« file_get_contents | Main | Beyond Friendship »

Popcorn Ceiling Removal

August 08, 2005

Popcorn belongs in a movie theatre bucket drenched in butter, not on a ceiling. Cottage Cheese? Well let’s just say it’s something I never want to see in large quantities when I look up. Whoever came up with the idea of spray-on textured ceilings was a lazy contractor…and the marketing guru that decided to pass the product off for its acoustic properties was a creative genius. Unless you have a large empty room with hard floors, there is no need for an “acoustic” ceiling…and in that case you should just buy a rug and some soft furniture and get over it. Somehow though, this bumpy, crumbly, nasty substance was applied to every ceiling in the house we just bought. All my wife and I can figure is that people must have thought this stuff was really groovy in the 70s to want to apply it to a bathroom and a kitchen. I can just imagine how much cooking steam and pee vapors have been absorbed into those curds. MMMmmm…

As you can probably guess by now, Ames and I would eradicate the entire world of popcorn ceilings if we could. For now though, we’re just planning on tackling the entire house. We only moved in about two weeks ago, but we’ve already cleared the curds from the office, guest bedroom and our master bedroom. Through our experiences so far, and the little bit of preparatory research we did before getting started, I think we’ve got a pretty good method established for removing the corn.

Note: Asbestos was used in some sprayed coatings for ceilings from 1935-1978 and can cause Mesothelioma & Asbestosis. It’s a good idea to have a sample tested by an NVLAP approved testing center before getting started.

Materials Needed:

Getting Started

Remove all furniture from the room and lay down the Contractors/Masking Paper being sure to overlap each strip by 4-5 inches. This will allow for easier cleanup later. Turn off the breaker to the room and remove all ceiling light and fan fixtures.

Getting Messy

Using a pump sprayer, wet a 5-6 foot square section of popcorn being careful not to get too much water on the walls. Wait a couple minutes before getting started to allow the water to soak into the textured ceiling.

Using a wall scraper or trowel (non-serated side), start scraping off the texture. It should come off in sheets, although on a ceiling where the there is a lot of patching and joint compound, this will not be quite as easy. In our guest bedroom (which we tackled last weekend), the ceiling under the popcorn was literally covered in joint compound, tape, and drywall patches…which can make this part of the job a nightmare.

Done with that section already? Time to wet another section, and start the process again…and again, until it’s done.

Once most of the texture had been scraped down to the joint compound and wallboard, you’ll want to use a pole sander to knock down the rough spots in the ceiling. Be sure to sand the entire surface, getting it as smooth as possible.

In my opinion, this is the hardest and messiest part of the whole process…unless you have a nightmare ceiling like our guest bedroom. In that case, it parallels the scraping process.

Once you’re done sanding (and the dust has settled), you’ll want to come back with joint compound and a putty knife to fill in any gouges, rough spots, and nail holes that might have opened up during the scraping and sanding. Let those patches dry for at least 30 minutes, and then give them a light sanding again with the pole sander to ensure that you have a smooth surface to paint later.

That’s it! Isn’t it beautiful?…oh wait…cleanup. As you can see, when you’re done, you basically have your entire ceiling…on the floor.

The Contractors Paper is a real time saver at this point if you’ve done it right. You just roll it up tight and put it in a garbage bag. We found that about 3 tight rolls will fit in a standard garbage bag.

Here’s what the same corner of the master bedroom looked like after a couple coats of paint on the ceiling and the walls. Ahh…smooth ceilings. Perhaps it isn’t worth the effort for some, but as much as Amy and I hate popcorn ceilings, it was worth it.

Update: There is a LOT of information to be learned from the comments on this post, and while reading all of the comments would be great…it is a lot of reading. To help those of you coming to this resource for the first time, I’ve marked some of the more helpful comments with a little thumbs up symbol. It brightens my day to hear that I’ve helped someone remove another popcorn ceiling from the earth, but it makes me even happier to see those people passing on their tips and tricks to future visitors. This post wouldn’t be the same without your information. Thanks to all of you and best of luck! -Jason

Update #2 10/5/2006 - The comment response to this blog post has been simply amazing! With all of the contributions here, this simple webpage has become the single most exhaustive resource for popcorn ceiling removal. While it has been fun seeing a sense of community develop, comments on a blog are not the best medium for conversation and discussion. For that reason, I’ve setup a whole website dedicated to this subject: popcornforum.com.

popcornforum.com - Uniting Popcorn Haters Everywhere

I’ve started to go through the existing comments here, copying and pasting the questions and answers into the forum. I’ve put that task on hold for now though so that I can open the doors to the new site and get some real interaction going on. If you have any questions about popcorn ceiling removal, tips to share, stories to tell, please do this in the forum rather than here on the website. My goal is to eventually close the comments on this post and direct all interaction to the forum site. I hope that all you weekend warriors and DIYers out there find this new forum helpful and informative. Thank You! -Jason

Update #3 1/11/2007 - It’s been almost a year and a half since I posted this simple tutorial and its continued growth in popularity continues to amaze me. My wife and I aren’t home improvement gurus, we’re just regular first-time home owners who wanted to get rid of our popcorn. People keep thanking me for writing these instructions, but really, it’s all of you who deserve thanks. It’s the 200 (yes, 200) comments, tips, and stories that make this single page such a valuable resource to every potential popcorn scraper. As I’ve said before though, the comment list of a blog entry isn’t a very practical medium for dialog. So, as of today, comments are closed. If you have any wisdom, breakthroughs, or questions, please don’t let this keep you from sharing. The popcorn forum is open for guest posting, so you don’t even need to create a login. Just visit the category that best fits and click on “new topic” to start a discussion. Or, better yet, add a reply to an existing topic. With about 160 unique visitors per day to this one page, I really believe there are enough of you out there to make the popcorn forum into a great contextual community. Thanks for reading! - Jason

Update #4 11/5/2007 - The popcorn forum that I set up last year is still running smoothly and I plan to keep it going, but I’ve set up something brand new: Diyalogue.

Diyalogue is, as the logo implies, a social network for do-it-yourselfers. At this site, you can create a public profile, blog about your latest DIY projecs, share project pictures and videos and a whole lot more. I’m hoping this will become a fun and interactive community of weekend warriors and I’m assuming that if you’re here researching popcorn ceiling removal, that you fit that description. So check it out, create and account, upload some pictures, write a blog post, and meet your fellow DIYers.

09:20 AM/ Do-It-Yourself :: Comments (201)

Comments

Justin P. at 4:14 PM on Monday, Aug 8, 2005

> I can just imagine how much cooking steam and pee
> vapors have been absorbed into those curds

Dude, that is just gross. Seriously though, you forgot to mention poopoo vapors.

Whatever you do with your ceilings/floors/walls/cabinets, somebody (new home owner or renter) will come along in 40-50 years and say "WTF is this crap, these people must have been insane!". Guaranteed.

Ray at 7:37 AM on Monday, Aug 15, 2005

I too hate popcorn ceilings but Amy and I just didn't bother taking it off any of our ceilings. Could be because she was pregnant when we moved! That and the fact that we immediately started removing hideous, flowery wallpaper from the kitchen and guest bathroom. I love that picture of you absolutely covered in dust. Fond memories from sanding the bathroom... (Whatever!) And what are those unexplained marks on Amy's legs in the second to last picture? Beating your wife? Do I need to report you? :)

If it weren't for our two girls in the house, I'd start working on removing the popcorn from our living room ceiling. I have hope! It can be done! But it's a tall ceiling and I'm entirely sure how to go about it besides working from a ladder. Isn't your living room ceiling tall too? How'd you do it?

Jason Beaird at 10:01 AM on Monday, Aug 15, 2005

Actually Ray, we've found that "flowery wallpaper" is much more difficult to tackle than scraping popcorn. We've heard all the tips and tricks: use a scorer, fabric softener and/or detergent to loosen the glue...it's still a pain in the butt. Amy's been working on de-wallpapering the bathroom during this last week before school started.

We definitely had to use a ladder to work on the popcorn. In all of the pictures where we're close the the ceiling, we're on a ladder...which is where the marks on Amy's legs came from. The aluminum on the ladder seems to rub off on you when it gets wet.

As far as the living room ceiling goes... We really want to remove the popcorn there too, but I'm sure we're going to need to rent some scaffolding to get up that high. I wonder how much THAT is going to cost.

