Need to paint cathedral ceiling family room

[jtpr]

We are selling our house and the family room has a cathedral ceiling in it as well as a wood stove. The room looks a bit dingy and the corners as well as some parts of the ceiling have dark areas from the wood stove soot. As I don't have scaffolding, just a 6' step ladder and a 24' extension, I want to do this with minimal effort. That means one coat. I plan on using the best Benjamin Moore paint to get good coverage. Should I attempt to wash off the soot before painting or just paint over it? Is there a possibility of it bleeding through? The soot is very faint, but if you stand back and look at the whole room, it is apparent.

-Jim

[Dean]

Can You use a brush extension on a vacuum? Just get more hose and a long 2x2 taped to the extension and walk around vacuuming..Most paints call for dust-free surfaces,,as well as oil and grease-free..It is tough to follow every specification for some products but each one ignored is a possible problem so follow as many as You can then pay Yer $ and take Yer chance.. Soot will be very fine and try to clog the filter/bag so be prepared to change/clean it a time or two..Buy/borrow a shopvac for more power and a onetime pass,,the softer the brush extensions bristles are will mean less scratching of existing surface..

[trader4]

Vacuuming sounds like the way to go to me too.

[John McGaw]

Scaffolding can be rented cheaply almost anywhere and is much safer than ladders for a job like this and will make it go much more quickly. As for the painting, if you want it to go well you need to remove as much dirt as you can. Since yours is likely to be dry dirt, unlike the greasy stuff one finds on kitchen walls, vacuuming as another poster suggested would probably be the best bet.

[RicodJour]

If you wash off the soot you might not have to repaint, so you should clean it first. Any time you're doing painting, you should plan on cleaning it first - most painting problems start with inadequate preparation. Rent or borrow some taller step ladders or a rolling scaffold, commonly referred to as a "baker".

Frankly it might not be worth your time, money and sweat to paint the ceiling if the soot is very faint. The new owner will doubtless have plans for freshening up the paint here and there, and pros could take care of that ceiling a hell of a lot faster than you could (cheap for the new owner to wrap in to the rest of the painting). You could get a written estimate from a painter for taking care of the ceiling and give that to the new-owner-to-be if they start making noise about the soot.

R