is there ever a time for a popcorn ceiling

[Freesia]

All of the houses I've seen with "smooth ceilings" ,I can detect where the sheetrock or board meets. I find that very distracting.

 

[chadfromdallas]

My parent’s house has these kinds of ceilings. I like it. Personally, I could care less if anyone thinks they are tacky. Do you buy a house to make other people happy or yourself?

 

[LisaZoe]

I wouldn't call the ceilings tacky but I know my mom hated them - with 5 kids it seemed like we were always causing the stuff to fall from the ceiling. May have been the many towel/blanket/pillow fights. We had the kind with glitter in it so it made clean-up even harder.

I have one room in my house with it, an addition. Personally, I hate it too. I'd much rather see a cracked, uneven older ceiling that could be painted fairly easily to this stuff. I haven't even attempted painting in that room because I know it will drive me crazy that I'll have an uneven line where the walls paint meets the ceiling. It's that way now and I try to avoid looking closely. When I do decide to paint, I'll probably scrape the ceiling and live with the slight texture remaining - at least it would be easier to repaint when needed.

 

[tiggersmom2]

My parent’s house has these kinds of ceilings. I like it. Personally, I could care less if anyone thinks they are tacky. Do you buy a house to make other people happy or yourself?

You are absolutely right Chad....the voice of reason...smooches!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I agree that they are hard to clean, but I am not much of a cleaner so I just don't worry about it!

I think every house in Dallas has this stuff on the ceilings, regardless of price. My mother had a very nice house in a very nice suburb that was quite costly - it had popcorn ceilings. Of course I always thought it looked more like cottage cheese.

We are in an apartment (in an exclusive, gated community ) and our ceilings are the same stuff. I don't spend much time thinking about the ceiling. I guess if I owned the dwelling I might. But being the way I am, probably not.

 

[Pugdog007]

All of the houses I've seen with "smooth ceilings" ,I can detect where the sheetrock or board meets. I find that very distracting.

Crown molding

 

[twinklebug]

Always had them everywhere we've lived and never gave them a second thought until someone (usually me) cut a few knuckles open on the stuff while trying out her cheering moves. Never did make the cheering squad, darn it.

 

[jfulcer]

Maybe it's just me, but if you have actual cracking in your ceiling, then there's a problem with the ceiling and putting a popcorn finish up is just going to give you.. a popcorn ceiling with cracks. My neighbor is a drywall guy and he showed me how to fix those cracks permanently. All the houses around here are 60+ years old and some of them show the age.

It's not really all that hard to do either, and I would think would take a lot less time than repainting the whole ceiling with popcorn stuff and a lot less messier. You use a special primer on the ceiling where the cracks are, put fiberglass tape over the cracks and use a special plaster mix to lay over it. Paint with the same color paint, and whoila! You should be able to get these materials at home depot. If you wanted me to ask him what the special primer and plaster mix is, PM me and I will run over and ask him. He said the thing that took the most time was waiting for the paint to dry. Lol!

Besides, since this is an apartment it'll give you the chance to practice your technique so when you get a house, you'll be a pro!

 

[jbthi]

I'm not sure what all is considered popcorn ceilings. Is it any kind of a rough ceiling? I remember seeing homes from the 70's or so that had ceilings that looked almost like stucco.

The newer homes around here have rough ceilings that have a sort of pattern to them. Are they considered popcorn.

I still prefer the smooth ceilings.

 

[FreshTressa]

Oddly enough, all the ceilings in my house were redone except the popcorn in the living room. I don't really mind it, it makes it quieter.

 

[MariettaC]

LOL.....well, I have a huge, expensive and gorgeous house....it has popcorn ceilings! I guess it is tacky and nasty....I never knew that until I started visiting the Dis!

It's news to me too. I love my "tacky and nasty" popcorn ceilings.

 

[disnutt]

We're doing repairs to our house to get it ready to sell. We've been in the house 3 yrs and it came with popcorn ceilings on the main level. I thought it looked nice to start with.

Maybe the people be bought from used cheap material or poor workmanship when they put it up, but:

Within the first month I noticed that we had huge cobwebs that would form from the tips of the popcorn stuff. It was impossible to clean them without knocking some of the popcorn off creating additional dust mess on the furniture/floor below.

Within the first year the popcorn began cracking over the original cracks it was put up to conceal. That popcorn stuff is pretty stretchy because we had huge flaps of it hanging before we scraped it off. We were able to patch the tiny cracks in the ceiling and repaint them smooth. It looks much better this way.

I won't buy a house with the stuff ever again. Your mileage may vary, but I'm done with the stuff!

 

[KathyTX]

Popcorn ceilings are the norm here for any homes built within the past 40 or 50 years, whether you're talking about an $80,000 or an $800,000 or a $2,000,000 home (I don't think I've ever been in an $8,000,000 home, so I couldn't carry the comparison that far ) ... it's just not a real big deal.