In another house I own, two weeks ago, a painter was painting the textured
ceilings, and pointed out where there was a 5 inch bubble that had extended
downward from the surface, supposedly after Kilz 2 primer was applied. It
may have been there before, but I'm not sure. I had him skip the ceiling
painting till I had a chance to evaluate a repair. Yesterday I figured, what
the hell, I'll try something different as to the method of repair. Taking a
utility knife, I cut a circle around the distended area, finding my way by
tapping lightly with my fingertip for loose areas. The entire chunk of
textured ceiling dropped right out into the palm of my hand, unbroken.
Lightly sanded the exposed area, no feathering, then applied a really heavy
coat of Kilz 2 to the area, pulling the brush outward radially from the
center of the area, to help rebond any looseness at the cut edge area. Took
the removed patch and pressed it into place with the palm of my hand,
aligning cut edges carefully. The excess Kilz oozed out at the joint of
course, and I blotted it up as it appeared, all the while applying pressure
continually and gradually to the patch. I then used a brush to clean up the
joint line, using light swishing motion. The patched area has now dried and
completely disappeared into the rest of the ceiling. I did this on a lark,
as I believe in trying new and various techniques, as long as it belongs to
me, and the job is facing you anyway. This is how you learn new methods. I
started to try injecting inside the bubble with a hypodermic needle, but
chose this method instead, due to possibly trapping air underneath. .
I'll wait at least another week before painting this area, to allow
thorough drying. For anyone interested, I'll post after painting to let you
know how it works out. It was a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than trying
to reblend new material into the area to match properly. I was pleasantly
surprised how well it all worked.

RJ