiling

[Jason P]

I have a spec house that after it was painted there were small noticeable lines in the drywall mainly on the ceiling, but a few on the walls. My painters pointed it out when they were almost finished painting, they say the finish work of the drywall is not good. I'm guessing those areas didn't get sanded properly after tape & float? Seems that the lines are in places where they didn't sand properly and when the texture was applied it was a little thicker in those areas? I used a knock down texture on both the ceiling and walls.

I called my drywall guy and he said that it bled through the paint without even going to look at the job? My painter put one coat of primer and two coats of paint. So the theory of it bleeding through doesn't make sense. Over the last few jobs their work has gone downhill.

Anyone had this happen before? I'm fearing that they might have to come in sand and texture those areas to fix the problem.

[JCadorin]

Re: What causes lines on ceiling

This is what's called "flashing". It has something to do with the paint being absorbed and drying at different rates between the dryall surface and the taped seams. This is very common with lighter textures where the drywall shows through the texture. To prevent this, the walls should have received a coat of PVA sealer/primer just prior to the texture. Often times our drywallers include this as part of their work. But on occassions our painters will perform this task. Neither of them mind doing it as long as they get paid, of course. So the desicion is usually based on price.