ᐅ Smooth Ceiling – How to Remove Stains and Restore Whiteness?

Hello everyone,

Two years ago, my plasterer skim-coated my ceilings completely and then sprayed them with white paint. The ceiling is perfectly smooth, and no unevenness can be seen – which, however, causes problems when you want to install things like lights or smoke detectors. Unfortunately, the installation work (sweaty hands, etc.) has left some stains.

Do you know how I can make such a smooth ceiling "white" again? Essentially, the paint has just been rubbed off. Can I simply roll over it with a roller and a small amount of paint? Would that work, or would I just make the stains worse?

Thanks in advance for a quick tip.

I would try using a melamine foam sponge. If you wipe over it, you will probably need to repaint the entire ceiling. After 2 years, the paint is no longer fresh. If you only have very small stains, you could try painting over them.

Otherwise, just hope that it goes unnoticed. That is the easiest and cheapest option.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. This is probably because the paint has actually come off. I can’t restore the paint using an eraser.

I’m a bit worried about painting over the stains with a roller. It could look much worse afterwards.

That the paint was rubbed off, I overlooked.
If it's only very small spots, I would carefully dab new paint on and gently blend it around by dabbing. For larger areas, I would simply repaint the entire ceiling. Or just get used to the fact that the ceiling isn't flawless. It’s not a big deal anyway.

I would dab the paint on, not fully covering the surface, using a relatively dry brush. From a distance, this will visually blend together.

The problem here is that the surface was sprayed. Anything done with a roller or brush leaves a more or less fine texture, at least with regular wall paint. And on a smooth ceiling, this is probably much more noticeable than the current stains and cannot be corrected by respraying.

Why not ask the painter if they can respray the stains for a small fee?