How to Paint a Ceiling That Has Nicotine on It

Remove all contents from the room including furniture, curtains and wall hangings. If the furniture is too large to remove, move the furnishings to one side of the room and cover with a tarp. Lay tarps over the floors.

Tape thin, plastic sheeting to the walls with low-tack masking tape. Align the masking tape to the top of the wall where the wall meets the ceiling to protect the walls from cleaners, primer and paint.

Fill a bucket with warm water and add oxygenated bleach according to the bleach manufacturer's directions. Fill a second bucket with plain warm water.

Put on goggles to protect your eyes from drips while cleaning and painting the ceiling.

Submerge a sponge mop into the bleach and water. Rub the mop over the ceiling, working in 2-by-2-foot sections. Rinse the mop in the bucket of plain water until the mop head is clean. Scrub the ceiling and rinse the mop until you scrub the entire ceiling. You can also clean the ceiling with TSP substitute rather than oxygenated bleach. Oxygenated bleach and TSP substitute are equally effective. Let the ceiling dry for at least 24 hours.

Pour a specialized stain-blocking, surface-sealing primer into a paint bucket. Set up a stepladder next to the wall to access the edges of the ceiling. Dip a paintbrush into the specialized primer; wipe excess primer off the brush onto the side of the bucket so the primer drips back into the bucket. Paint a 2-inch wide stripe from the wall onto the ceiling around the entire perimeter with the primer.

Attach a paint roller to the end of an extension handle. Use a 1/4-inch nap roller for smooth ceilings, 3/8-inch nap roller for lightly textured ceilings or a 1/2-inch nap roller for highly textured ceilings.

Hang a paint screen in the bucket. Dip the roller into the primer and roll excess primer off the roller on the paint screen. Lift the roller to the ceiling and move the roller back and forth over the ceiling. Continue to dip the roller in the primer and apply the specialized primer to the ceiling until primer covers the whole ceiling. Let the primer dry and cure for 24 hours.

Paint a second coat of specialized primer using the same method as the first coat of primer. Let the primer dry for 24 hours.

Paint two coats of paint over the specialized primer using the same application method as you did for the specialized primer. Let each coat of paint dry for four to six hours in between coats.