Ray at 10:06 PM on Monday, Aug 15, 2005

I wish I had known earlier that you were struggling with the wallpaper. I got a very handy tip from friends of ours that lived down the street from where we were moving in: warm water and vinegar. Just mix the two together in equal amounts. Voila! Instant wallpaper remover that beats the pants off all the other solvents, gels, etc. that you can buy. Trust me. Amy and I know... Sometimes you end up having to peel the top layer of wallpaper off first, leaving the paper backing to be sprayed again. Once it's good and soaked in water/vinegar, it's relatively easy to peel it off the wall as if it were never glued on. Yeah, you have to deal with the odor while you're spraying, but isn't that better than scoring and ripping, tearing the drywall, patching, then sanding? :)

mary at 12:59 PM on Wednesday, Aug 24, 2005

Hey jason, i'm scraping the popcorn off my kitchen ceiling at this very moment! What about the areas with lots of tape and joint compound (like your guest room)? How did you prepare those thick areas for painting?

thanks, mary

Jason Beaird at 1:38 PM on Wednesday, Aug 24, 2005

For most of the ceilings we've done so far, the joint compound and taping have been restricted to the joints of the drywall. In the guest bedroom they had done some patching and the joint compound was EVERYWHERE. Those areas are the worst...for our guest room it required a lot of sanding and spackling. We're planning on tacking our kitchen soon too. Hopefully it's not as bad as the guest bedroom was.

christy at 1:19 AM on Thursday, Aug 25, 2005

Hi Jason, I found you on google (cool) when I typed in 'Popcorn Ceiling Orlando'. I just bought a house in Orlando and need to get that stuff off of the ceilings! My husband is trying to talk me into doing it ourselves, so I sent him your story. I will let you know who we hire!:) Thanks for sharing!

Jason Beaird at 9:21 AM on Thursday, Aug 25, 2005

That's funny! Well, we're a little too far away from Orlando to hire, but good luck! :)

Julie at 5:25 PM on Monday, Aug 29, 2005

I found a lot of good info. on this site! Thanks! I do have a question for you though. Some of the other sites I visited talked about the "popcorn" spray having asbestos in it. Did you guys send some of yours off to have it tested?

George at 7:55 PM on Monday, Aug 29, 2005

I also have tons of the dreaded popcorn. I want a knockdown texture instead, so I thought "why not just texture over the existing popcorn and save a few dozen steps?" So...I've embarked upon manually applying joint compound over the popcorn and I've been having great success. It's a little tedious, but it's a LOT cleaner than scraping. My house is old enough to have the asbestos, and the popcorn has been painted making removal especially tough (and dusty).

Jason Beaird at 11:14 AM on Tuesday, Aug 30, 2005

I did talk about asbestos testing. It's the third paragraph in italics. To answer your questions, we didn't have our ceilings tested. Our house was built around the time those materials were banned, so we took the risk of assuming we would be OK to remove it ourselves. I do not recommend assuming anything but the worst. Hypocritically speaking, get it tested.

George: That's interesting about doing a knockdown over the popcorn. After all the work we did in our guest bedroom, we may end up doing a knockdown texture over the ceiling there because it's still not as smooth as we'd like it to be.

Tony Nicholson at 5:56 PM on Sunday, Sep 11, 2005

and to think realestate people proudly display these crappy looking ceilings as an asset to the house. Good on you two for tackling it and going on to inspire us. however was the barff on your ceiling painted? i understand that it is almost impossible to remove if painted. another thing we discovered when building a previous house was the drywalling cost for smooth ceilings comes to about a third more and well worth it. a good realestate person will admit that it does increase the value of the house. the reason so many houses from the 70's have popcorn ceiling is that the drywallers did'nt take the time to learn to tape and join a smooth ceilling. Hence the barff gun. regards T

Elizabeth at 10:58 AM on Wednesday, Sep 14, 2005

Shop-Vac Scraper Trick

My hubby and I just removed that 'Oh so great late night snack' from the celings in our old master bedroom, the hallway and living/dining rooms. Here's a tip for you crafty people out there: we jerry-rigged (sp?) our shop vac by taping the scraper to the handle of a long shop broom, then taped that to the straight tube piece of the vac with the attatchment creating an "instant" cleanup when removing the popcorn. No need for a ladder on regular celing height and no dust! We had virtually no mess on the floor and did the whole project in 1/2 the time. Next up... get rid of that wallpaper from the late 70's. Thanks for the water/vinegar tip - we're going to try it.

lisa at 1:59 PM on Monday, Sep 19, 2005

Hey all,
Very good information, were about to start this process ourselves. But, I know that the popcorn that is on the ceiling now was mixed into the paint before it was sprayed on. Does anyone have any hints about that? The vinegar and water really works. I've done it. I was wondering about the marks on Amy's legs myself. LOL glad to find out it was the ladder.

Just can't wait for all the fun I'm headed for this week.

George at 8:30 PM on Monday, Sep 26, 2005

Scraping Alternatives

Hi, this is an update to my 8/29/05 post, where I talked about putting joint compound over existing popcorn and creating a knockdown effect next. I wanted to provide some more info on my experience to help you decide if this is the route you should go:

The Good:
- works well on painted popcorn that's stuck tight to the ceiling (and is really tough to remove by scraping). Popcorn like this should provide a terrific bond for the the joint compound if the popcorn is not flaky. I've seen popcorn that was like little styrofoam balls loosley attached to the ceiling -- I can't see any alternative to scraping this stuff off.
-fewer steps than the traditional wettin/scraping method: apply liberal amounts of joint compound with trowel to cover popcorn, use a clean hock (the wood or metal square thing that holds joint compound, similar to an artist palette), press it against the ceiling and pull it back off. The suction of the hock against the ceiling results in a texture like tiny icicles or stalactites. Using a wide taping knife, held almost parallel to the ceiling gently "knock down" the wet joint compound. If you mess up, just repeat until you get the texture you want.

The Bad:
- This process could be rather tedious on large rooms. I started on a hallway, and thought "no problem - I can do the whole house like this." Maybe not...takes a lot of effort to fill in all the low spots in the popcorn. If you're not careful, you get swiss cheese that requires filling later.

The Ugly: The joint compound wets the underlying popcorn. Too much wetting and manipulation of the compound can cause "pop-outs" where silver dollar sized areas of the popcorn will come loose, requiring filling and some foul language. So...be careful esp. if the popocorn is flaky to begin with.

The Alternative: Since then, I bought one of those $45 texturing guns and a gallon of premixed compound from the "orange" store that hooks up to a compressor or HVLP sprayer, like I already have. I did this to see if I was really saving any effort so I went to work in the master br closet: mask the walls, cover the floor, wet the ceiling, scrape, prime, spray with texture mat'l, knockdown with wide blade, prime again, final paint & cleanup. Obviously, no picnic either. The result was nice, but a little plainer than my hallway method. I have another large closet where I can experiment with my original method again.

Recommendation: Try this method in a closet or small hallway first. You can achive very interesting, hand-crafted textures. I hope this info helps.

Brian at 3:04 PM on Wednesday, Oct 5, 2005

I just finished the sanding process that comes after scraping down the popcorn texture. The scraping was a pain in the butt, but I'm sure it'll be much nicer after the popcorn is removed. My next idea is to attempt to convert all of the corners to those rounded looking corners that are becoming popular. Not sure exactly how to go about this. To cover the ceiling formerly known as popcorn in the basement I'm renting a texture sprayer from Home Depot. I think it was around 60 bucks for 4 hours.

Marsha at 10:32 PM on Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

I have just finished painting 5 rooms of popcorn. This house was built in 1985.I have learned the hard way. I should have primed the ceilings first but I didn't. I just rolled the paint on pretty heavy and luckly 3 rooms are fine but the other 2 which is the larger 2 are a mess. It looks like it's all going to fall off the ceiling. What can I do to touch up this mess?

Jason Beaird at 11:08 AM on Friday, Oct 28, 2005

Hey Marsha, that's one of the major pains with popcorn ceilings, patching them once they're damaged. Personally, I would say to scrape it all off...but if you've read the post, you know I hate popcorn ceilings. If the damage is not too extensive, you can buy the dreaded stuff in buckets in the paint section of your local hardware store, otherwise you might want to consider renting a texture sprayer to get a more even coat. As much as I don't want you to put more popcorn up, I'd rather not see it patchy.

