Living room remodeling - textured ceiling ???'s

[chernabog]

My wife and I are in the process of remodeling our living room and we'd like to have our ceiling spray texured. I'm always one to try and do things myself and would like to give the textured ceiling a shot. I can rent a sprayer for $60.00/day and it seems fairly simple. Has anyone ever done their own ceiling and, if so, how complicated was it???

 

[DVCLiz]

Chernabog, is this like the "popcorn" ceilings from the 70s? Because all I've ever heard are people who want to get rid of it and how difficult and messy it is to scrape off. Never heard of anyone wanting to put one up!!!!

Make sure you're going to be in the house for the long haul - I think for resale purposes a flat ceiling is far preferable.

But if you're going to do it, it shouldn't be that hard. The issue I would think about is the evenness of the spray. So can you practice somewhere (on a large sheet of cardboard in your driveway, maybe) before you go inside, just to make sure you have the consistency right?

Good luck!!

 

[makinorlando]

Chernabog, is this like the "popcorn" ceilings from the 70s? Because all I've ever heard are people who want to get rid of it and how difficult and messy it is to scrape off. Never heard of anyone wanting to put one up!!!!

Make sure you're going to be in the house for the long haul - I think for resale purposes a flat ceiling is far preferable.

But if you're going to do it, it shouldn't be that hard. The issue I would think about is the evenness of the spray. So can you practice somewhere (on a large sheet of cardboard in your driveway, maybe) before you go inside, just to make sure you have the consistency right?

Good luck!!

I was going to say - most people her in FL with it on the ceilings (houses built in mid 90s) are paying people to take it down! I have it on my ceilings - and they are really hard to keep clean - around the ceiling fans, there is a slight "ring" from dust that is thrown up there from the fans. Ceilings are too high to clean anyway, but that will be the next major project I have done in my house... removal of the popcorn!

 

[hiwaygal]

I'm going to agree with DVCLiz...we have a "popcorn" ceiling and I HATE HATE HATE HATE it!!! It is awful! Every time you try to touch it to clean it, all the little "corns" fall off...and make more of a mess! Forget about painting it...then you have paint covered corns all over the place! Did I mention I hate this stuff!

Now, if you are thinking of a more "stucco" type textured ceiling, that is much nicer, and easier to maintain.

I haven't done that myself...but we are doing something very similar to our living room walls. The stuff we're using is WAAAAAY too thick for a sprayer. And getting it on the walls is much harder than I thought it would be. But, it looks nice and I'm glad we are doing it.

For our ceilings, I've been looking at Lowe's and HD for ceiling panels/tiles. They look much easier to maintain...Check out Armstrong's selection:
http://www.armstrong.com/armstrong_ceilings.jsp?entDom=ceilings.com

 

[chernabog]

The big problem that I'm having is that we removed several decorative beams from the living room and the amount of work that I would have to go through just to plaster and sand over those areas, is more than I want to tackle right now!!! I'm really looking for something to cover these areas up!

 

[golfgal]

You are still going to have to do something under the textured stuff or you will see the outline of the beams since the ceiling won't be flat there. The texture will hide small cracks, but not something like a removed beam. I would either take the time to do the job right or hire someone.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Popcorn ceilings are actually really easy to remove, it scrapes off easily. It's just time consuming. My dh has done textured ceilings a few times. It's about a day long project, and he always had a buddy or two to help him. If you have doubts you should probably hire it out.

 

[chernabog]

I am going to have the ceiling skim-coated, so that should cover up the bad spots. I'm not going all out and then sanding it down. Should be good enough to cover up up some type of texture.

 

[tiggerlover]

Here is another vote against popcorn ceilings......I hate, hate, hate mine too!!!! I wish I would wake up one morning and they would all be smooth!!!

 

[Aimeedyan]

LOL, that's funny to see someone wanting to put it up.

We refused to look at any house with a popcorn ceiling. Heavily dated and work to remove (messy!). If you want to resell anytime soon, I'd reconsider. I think of them like I think of the dark wood paneling.

Good luck in your project!

 

[tar heel]

We paid extra to ensure our house did NOT have a popcorn ceiling. Our old house did, and I can't say enough about how much we hated it. I would try to do something other than that if you can.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

LOL, that's funny to see someone wanting to put it up.

I think the OP may be talking about spraying and then doing a knock down texture -that is what you are talking about, right OP?? I hope so, because popcorn ceilings would be awful!

 

[chernabog]

Yeah, any texture to cover up the skim coat, not neccesarily a popcorn texture! I guess what I'm trying to avoid is patching the whole ceiling and then having to sand it down, priming it and then painting!