Popcorn ceilings?

[bamamom]

Has anyone ever pulled down their popcorn ceiling to make them smooth? My sister just bought a house and it has those all the way through and she wants smooth ones but of course we are on a budget here and wanted to do the work ourselves? Anyone know exactly how to do and how big of a job it it??

 

[poohj80]

We asked our local fix-it guy about it a couple years ago and he said the problem is that the job involves more than just taking down the popcorn. More than likely, the ceiling under the popcorn will not be smooth so it will have to be smoothed, patched, and painted once the popcorn is down.

We decided to keep the popcorn.

 

[Mom21]

We had some ceiling damage in the last hurricane. My insurance company will only pay to fix the popcorn back to its original, so I have had about 5 companies out to give us estimates. They are giving me 2 estimates: one for the insurance and one for me if I want to remove the popcorn since the insurance won't pay for that. All of them have said the same thing as the previous poster. If you want to remove the popcorn and have a smooth ceiling it is a lot of work. They are charging 2-3 times as much and most are honest that any inperfection in the ceiling from the construction will still show. You might be better off to compromise and go with a lightly textured ceiling. I think that is what we are going to do. Just pay the extra out of our own pocket, but be rid of the popcorn. My husband has removed the popcorn out of 2 bathrooms and he sanded, and sanded and sanded and textured. It was a lot of work for not much space. That is why we are hiring out the great room area. hubby says you can't pay enough to do that work again.

 

[Kramer]

The problem with removing the popcorn cealings in a lot of cases is that the popcorn was put up to hide cracks and imperfections in the original ceiling. So even after the effort of removing the popcorn you are still left with a ceiling that needs work.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

The problem with removing the popcorn cealings in a lot of cases is that the popcorn was put up to hide cracks and imperfections in the original ceiling. So even after the effort of removing the popcorn you are still left with a ceiling that needs work.

Might be easier to scrape off the popcorn and then put new sheetrock (drywall) up on the ceiling. Obviously, you need to make sure that it is secured properly to the ceiling.

Good luck.

 

[bamamom]

I think we will leave the popcorn ceiling and focus on other things that needs to be done in the house to make it look better. Didn't want to spend alot of money on it and I don't want to put that much work into a ceiling Thanks for the heads up!

 

[KarenAylwood]

My parents' house has popcorn ceilings all the way through it. They recently had the family room and their upstairs bathroom painted and after the painters painted the family room and moved upstairs, they asked if my mom wanted to keep the popcorn ceiling. We had had some molding and my parents always hated it anyway. They said it was no problem to take down and they did it in a day. Completely smooth and I'd have to ask but I don't think they charged them much more.

They made it seem like it wasn't a big deal at all. The problem with the family room is that they had already painted the ceiling (over the popcorn) by the time my parents realized they could have it taken down. They were told that once the popcorn was painted, it was almost impossible to get removed.

 

[LIFERBABE]

I have Popcorn ceiling too, and right now we are doing some painting.

I found this website:

http://www.jasongraphix.com/archive/2005/08/popcorn_ceiling

 

[bellarella]

Another thing to be concerned about with removal is that some popcorn ceilings in older homes were done with asbestos, which requires very special removal proceedures and I believe needs to be done with a contractor with a license in some areas.

 

[cocowum]

I am currently removing the 'popcorn' from my ceiling. I have done several rooms and have been lucky so far. The ceilings have all been in good shape. No patching required. It's amazing what a difference it makes. I picked up some great tips from 'Design to sell' on HGTV.

First, remove everything from walls and room. Next, apply Painters plastic to walls and floor, this will be very messy. Using a garden sprayer, spray ceiling with water. Then scrape. Popcorn should scrape off effortlessly. You will have to paint the ceiling once you are finished scraping. You can find more info at www.hgtv.com. Hope this helps.

 

[SamiL]

When my in-laws remodeled the contractor just put sheet rock over the popcorn.

I've thought about getting rid of the popcorn in our house. I found some good info here:

http://www.jasongraphix.com/archive/2005/08/popcorn_ceiling

and on diynet.com and hgtv.com

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

My parents removed theirs the same way cocomum describes, but it cannot be done that way if it has been painted.