Holly at 3:07 AM on Sunday, Nov 6, 2005

I scraped the popcorn off of one room and became discouraged with the condition of the drywall underneath. We will be depopcorning the whole house in one week due to the installation of our new wood floors and it will be near impossible to wet,scrape,spackle/joint compound,sand and then paint an ENTIRE house in one week. So, I had an idea. Why not skip directly to sanding? I tried and it works great! I sand the popcorn with a course grit pole sander and then go over with fine grit sander and what a time saver. Some people might not find it perfectly smooth, but its close enouph! Just be sure to sand evenly! I hope this helps someone else!

Brian Reese's mom at 1:08 PM on Tuesday, Nov 15, 2005

Hi Jason - Please give me your expert advice. We have approx. 400 sq ft of popcorn that we'd like to remove. It has been painted and after doing some reading I'm getting scared. (Our house ws built in 1977 - another source of fear.) We'd like to get it finihed in one weekend. Do you think it's doable? Brian said he'd come down and help. I'd appreciate any more tips that you can offer.

Mary at 6:44 PM on Saturday, Nov 19, 2005

I can not tell you how glad I was to find this "popcorn ceiling support group"!!! LOL :) I went through the nighmare of trying to roll paint on my popcorn ceiling - only to have it fall off in big wet clumps -- what a mess!!!

Now that I have it all scraped off and the ceiling primed -- I don't want to have just a plain smooth ceiling. I have searched the net high and low and can not find any instructions for the easiest ways (and products to use) to put a slight texture on the ceiling. Is there anything I can just "roll on" without having to be a masonary?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Kathy at 10:26 PM on Monday, Nov 28, 2005

We just removed the popcorn from our bathroom ceiling. The house was built in 1968, and we didn't have the stuff tested. I hope we live to enjoy our new ceiling. We scraped it off wet, and didn't have to sand, so hopefully, we didn't breathe too much of it.
We decided to add some texture back to the sheetrock. That "orange store" has a funny looking roller that you can use to add a texture paint. We then knocked it down to achieve the minimum texture effect.
It was a little tricky. You have to work in sections and we can see the seams now that it has dried. We're thinking of redoing the section that's nearest to the bathroom light. The other sections are not noticable.
Knocking down the texture wasn't that easy either. The timing has to be just right. The instructions said to wait 5 minutes after applying the texture paint. You have about a minute to knock it down before it begins to mess up.
Maybe we should have used something else? Or, maybe a different roller. We have more ceilings to do. We'd like to get it right this time.

Greg H. at 4:12 PM on Wednesday, Nov 30, 2005

O.K. everyone- I have a question. I recently knocked down all drywall in my bathroom for remodel and have installed new drywall. I have access to a compressor and a texture sprayer.

Now the question. In my bedroom, would it be easier just to knock down the drywall ceiling (popcorn, drywall, and all), install new drywall, then tape/mud/texture/paint??

In my bathroom, I used a leaf blower in the attic crawl space to blow all insuallation away from the ceiling area, and then kicked the ceiling down from above. I would do the same for the bedroom. I can knock the ceiling down and have new drywall up in a day, ready to tape and mud.

I never removed popcorn before, and our popcorn is painted over, which I understand would make it more difficlut to remove. I thought I would ask the "experts" their opinion.

Thanks!
Greg H

Jason Beaird at 8:17 AM on Thursday, Dec 1, 2005

Well, since I haven't taken my leaf blower into the attic and kicked out the ceiling from above, I guess I can't say I'm an expert. :) I'm really pretty new to all this home remodeling stuff, but removing popcorn really isn't all that tough. I know it's pretty hard to tell with the popcorn up there what the quality of the drywall job is but if you're going to spray texture it anyway, I would say to give popcorn removal a shot. I've heard from a few people recently that said painted popcorn was actually easier than non-painted popcorn because it came off in better sheets. If it doesn't work out well...at least you have the piece of mind that you have the skills to pull it out and start over. Now if your ceiling were wallpapered with 7 million layers like our bathroom walls were, then you might want to think about ripping out the drywall, but I think you'll be alright.

Anne Lane at 11:03 AM on Monday, Dec 12, 2005

Everybody talks about drywall, but my place was built in 1920. Some previous owner sprayed popcorn all over the place - probably directly on the plaster. If I wet down the popcorn, the plaster could also come down. Right?

Jason Beaird at 11:22 AM on Monday, Dec 12, 2005

Plaster + Popcorn Problems?

Ooo...plaster. I'm not really sure as I've never had to deal with plaster before. I didn't find many references to this problem on Google, but I did find a Q and A page with a section titled "Removing Popcorn from Plaster Ceilings". They said you could spray it with warm water and scrape it off and didn't give any indication that there was any danger of damaging the plaster, but again warned about asbestos. Best of luck!

Dee at 8:38 PM on Monday, Dec 12, 2005

Hello,

Just spent a $1K to have "a skilled pro" remove the ceiling popcorn in my 1300 sq ft. house, and my nightmare continues. The arrangement was to have my ceiling prepared to a "ready to paint" status. My professional painting is now saying that the ceiling has not been properly sanding. To my untrained eye, the ceiling looks smooth. What is it that the painter sees that I don't see? Is it that hard to do a job like this right if you're supposed to be experienced? Also, any suggestion on how to either encourage the worker to fix the job or find someone else who can correct the problem.

Thanks for your input.

Jason Beaird at 9:14 PM on Monday, Dec 12, 2005

Well Dee, we're not professionals either. Our ceilings aren't "perfectly smooth" but they look better than they did with the popcorn. If your ceiling hasn't been primed yet and still looks like ours did in the pictures above (brown with joints and nail holes spackled over), then you probably won't be able to tell from the floor if it's smooth. If the painter were to put a coat of primer up there you would see what he's seeing. Not sure what to tell you to tell your contractor...perhaps you should have the painter contact him and explain what his expectations are. Best of luck!

Maria at 1:27 AM on Monday, Dec 19, 2005

We are getting ready to sell our house with 3 bedrooms with popcorn ceilings. The realtor told me getting rid of the popcorn would be the "most bang for your buck".

Today I got a quote from a painter. $500 to remove the popcorn in all three rooms plus...$3500 to paint the interior of the house.
I thought $500 for the ceilings was resonable, but $3500 to paint a 1200 sqft. house?!?! That seems kinda high to me, but what do I know.

Anyway, after they left. I got up on the ladder and scrapped a piece off to see what would happen. It came off very easily and what was left looked pretty good. So, I scraped off one whole room usings a 10" mudding knife. It took less than an hour and I never wet the ceiling with anything. It is smooth. I can see no nail heads or seams. It's just a little rough so I plan sand it down a bit to get it as smooth as possible before pianting.

So, now with this little bit of experience I am wondering why anyone would bother wetting the ceiling first. Mine came completely off with one pass of the scrapper.

Of course, since I wasn't planning on doing this it all fell on the floor and was a huge mess, but the shop vac sucked it up pretty well.

I hope the other 2 rooms are this easy.

laurei at 10:04 PM on Thursday, Dec 29, 2005

We are getting ready to "depopcorn" a hall, front room, dining room and family room.
Our family (grown children) are in an uproar as they say it must have asbestos in it and it will stay in the air for years.

I did one room many years ago while my husband was out and didn't think is was a big deal.

From all the responses you've had it seems that a lot of people do the work themselves.

Don't want to do the ceiling and bring on bad health problems.

Any opinions????

Josh at 10:14 PM on Thursday, Dec 29, 2005

We had our popcorn ceilings analyzed for Asbestos. Our home was built in 1977 and results were 2-3% chrysotile asbestos which is the most common in popcorn ceilings.

Now that we know, everyone is telling me to
A) Leave the ceilings alone,
B) Just cover it up with another layer of drywall.

But I'm still thinking of either scraping or completely tearing out the drywall in all since it has some sagging issues. Am I nutz or is everyone else being completely paranoid? My wife is the one who is most worried because she is pregnant and she is one of those worriers.

Jason Beaird at 10:30 AM on Friday, Dec 30, 2005

If you DO have asbestos...

Well, you of course assume all liability if/when you decide to remove your own popcorn ceilings. As soon as you know that you have asbestos in the texture, you can no longer hire just any contractor to remove it. At that point, you have to hire an asbestos abatement contractor. There are websites like this one that describe how to properly remove asbestos containing popcorn yourself. I personally think the word asbestos itself induces an undue level of paranoia when uttered. We never even tested our popcorn before we started spraying and scraping...but then we're young and foolish.

laurie bross at 1:00 PM on Monday, Jan 2, 2006

Thought I saw an address of where to send a sample of popcorn for testing, but now I can't find it.
Do you have an address where I could send a sample.
If there were to be NO asbestos, our family would get off our backs about doing the work ourselves.
We are in our late 60's but we can "scrape".

laurie at 1:19 PM on Monday, Jan 2, 2006

OK, I went back to the top and found a link, got a phone number and I will see what I can accomplish off that phone #. If no results, we'll just start and hope for the best.

