Can suspended ceiling tiles be painted?

Suspended ceilings should only be painted with specialist paints. Emulsion paints stick the tiles to the grid, reduce the acoustic properties of the tiles and can cause the tiles to sag. You can get specialist paints designed for suspended ceilings which cover in one coat, try Pristine coatings or spray-shop

Pete
April 2010

As long as they're not the super cheap, plastic over fiberglass panels, most tiles will take normal house paint. I've custom painted lots of them. Ideally you'll want to lay them out in a place where you can use a sprayer. I use a good ol' Wagner power painter and it works great. If I'm going to paint the grid work I hang all the metal parts from the shop ceiling and spray them with the appropriate paint before installing. As for the stained ones, use Kilz primer first. It's designed specifically to cover up stains. If the panels are damaged, swollen, etc, just replace them. They are not expensive.

Slim Jim
August 2009

Perfectly safe, and ordinary emulsion paint is all you need...providing the leak has been fixed!

John
August 2009