 

[jenr812]

Subscribing - DH and I have been discussing this for a while. Thanks for the tips

 

[cocowum]

My parents removed theirs the same way cocomum describes, but it cannot be done that way if it has been painted.

My ceilings were painted. I didn't think it was going to work since I had painted them within the last year but it came right off.

 

[Twinkies]

We used a spray bottle and a scrapper. Messy work, but cheap.

Ours had been painted several times, just sprayed with the bottle and scrapped. Made a huge difference in the appearance of the rooms!

We did drape the walls with drop cloths and the floor too.

Good luck!

 

[HM]

My DH did all ours this year. It wasn't all that bad of a job....just messy.
He used a spray bottle to wet the ceiling as he went, and used a large putty knife (6 inches wide) to scape with. He attached a garbage bag to a coat hanger and then scraped the ceiling into the garbage bag. That way very little went around the room. Be sure to wear protective eye and mouth/nose coverings.

We found that our ceilings were in really good shape and didn't need a lot of work after scraping them. The only thing is that you will end up with the drywall tape between teh ceiling and floors being loose. We decided to put crown moulding up on all our walls to cover that problem. He did that too!

If the house is older than 1980s then they should get the popcorn tested for asbestos before doing anything. It used to be an ingredient in the stuff. It cost us $25 to get ours tested.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[jennifer293]

I hate the stuff. My dad built this house 4 years ago and I wish I would have known I was going to buy it from my parents because I would have had him put up the smooth texture. No matter how much I clean our house has a lot of dust and it attaches itself to the popcorn and you can see it. I vacuum the ceilings all of the time but if you look at it in the right light you can see my vacuum tracks on the ceiling..LOL

Although I hate it I don't want to have to take it down nor do I want to pay to have it taken down so I guess I will keep on vacumming it!!!

 

[SueM in MN]

My DH did all ours this year. It wasn't all that bad of a job....just messy.
He used a spray bottle to wet the ceiling as he went, and used a large putty knife (6 inches wide) to scape with. He attached a garbage bag to a coat hanger and then scraped the ceiling into the garbage bag. That way very little went around the room. Be sure to wear protective eye and mouth/nose coverings.

We found that our ceilings were in really good shape and didn't need a lot of work after scraping them. The only thing is that you will end up with the drywall tape between teh ceiling and floors being loose. We decided to put crown moulding up on all our walls to cover that problem. He did that too!

If the house is older than 1980s then they should get the popcorn tested for asbestos before doing anything. It used to be an ingredient in the stuff. It cost us $25 to get ours tested.

Let me know if you have any questions.

That's exactly what they did on a show on HGTV that I watched this weekend. The homeowner actually brought in a garden hose with a fine spray (a little too MUCH water, if you ask me) because it was going too slow with just a small sprayer. The show was one where a consultant comes in to make suggestions to help the house sell - one of the suggestions was too take the popcorn off the ceiling in the master bedroom.

Interestingly on another show on HGTV this weekend (I think that one was called Your Parent's House or something, they tried hitting the popcorn and sanding it with various types of sand paper. It didn't really make a dent in it, so they decided to leave it alone.

 

[Lorikr65]

We thought of doing this. I would thing the water would ruin the drywall, or atleast damage it.

 

[LadyBears]

I hate the stuff. My dad built this house 4 years ago and I wish I would have known I was going to buy it from my parents because I would have had him put up the smooth texture. No matter how much I clean our house has a lot of dust and it attaches itself to the popcorn and you can see it. I vacuum the ceilings all of the time but if you look at it in the right light you can see my vacuum tracks on the ceiling..LOL

Although I hate it I don't want to have to take it down nor do I want to pay to have it taken down so I guess I will keep on vacumming it!!!

I find sweeping my ceiling is MUCH easier than trying to vaccumming. I have 1 whisk broom that is about 4 feet long that I only use for this purpose.

I always wonder what anyone would say if they looked in my windows as I am doing this.