Ron at 11:47 PM on Tuesday, Jan 3, 2006

Has anyone tried the popcorn scraper that has a plastic bag attached to it to catch the falling material? check out the site below it looks like a good idea. http://www.homaxproducts.com/products/texture/15/index.html

Chris at 6:30 PM on Friday, Jan 6, 2006

I have popcorn ceiling in kitchen and dining area which I would like to remove (it's peeling away from our previous flat painted ceiling.) There is a section of ceiling where cupboards once hung and the ceiling is uneven. I have been told that if I plaster over this section, it will evenutally crack and maybe fall. Any suggestions?

Alexi at 3:15 PM on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2006

I just bought a home that has popcorn ceilings in almost every room and all the hallways. A co-worker told me that if I remove it I won't get the smooth finish that I have on the walls when I'm done painting. Instead, he suggests leaving the popcorn in place and covering it all with drywall and then painting over it. This will be my first experience removing a popcorn ceiling and I want it to look well done. But the drywall idea seems labor-intensive and costly, even if I do it myself. I would save money by not removing the popcorn, but how much more would I spend on drywall, spackle, joints, hangers, etc? What do you think...can I get a good result by just removing the popcorn the old-fashioned way?

Kurt at 4:56 PM on Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

Sounds like a Pro.

I've been involved in removing the popcorn from several rental units built in the early 80's. We put plastic drop cloths on the floor and then sprayed the ceiling in sections using a garden hose with a standard spray nozzle attached. We used dry wall knives (thin, flexible trowels) as scrapers. For the most part, the popcorn came off easily in sheets, but there were some stubborn spots that required sanding. Be careful when scraping near wall joints to avoid tearing up the tape. The process was a little messy, but the units were empty and uncarpeted so it was pretty easy to clean up.

I tried using the scraper with the bag attachment to catch the scraped-off popcorn. It worked fine, but the bag got heavy as it filled up with the wet popcorn and become awkward to use. I decided it was easier to just let the scrapings fall on the drop cloths.

After the popcorn was off, we used joint compound to fill nail holes and other imperfections; this was the most tedious part of the process. Even then, we didn't feel the ceiling looked good enough to paint. We tried using texture that mixes in with the paint, but it really didn't look very good, so we sprayed on texture using texture from THD (basically, joint compound), a hopper gun from Harbor Freight, and a compressor. Putting on the texture was fast and easy (practice on a piece of cardboard or plywood first), but getting a consistent finish on a cathedral ceiling was a little tricky.

We primed the ceiling before putting the color coat on, and it ended up looking pretty good.

Good luck, everybody.

dan at 7:39 PM on Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

I used a pole mounted popcorn scraper with bag attachment ($15 at home despot) along with a pump sprayer. The scraper is poorly made, so I needed to straighten the blade and rebend the neck every time I emptied the bag, but it worked great. I removed over 900 sf of popcorn in a day with no damage to the underlying drywall or joint compound.

Steve Hartwell at 2:24 AM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Ok, since this discussion is still continuing, I'll toss my experience into the mix :-) I, like Dan above, started with a pole-mounted popcorn scraper and the hanging bag. But the bag filled quickly, and was really heavy and tiring to use. So instead I taped the pole to the rigid, 5-foot long pipe portion of the hose of my cheapo ($35) wet/dry shop-vac, with the scraper blade just above the mouth attachment. I plugged the hose into the vac, turned it on, and continued scraping. The attachment grabbed 95% of the popcorn and sucked it into the shop vac, and the bag got the rest (I could tell when the vac was full by the change in pitch of the motor). I finished most of the ceilings in my house this way in a few hours over a weekend, and the cleanup was minimal. I think I shoulda patented this! :-)

Jason Beaird at 7:52 AM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

I like how this one post has turned into more of a "shared experience" discussion than just me rambling about my experimental home improvement projects. Welcome to those coming in from LifeHacker and thanks to everybody who has contributed...especially Steve for the "sucky" popcorn catching tip. I'm a webdesigner, not a contractor - and as you can see, I've had a steady flow of good questions since I posted this back in August. Any tips/tricks/hacks you can offer here will definitely help the masses...and myself if I ever get to removing the last of the remaining popcorn in the kitchen and hallway.

dawn at 8:39 AM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Please please please help!!! I'm moving into an apartment where the tenants of over 15 years were extreamly lazy. They tried the popcorn effect on not only the ceiling but inaddition the walls also. It looks hidious and it is beyond an eyesore. Not only did they do the ceilings but they also did the walls they used joint compound and made huge peaks everywhere. Amatures looking for a quick fix. What can I do the land lord will not allow the walls to be torn down. Please help.

David Keltie at 8:55 AM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Why not hire a plasterer to skim the whole ceiling? Quicker and you'll probably need to skim the ceiling after removal anyway (get one who clears up too!).

Jason Beaird at 9:43 AM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Joint Compound?...on all the walls?..with peaks? Personally, I would probably re-drywall at that point. I think this article at diynetwork will help though. They suggest either using a floor scraper or smoothing with more joint compound. Am I the only person that thinks with a name like joint compound, that the stuff should only be used to cover tape joints and nail holes in drywall?

Lee Taylor at 12:19 PM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Found your site because it was linked to from a site that I regularly read. Just thought I would make the following comments regarding textured ceilings. I'm 56 and did most of the construction of my house myself (in the late 70's and early 80's). The popular style in the area was to manually "stimple" the ceilings with a "stimple brush" which gave a texture that could be varied to acheive a more individual style than the spray on "popcorn". This was popular because our generation grew up in homes that had smooth painted ceilings. My sons, who are in their 20s, don't like textured ceilings and think smooth ceilings are "cool", and textures belong on walls

Go figure!

Keet at 12:23 PM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

When you do this, it might be worth testing a small section of the ceiling while it's still dry.

I did a buddy of mine's bedroom and the entire ceiling just about fell off without wetting. A little more dusty, but was easy to get rid of once it was down (lighter in the garbage bags, too). Of course it helped that the ceiling had been painted. His 12 x 18 ft. room was done in a little over an hour.

Messy business, but I agree...popcorn needs to go away.

Gail at 1:22 PM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

RE; Asbestos concerns.

When my husband and I decided to remove our popcorn ceilings, we were concerned about asbestos issue due to the age of the home.

We spoke with a company who that did testing for asbestos. They advised that they could test for asbestos for (if I remember correctly) around $50.

However, since we were only going to do 2 15x15 rooms AND since we had already decided to do it ourselves...the guy at the testing facility said just save the money and use it instead to buy some quality breathing devices to wear while working.

We spent about the same amount ($50) on 2 good quality ventilated masks and wore them while scraping and cleaning up.

I think that many of the concerns about asbestos are more directed at people who have been exposed to high levels, either by performing frequent asbestos installation/removal or simply by breathing in a lot of small particles. I believe the HEPA masks filtered out any level of asbestos that might have been present.

Matt at 4:51 PM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Hey, I'm a Remodeling contractor and just wanted to throw my 2 cents in here.

I frequently deal with DIY homeowners in their 20-30's who absolutely hate popcorn ceilings! They all want "smooth" ceilings instead! Kind of strange when you consider that that "popcorn" texture was put there to act as an additional fire barrier! Yep, that popcorn texture isn’t just for looks guys. In most cases, it will contain 3-5% Crysotile Asbestos, which has long been used, (and is still used) in construction materials because of its unique properties. It is non-combustible, durable, flexible, and resistant to most chemicals, as such, it makes a perfect ceiling coating. I frequently spec out "popcorn" ceilings on my jobs due to their fire retardant properties, as well as all the time and money it saves!

In my opinion, the “popcorn” texture is a great, proven concept that has many benefits and few drawbacks. I will continue to spec it out!

If your hell bent on taking it off though…spend the 50 bucks for asbestos testing, buy proper protection, make sure you have adequate ventilation, DON’T SAND IT, USE the “Wet down and scrape method” and work safely!

Cheers

al at 9:39 PM on Thursday, Jan 12, 2006

Matt--I don't believe asbestos is used anymore in popcorn ceilings. In fact, I'm convinced of it. Some google searches can be done to check.

I had a popcorn ceiling once on an older 60s home and paid for a simple asbestos test. It was relatively cheap and revealed things like gypsum was one of the materials. No asbestos, no worries. A few miles over, we met some poeple who had had asbestos in their ceilings and had to abate it, major pain. I have heard (uncomfirmed) that asbestos was used more in the West US than the East, but I don't know if that's true.

There may be an issue with lead paint in popcorn ceilings on older homes, but I'm not sure that lead paint was used as much on walls, as opposed to things like doors and windows, etc. Someone more expert could answer that one. But if you're very concerned with all that dust coming off, a simple lead test is cheap too with a kit.

Jason Beaird at 11:09 AM on Friday, Jan 13, 2006

Matt, I respect your opinion as a contractor, but I think I speak for the majority of commenters here when I say, "Yes, I'm hell bent on taking it off. It's ugly and I don't want it in my house."

As a contractor whose been hired by someone who wants a "smooth ceiling", what materials and methods would you use? I'm especially interested in knowing how you would prepare a surface that has been wetted down and scraped for paint without sanding.

Jerm at 11:31 AM on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006

Helpful Tips for Wetting/Scraping.

After reading every post here and a few other places, I came up with my own plan of attack for a 12x12 bedroom. Water is the key to getting this stuff off, but I think the amount of water is the trick! Instead of soaking or spraying the ceiling, just use a small amount to water and do a small area at a time (like 2 x 2ft). Spay the area and only let it soak for 5 to 10 seconds. The popcorn layer will turn to mud and scrap right off. The trick is to not let the adhesive layer of the popcorn coating to get wet. This way, rather than bear drywall and tape joints, you end up with a smooth white layer of popcorn adhesive that looks like drywall mud and is perfectly smooth.

I did a 12 x 12 bedroom with two 32oz sray bottles in an hour. I used a 10" drywall knife for the center and a smaller 3 or 4" knife around the outside. The drywall finisher didn't put the final coat of mud on the ceiling's corner tape since the popcorn would cover it. So, I was very careful to not rip the tape by going with the tape rather than running the scrapper into the wall (perpindicular with the tape). I followed up with a damp spong to clean the corner of the small stuff I missed with the knife. I'll add a top coat of drywall mud to the ceiling side of the corner tape before priming. The ceiling come out so smooth, it will only need a fine sanding if any at all.

Melanie at 10:45 PM on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006

I am about to embark on 1000 sq.ft of ceiling. New carpet coming in2 1/2 weeks. After getting on a ladder to paint and looking across a sea of gray cobwebs that I think I vaccum regularly. I want clean ceiling. The house is 40 years old and is ready for a face lift. Thanks to all for your imput. My question lies after scrapping the ceilings and your down to the drywall what did people uses to texture the ceiling drywall before paint? or did you just do primer coat and then just paint, got a good paint recommendation ? Now to texture, I saw some spray stuff at Home Depot called something Orange. Is that good stuff or would it be best to spay something on with our spray device. Once when our darling sons thought when we said we're going to redo the the walls in the small bedroom, they thought we were riping out walls so they proceeded to do major art on the walls, Need less to say we, along with their help, ended up putting in some new dry way and sanding off the art and having to retexture. Long story short. I would love input on the process to finish the ceiling with texture and paint after striping. Thanks for the education I have received tonight. What did we older folks do before we talked to people all over the place. I have 2 1/2 weeks to have all this done. Melanie from California
Great Web design. Thanks

Jason Beaird at 7:48 AM on Wednesday, Jan 18, 2006

Hey Melanie, I have no idea what texture you should use after scaping. We've just been following the same method I outlined in the article throughout the house (already done all 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a hallway). As far as paint goes, we've been doing a coat of ceiling primer and then a coat of paint. In some rooms we used ceiling white, and in others we used a color. Getting the edging perfect between the wall color and the ceiling has been tough, but I think we're going to do crown moulding in some of the rooms where the wall color is very different from the ceiling.

Aisha at 2:13 PM on Sunday, Jan 22, 2006

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am about to start removing popcorn from my 2 bedroom flat, I have been to all DIY shops shopping for a tools to make it easier like Wallpaper stripper but all in vain.

I live in London, United Kingdom, is there any equipment I can use to simplify the job.

Thank you

Aisha

Audrey at 5:34 PM on Wednesday, Jan 25, 2006

Great info for removing this garbage off of our ceilings. You both did a wonderful job of it. So glad we found your site. We were just slammed with by the wrath of Katrina here. You know what happened here. Well we are totally redoing everything (whether we want to or not). But I can tell you this ceiling has got to go. I am following your tips to the T.
By the way Amy , in the 2nd to last pic here. I could just swear you look almost exactly like my daughter Nicole. You both did a terrific job in your home as well as the way you explained things. Thankyou for offering this info. I know it will take a while to do, but we are now well informed. Have a great day. Audrey and fam

Rosie at 9:18 PM on Saturday, Jan 28, 2006

Jason and Amy .......WOW! thanks for much for sharing your experiences here!!! I was searching some sites because I was considering redoing our smooth living and dining room ceilings in a 'knock-down' finish.....but after reading all this.....now I'm not even so sure about that. Thanks for making me slow down and do a bit more thinking on this. Might save me from doing something I might regret!

Davey at 12:49 AM on Wednesday, Feb 1, 2006

hello, ALooks great by the way.

What year is your house? Were you not afraid of Asbestos?

I just bought a house and all three bedrooms have popcorn ceiling this stuff is so damn ugly. The house was built in 1987. Is there anyway it could have asbestos?

Jason Beaird at 2:26 PM on Wednesday, Feb 1, 2006

Our house was built at the end of the 70's so there's a chance the popcorn may have had asbestos, but we never had it tested. If your house was built in '87, then you're probably in the clear, but if you're worried about it I'll be a hypocrite, and tell you that you should get it tested.

Terry at 12:03 AM on Thursday, Feb 9, 2006

I have a 1925 bungalow that has ugly popcorn cielings in the dining room and one bedroom. Last weekend I was putting in new light fixtures in the living room, and discovered that there is a popcorn cieling in that room too... covered with drywall. I'm sure that is a more expensive way to get rid of the popcorn, but slapping new drywall over it seems easier. Any thoughts?

JP Sinnott at 1:22 AM on Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

How long did it take you to remove the popcorn from your ceiling and to sand it after. Did you leave the ceiling smooth ? and if so how did it look after you painted it. Did you see seem marks from the drywall after you painted it?

Jason Beaird at 7:36 AM on Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Each room took us less than a day (8ish hours depending on the size of the room) from start to finish with a coat of primer and a coat of paint. The job is actually more prep and cleanup than actual work. Looking up at the ceiling here in the office, we got them mostly smooth. There are a few areas where you can tell where a drywall joint was, and in general the edge between the wall and the ceiling is a little rough, but overall it went pretty well. We're not too worried about that edge because we plan to put up crown moulding eventually.

Benjamin Sam at 1:26 AM on Monday, Feb 20, 2006

I can't believe I'm taking part in this disccusion board over removing popcorn. Nevertheless, I would like to have it removed. I wanted to give my room a new look, adding moldings to the top of the sidewall but because of the popcorn, the moldings may not seal properly. All of the method I have read on removing popcorn seems very labor intensive and discouraging. And with this abesto thing and possible lead paint, is it worth the health risk?

Jason Beaird at 7:38 AM on Monday, Feb 20, 2006

Hey Benjamin, in relation to other home improvement projects, removing popcorn ceilings isn't that tough. Regardless, if you're not up for the job, you could always try putting up the crown moulding and sealing the top with a bead of caulk. I've seen that done before and it doesn't look as bad as you might think. I'm a big proponent of just scrapping it all off though.

Erin York at 11:51 PM on Monday, Feb 20, 2006

Hi, thank you for the wonderful website, it has given me some great ideas, but my question is after I scrape the ceilings can I primer and paint or do I have to put some texture on them? and if so how? thank you for your help! THANK YOU!!

Jason Beaird at 8:49 AM on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006

Hopefully, once you've scrapped, sanded, smoothed over any imperfections with joint compound, and sanded the joint compound down you'll have a smooth ceiling to prime and paint.

Pamm at 9:52 AM on Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006

Jason and Amy, thanks for sharing your technique and starting this wonderful conversation. I have forwarded the info to my husband. Hopefully, he will see how easy it is and rewarding! I can't wait to get rid of the ugly popcorn.
I know for a fact that my builder did it to save time and money, not for any sound reduction or fire safety! I can base this on the $5 light fixtures they put in! hahaha
Thanks!
Pamm

todd at 4:54 PM on Monday, Feb 27, 2006

I am in the process of scraping 3000 sq ft of popcorn. This was due to the cost of hiring it out - on that note, and always looking for a little business oppty - would you pay to have someone prep, scrape, and clean up your popcorn for about a $1.25 per sq ft...

Just looking for some input...it seems that most painters and contractors will unhappily do the job, but since they dont specialize they are up around $2.00 a sq ft....Am I crazy? Do tell!

Jason Beaird at 8:11 AM on Tuesday, Feb 28, 2006

Being the one who wrote the tutorial :) I wouldn't pay to have it removed. The job isn't all that tough, but I'm sure there are people out there who would pay. The question is whether there are enough people in your area to make it worthwhile.

JP McDonald at 5:21 PM on Friday, Mar 3, 2006

I am ready to tackle my ceiling tomorrow. I hope I can do it in one day. My celing has water spots in it. My hot water heater broke the other day and put a nasty yellow spot in the ceiling. I am selling my townhouse so I have to get ride of this popcorn crap on my ceiling. It looks like previous owners patched the ceiling in a bunch of places. here are some pictures

I need to repaint parts of the walls to. Can I patch the walls or am I doing to have to repaint the whole place. It was just painted so I really don't want to. I can try and color match it, but I really don't want to

CBASS at 10:14 PM on Wednesday, Mar 8, 2006

haha, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks!
We get the keys to our new house Fri. Our stuff arrives Monday. The wife and I have the weekend to take popcorn off the living room and 3 bedrooms. (It was already taken off of or never applied to the rest of the house)
Funny... I had no idea others shared my virulent hatred of the popcorn. It's not that I like smooth ceilings so much as I HATE everything about the popcorn... except maybe it's fire retardent properties. I don't mind that I suppose.

Has anyone tried putting wood flooring over the smooth drywall to simulate a wooden roof? Just curious... that's a bridge too far for this weekend and another topic. We'll paint it to start.

michael at 1:11 AM on Thursday, Mar 9, 2006

More Asbestos Info.

This article on asbestos and popcorn ceilings appeared today on MSNBC at

http://realestate.msn.com/Improve/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=273335

There are a number of other things to be concerned about regarding asbestos and lung cancer. There is No Minimum amount that has been determined to be safe, the effects may not show up from 10 to 40 years and popcorn ceilings using asbestos were allowed to continue up to at least 1986 so that manufacturers could use up existing stocks. Other uses were curtailed by 1978.
Also the wallboard(aka sheetrock) and mud joint compound contained asbestos also. This means that sanding the joints or broken paper on the sheetrock, nailing and drilling will release sufficient amounts of asbestos fibers and are very dangerous. Vacuuming will likely spread asbestos laden fibers throughout the entire house through it's exhaust and will hang around for years to come as one dusts and cleans over time causing further exposure.
I really don't want to spoil your home decorating fun but I hope you all will be, at least, a little more careful.

Editor's Note: :) I removed your second post where you pasted in the article from the link above and made the link in this post clickable.

julian k at 10:57 PM on Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

I live in santa monica california.
house was built in 1974.
i am trying to wet my popcorn ceiling in order to scrape it of,but it is not getting any softer
actually it is pretty hard all the time.
do i have to sand it a bit and then patch it?
ANYBODY WITH SAME PROBLEM,OR COMMENTS ?
thanks
julian

Jason Beaird at 7:41 AM on Thursday, Mar 16, 2006

My guess Juilian, is that ceiling has been painted a few times and the water isn't getting through the paint. You could try scraping it just enough to knock off some of the popcorn and then wet it and see if it scrapes off easier, but it may just end up being a tough job.

Gregg at 11:19 AM on Friday, Mar 24, 2006

I have to say I am shocked that nearly everyone is saying this is easy. I tried to remove the popcorn without wetting it, then with a spray bottle. Maybe there are different varieties and thicknesses of the texture because mine is very difficult to scrape off. I am also tearing the sheet rock paper no matter how gentle I scrape. It took me several hours to do 5 sq ft. I actually sharpened a putty knife and that is helping just a little. What am I doing differently that this process is way harder than all the posts I've read??

Jason Beaird at 1:00 PM on Friday, Mar 24, 2006

"Maybe there are different varieties and thicknesses of the texture because mine is very difficult to scrape off."

That might be the case Gregg, I know we had a more difficult time scraping the popcorn in the guest room than we had with the rest of the house - the only parts we haven't done yet are the kitchen and the living room with it's vaulted ceilings. Wetting it (with a pump sprayer preferrably) helped a lot for us. Sorry to hear you're having problems with it.

rick at 4:58 PM on Friday, Mar 24, 2006

they have removed popcorn ceilings in a bldg. i once lived and found that it does have some asbestos. how high is the exposure to the asbestos if it is done quickly with masks and collected in plastic bags. why do some tests come back negative (multiple samples) and others come back pos.?

Gregg at 2:46 PM on Saturday, Mar 25, 2006

Ok, so I kinda got the hang of it. I had to REALLY wet the stuff down, let it dry for a minute, wet it down again, then scrape and spray a little bit more as I go along. It seems to work best with a smaller spackle knife even though it takes more time. As long as the popcorn is soaked I don't have to press as hard which helps to not damage the sheet rock. It got easier, but still sucks. Builders that put this stuff up should be put in jail. Time for a beer. Thanks!

rick at 6:18 PM on Saturday, Mar 25, 2006

Home Depot has a solution that you mix with water that eases removal. Ours just peeled right off after using it.

Linda at 2:11 PM on Friday, Mar 31, 2006

This is a wonderful site, I'm so happy to have found it. Our test for asbestos just came back positive and I am really disappointed and torn about what to do. My husband wants us to remove our popcorn ceilings ourselves. We did remove a small section to test how difficult it would be and I must say it was very easy. I don't know if it's worth the risk our health, or if this issue is overblown. I know that poor workers who do this for a living year in and year out are exposed much more than people doing their own home, but does the one time offer too great a danger? I have learned from your site that many many people do it themselves and no one can answer if it's worth it but the people themselves. I am so confused, we hate the popcorn and it really dates what is otherwise a beautiful home. What do all of nice folks think?
Best wishes,
Linda

Prosper at 3:03 PM on Tuesday, Apr 4, 2006

OK...I was about to tackle the job myself, but ummm, after reading, I don't know. I have popcorn ceiling allover my three bedroom house. The only rooms that don;t have popcorn are the kitchen and the three bathrooms. I have high angled (not flat) ceiling in a very large open area living and dining room along with 3 bedrooms.

What I was actually thinking about doing was doing a google search or hiring an investigator to find the person who came up with "popcorn" ceiling and having him come remove it for free. At 6 feet 2 I can be very persuasive. Of course, my wife disagrees and so I am left with the task of deciding whether to remove and re-spacke, repaint myself (wifey is not too handy, but she's good with suggestions, demands and timeframes), or hire a contractor.

Excuse me, I'll be right back. I'm having a mental/emotional aneurysm at the moment.

Gregg at 12:49 PM on Wednesday, Apr 5, 2006

I'm STILL shocked that everyone thinks this crap comes off easy. If you ask me, if the stuff comes off like icing off a cake...DO IT! DO IT ACROSS AMERICA!! Unfortunately for me, it was not easy. I tore the sheet rock paper. I tore the sheet rock tape. The solution that you mix with water, what is that? I went to Home Depot and they only had popcorn to put up, but no remover. Are you talking about DIF? Regardless, you will still soak the sheet rock and tear through the paper. Ugh, maybe I'm just bitter. I'm gon' go jump out a window.

Janie at 8:42 PM on Wednesday, Apr 5, 2006

I was happy to find this site. I am in the process of removing the popcorn from my dining room and kitchen. I have used the scraper with the bag from Home Depot, along with spraying the ceiling with water. We still have a mess to clean up, but 80% of the ceiling has gone into the bag and straight into the trash. It does get heavy, but if you move the trash can along with the ladder, you can dump it quite efficiently. The popcorn globs up on the scraper, so you have to clean it occasionally. Someone told me that once this part is finished, I should get joint and wall compound and mix it to a consistancy of thick paint. Then just roll it on the ceiling. Has anyone tried this? I hope it works!
Janie

Jason Beaird at 9:41 PM on Wednesday, Apr 5, 2006

It sounds like a good idea to me Janie. After we finished the scraping/sanding/patching we just used a coat of primer and then a coat of paint...but I bet if you used something thick like that it would help to smooth out some of the rough spots.

Sheri at 12:53 AM on Saturday, Apr 8, 2006

Fun to read, Great Story! :)

We should call this group SCRAPE (Society for the Creative Removal of Acoustical Popcorn Everywhere.) Thanks, Jason, for starting this.

We have just finished our first two rooms (eight to go.) Ours is Truly Evil Painted Popcorn, a pitched battle. The scraper/bag tool did help on the first room. We did not sand the ceiling after we scraped it, thinking it looked good enough. One coat of ceiling paint showed us we were wrong. We tried a long-nap roller for a nice generous second coat of paint, to see if that would make the ceiling look smoother. Nice thought, but no.

So...we bought some sand texture additive and applied a third coat of paint, with the loving care of NASA engineers building a shuttle. It was pretty tricky to use. You could see the sand was heavier where the sections overlapped, and it didn't look right. So, after it dried, we sanded off some of the sand. That helped, and after one more coat (yes, that's FOUR paint coats now) Room One looked great.

Determined to learn from our stupid mistakes, we attacked Room Two. This popcorn had even MORE paint on it. The scraper bag tool was useless, as was the wetting solution. (Gregg: Lowe's, Popcorn Ceiling Texture Remover, $10, made by Litex.) I think it would work on unpainted popcorn, but not on our crud. Resorting to brute strength, we scraped off the peaks to get a place for the water to begin to work. Then scrape more, wet more, over and over in the same area. Scraping this room took most of the day. Please pass the Ben-Gay.

Then, we bought a pole sander. Folks, if your popcorn is not the sweet gentle stuff that falls cleanly off the ceiling, you'll need this tool! Sanding is no fun, but it really makes the ceiling look better. Also, this time we used a PRIMER coat, and then one coat of flat ceiling paint. It looks great.

So, we have learned so far:
1. Everybody's popcorn is different. I hope yours is the kinder, gentler variety. Ours is horrible. (We feel your pain, Gregg.)
2. Do drape your walls with plastic, unless you plan to repaint after the ceiling is done. Most old popcorn ceilings are dirty, and you'll get dirty water streaks you either have to wash off or paint over.
3. Do sand after you scrape. The pole sander is worth the $20. (No comment about the blisters.) Wear a mask.
4. Do use a good primer for the first coat; it makes your second coat much smoother.
5. Textured paints are hard to use. I might try the idea of adding joint compound to the paint to make it thicker, but no more sandy stuff for us.

I will post more if we figure out anything else helpful. Chin up, hang in there!

Barbara at 10:45 AM on Monday, Apr 10, 2006

Hi everyone, writing from the Netherlands. What a great site. We are moving back to my home in Bakersfield, California in June, and the first thing to do is the popcorn ceilings. House will be empty (renters for 10 years) so no problem with mess. We did not know how to start, or to pay someone, etc. Now, we have some answers. Thanks, again, and as we continue on our journey, we'll be back to comment, or to sing more praises. OT: I miss America!!

Carrie at 1:59 PM on Monday, Apr 24, 2006

Does anybody have any tips about scraping the popcorn off of plaster ceilings? I've gotten the wetting solution from Home Depot and have scraped off the popcorn, but it has left some kind of layer in some spots that I can not get off. I've tried sanding with the sanding pole, but it still is not smooth. I don't want to prime and paint without getting rid of that layer first. Any suggestions?

dorsey at 9:29 PM on Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006

Helpful Comment

It occurs to me that the several people who are having extreme difficulty removing your popcorn have either encountered popcorn ceilings that have been painted, or have mistakenly identified a textured paint as popcorn. There are a couple of textured paints that contain popcorn-like aggregates and look very similar to popcorn. I'm a remodeler/handyman, and have lost my lunch money on a job or two where I made similar misdiagnoses. The only answer for those types of ceilings is a chemical stripper. ugh.

Real popcorn ceilings only need to be wetted to be removed. And instead of dry-sanding, try wet-sanding instead. Cut a piece of low-pile carpeting to fit a pole sander, dunk it in a mop bucket, and have at it. It takes some repetition, but you're not breathing dust.

I also have a palm sander that has a dust collection bag. I took off the bag and rigged up some hoses from the sander to my shop vac. It's remarkably effective and useful for any sanding you do, from wood to spackle.

This is a pretty fun exchange you got started here. Nice work. Best to all.

Janie at 11:01 PM on Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006

OK, I wrote before. We now have our ceiling finished. I did try to roll on the thin w&j compound. It probably would work but you still have to sand. A tip for those people like me who like to cut corners and think directions are for everyone else! After scraping, if you think you can sand down some residual popcorn,make it smooth and paint over it, even if it feels smooth to the touch, it will come back and bite you in the form of curling paint. I tried a couple of spots like this and by morning, the paint we had applied looked like a ceiling from a decaying southern mansion! It was only small spots and easy to repair, but just added another step. Every trace of the popcorn must come down!The sanding wasn't that bad with the pole sander and screen like sand paper. The ceiling is so beautiful now and I could not believe how it lightens up the room. That popcorn casts tiny little shadows from each kernel. All combine to put the popcorn ceiling in the dark. Now, as soon as the memories fade and the muscles heal, I plan to start the living room!

Kate at 12:26 AM on Sunday, Apr 30, 2006

Did you ever think your popcorn post would have such a long life? I've read every post as we are moving into a home built in '69; one of my builder relatives says it will definitely have the asbestos corn. He suggests that we wear the respirators, thoroughly moisten the painted popcorn, partially knock it down, then moisten it again. Then we will hire a drywall co. to put up a "knock-down" textured ceiling. Then we'll prime and paint. It won't be totally smooth but it should look nice, much better than the filthy looking popcorn. I will admit that the asbestos thing has me freaked but I'm going to be as careful as possible and do it anyway. My relative says that keeping it moist is key as it is the dust that can be dangerous. So here we go!

Joe Adams at 10:55 AM on Sunday, Apr 30, 2006

Jason,

I share your sentiments exactly! While I'm not yet ready to take down the popcorn ceiling, I know I have this to look forward to. Been looking at homes to purchase for about a year. No matter what the age, from new to old, they ALL have it! Yuk!!

Thanks for your article!!

Hater of popcorn ceiling!

Joe

Kristine at 3:51 PM on Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Anyone come across a popcorn ceiling with gold glitter in it? We're about to buy a house this weekend -- only thing I hate -- of course, the popcorn ceilings....that's how I found your site...

Anyway, all of the ceilings have this gold glitter...I wonder if that means that the popcorn was painted....hmmm. What to do...

Jason Beaird at 6:57 PM on Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Gold glitter popcorn ceilings? Now, that's particularly groovy. If you can find a chair or something to stand on that will get you up to one of these star-studded ceilings, wipe your hand across a small area of the popcorn. You should be able to tell if it's painted.

Rob at 3:17 PM on Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Awesome post. I am going to sears to get a scraper. My kitchen and bathrooms are smooth and I love them I have 3 bedrooms and 2 living rooms to remove. That'll take what, a day :-)

Aaron at 1:21 AM on Thursday, May 4, 2006

I was struggling, trying to scrape and scrape the nasty popcorn ceiling in our bathroom. Then I found this and it's helped out tons. Imagine, just spraying it with water and it comes pealing off. Thanks, you helped me and my very sore arms! :)

Quanda at 10:44 AM on Friday, May 5, 2006

Does the wet scraper technique work on ceilings that are not true popcorn, but still have joint compound applied? My ceilings look like someone took a mop full of compound and pressed it in a pattern. I want smooth ceilings, but am curious if the "scapings" will come off in sheets the same way that or if I need to simply wet and trowel it smooth.

Help!

Amanda at 11:58 AM on Friday, May 5, 2006

I have one small warning. If you have sensitive skin, you might want to leave this project to someone else. I decided to remove the popcorn from our bathroom, then a few hours later I noticed I have tiny bumps all over my face, arms, and legs (everywhere the pocorn landed on me).

Jason Beaird at 1:04 PM on Friday, May 5, 2006

@Quanda: If it's not popcorn, it probably will not come off easily, especially if the texture is created with Joint compound. Try scraping in a small area. If it doesn't come off you may have to re-drywall or retexture to get a smooth surface.

@Amanda: Maybe you were allergic to something in the popcorn. My skin gets like that whenever I have to do anything with the fiberglass insulation in the attic.

Howie at 2:19 PM on Monday, May 8, 2006

Is anyone in Hawaii doing this?

I am closing on a townhouse on June 1st in HI, and the only thing I don't like about the place is of course the p-corn.

I usually do ALL home improvement myself, but with two very young kids, I may pay someone (I hate doing that for something fairly easy). I'm only thinking about paying someone because they would be responsible for cleaning up afterwards and all that.

Janie at 9:29 PM on Thursday, May 11, 2006

Kristine,

I have seen several ceilings with gold glitter in the popcorn. Who knows why! But I think they might be from the 60's or possibly 70's. You might want to get it tested for asbestos before you do anything. Of course they might have used that stuff into the 80's also.

Janie :)

Ben Wiens at 5:12 PM on Monday, May 15, 2006

This guy is serious about smooth.

I really dislike popcorn ceilings also for many of the reasons stated in this thread. But I can see why they were developed. It's almost impossible to create a smooth enough ceiling that doesn't show off some defects. So now that I've renovated the kitchen and nook area of my townhouse, I've come to an even bigger picture conclusion. Drywall surfaces in houses just plain suck. You paint the drywall, and the slight sheen in the paints that makes that them even slightly cleanable shows off every defect. Put texture on the walls or ceiling to reduce the surface sheen, and the walls and ceiling are not easily cleanable or repairable.

Here is my situation. I removed some walls to open up my kitchen to the eating nook. I repaired the walls. I used the wet method of removing the popcorn from the ceiling. I found the ceiling underneath was reasonable smooth and had a coat of paint on it. I patched areas that were rough. I even used a 4 ft long Darby to level some areas of the wall that were wavy. I mudded and sanded to perfection. I thought the surfaces where pretty much perfect, even when looking at the drywall using a 200 watt lamp at 80 degrees to the surfaces. I used primer on my first coat. Then I painted the walls and ceiling with Behr Flat Enamel. It's not totally flat having a sheen number of 4-6% at 60 degrees. Also by mistake I used a roller that created a bit of texture. Result, ceiling and walls that looked terribly wavy. Looked like a very poor drywall job. Turned out it was mostly the difference between the old paint texture and the new really smooth sanded areas. I sanded again for almost a solid day using a pole sander, but it's almost impossible to sand off an entire layer of paint texture. Result, hundreds of high spots smoothed down and low spots still with paint texture. I switched to CIL Smart Ultra Matte paint (Canadian division of ICI), a scrubable flat paint with ceramic filler and Teflon which has a sheen number of 2-4%. Better but still looks terrible. I could repaint the ceiling with ceiling paint, this typically has a sheen number of 0-3%. But now the ceiling would not be as easily cleanable. This wouldn't fix the wall problems, but could it help the ceiling?

I'm wondering if I should move into a mud hut. I'm beginning to hate painted drywall, but it's not likely I'm going to pull the drywall. I want a nice cleanable wall and ceiling surface but how do I get one that looks nice in a renovated place? Or are there little tricks that I don't know about that make most of these problems pretty much go away?...Ben

Jason Beaird at 6:07 PM on Monday, May 15, 2006

Ben, you get a "helpful" icon on your comment for the simple fact that you know the sheen value of the paint you're using. We left the ceiling paint in two of our bedrooms and the surface isn't perfect, but it's very non-reflective. The right lighting choices can hide the imperfections and I don't think we'll ever need to clean the ceilings in those rooms. The only rooms that I would worry about needing to clean would be the bathroom (again...pee vapors) and the kitchen. As far as "tricks" go, the roughest part of our ceilings is around the edges. We plan to put up some crown moulding in some of the rooms to cover that up.

Chris at 9:52 PM on Monday, May 15, 2006

I am about to move into a house on May 31st and it has popcorn ceilings. Our (mine and future wife) house is only about 1250 square feet, so it's not huge. We plan on only being in the house 3 or 4 years, so here's the question...Do you think it is worth it to remove the popcorn ceilings or should I just suck it up for a few years and deal with it. The house was built in 1997, so I don't think that asbestos will be an issue.

One more thing...I am moving from an apartment in which I have a one month overlap between my closing date on my home and my lease expiring. That results in a month of an empty house to do any renovations that may be needed. Do you think that a couple weeks and a some weekends of after work scraping is enough de-popcorn a 1250 sq. ft. house and sand and paint and do whatever else it is that needs to be done to make the ceilings look better?

Thanks in advance for any information that can be thrown my way. If I take on this project I'm sure that I will be visting the site a lot more in the near future to ask "on the job" questions I'll probably have mid-scrape.

.chris

Jason Beaird at 10:28 PM on Monday, May 15, 2006

My wife just read your comment and says, "Definitely!" We only plan to be in our house for a total of about 5 years, and we had already moved in when we started on the ceilings. While you've got the whole house empty, you may want to do the whole thing at one time. Spend a few evenings scraping popcorn, spend a few more days sanding/patching/spackling, then paint it all at once. That should save you some clean up and prep work time. Best of luck!

Jim T at 4:16 AM on Sunday, May 21, 2006

Knock-Down Texture Advice

Great site! I;ve been thinking of removing my popcorn for some time, but thought I would need expensive equipment, so put it off.. After reading this site, I’m starting tomorrow.
I’ve heard quite a few comments asking what kind of texturing (if any) to do after the removal, or how to texture, so I thought I’d share some notes on that point.

You’ve already got a link to Homax here, but let me put a direct link to a tool I’ve had for a few years and find both inexpensive and a good working tool, the Homax manual texture gun.

After I remove the popcorn and sand, I’m going to put on a “knock-down” texture with this tool. I’ve done quite a bit of wall fix up with it, and the only down side is I think my arms going to get a bit tired after doing a whole ceiling.

For those of you that don’t know what knock-down texture is here’s one more link that has a hideous blue-colored picture of it, but I bet if you look at it you’ll see it’s most likely the texture your walls already have:
http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=18305
This site also has a nice tip telling you to round the corners of your dry-wall knife to minimize accidental gouging of your drywall. sounds like a tip I will follow.

I’ve heard people tell me that doing knock-down is tough to do I don’t know, maybe I’ve got a knack for it, but I find it pretty darn easy.
Here are the tricks to get it right:

Buy a piece or two of drywall, and practice with it. Be sure to paint the practice pieces, as there is an amazing transformation between an unpainted piece of drywall with a knock-down texture, and one that is painted. If you’ve never done this, you will think the unpainted test piece is a dirty mess, and that you must have done something wrong.

Less is more: Again, if you’ve never done this, you will most likely apply too much the first time. I can not over-state the transformation after painting. When you are first applying the spatter, try to think of the amount of spatter you would have if you had just brushed your teeth, then took still-wet toothbrush and raked your thumb over it onto your mirror. Your not trying to cover the dry-wall your looking for a splatter of bumps. After you feather it out by LIGHTLY dragging a drywall knife over the bumps, they will spread and flatten out to that familiar knock-down texture.. Which by the way, this is where it gets the name knock-down from.

Take the time to notice the flat spots in an existing wall: If your walls are already textured with a knock-down texture (like the picture in the second link in this reply, take a good look at the percentage of the wall that is flat.. the background of the texture is lots of areas of drywall that don’t have any texture to it at all. The end result is a combination of flat dry-wall, that has had splotches of texture splattered on it, then those splotches were flattened out to make those pools of raised spots. It’s much easier than it looks.

So in recap, it’s easy. Point the texture tool at the wall, squirt on some spots, wait 15 mintues for it to set up a bit, LIGHTLY drag a drywall knife over it, wait to dry, paint. Last step is stand back and be amazed how that simple procedure hid all the imperfections in the ceiling.

Drew Miller at 10:40 AM on Sunday, May 21, 2006

Once the cieling is sanded. People are mentioning "texture to match the walls" What is all this business about textureing the ceilings, What do you use to apply this texture, and why can't you simply prime and paint?

t tebben at 3:15 PM on Monday, May 22, 2006

Okay, today (May 22, 2006) was the day. I'd tossed around the idea of removing my popcorn ceilings for about a year and after reading your website, I ran out and bought a garden sprayer. Forgot to buy ceiling pa