remove a popcorn ceiling?

[BAMFMrsB]

Have you ever accomplished this? How bad was it? I really don't like the look of a popcorn ceiling and if I want to remove it, I'd like it done PRIOR to moving in, to keep the mess to a minimum.

[mkbt]

We've actually been doing this one room at a time this year.  It's not really as bad as we thought it would be.  We use warm water to spray the ceiling, scrape, clean it well, use an oil based primer, then ceiling paint.  We've gotten better with each room .  It's less messy when you spray it before scraping, otherwise it's a fine dusty mess everywhere.  

Our popcorn was put on pretty thinly, I'd say, but the kind my parents have is thicker looking (if that makes sense), so I think it would be a little more difficult or require a bit more muscle to remove than ours.  

I have to say, it makes the ceilings look taller and much more clean!!  I love it!

[OG Jo]

Jul 18, 2013 15:27:23 GMT -5 mkbt said:

We've actually been doing this one room at a time this year.  It's not really as bad as we thought it would be.  We use warm water to spray the ceiling, scrape, clean it well, use an oil based primer, then ceiling paint.  We've gotten better with each room .  It's less messy when you spray it before scraping, otherwise it's a fine dusty mess everywhere.  

Our popcorn was put on pretty thinly, I'd say, but the kind my parents have is thicker looking (if that makes sense), so I think it would be a little more difficult or require a bit more muscle to remove than ours.  

I have to say, it makes the ceilings look taller and much more clean!!  I love it!

This is exactly my first experience as well.  I got a garden sprayer pump type container to spray with and let it sit for a few minutes, then just went after it.  It came off super easily and made a huge difference.  We were removing the flooring in that room and repainting, so I just kind of let it fall as it may...

I'm getting ready to do my son's room.  I plan to tape plastic down so I can just roll it up and dispose of it when I'm done.

[mominatrix]

Jul 18, 2013 15:27:23 GMT -5 mkbt said:

We've actually been doing this one room at a time this year.  It's not really as bad as we thought it would be.  We use warm water to spray the ceiling, scrape, clean it well, use an oil based primer, then ceiling paint.  We've gotten better with each room .  It's less messy when you spray it before scraping, otherwise it's a fine dusty mess everywhere.  

Our popcorn was put on pretty thinly, I'd say, but the kind my parents have is thicker looking (if that makes sense), so I think it would be a little more difficult or require a bit more muscle to remove than ours.  

I have to say, it makes the ceilings look taller and much more clean!!  I love it!

this.

you want to check for asbestos first.

but all you need equipment-wise is a garden sprayer and drywall knife/putty knife / spreader type thing.  We got those paper suits and eye goggles, too. It's a dirty job.


We used scaffolding, which makes things a lot easier but I wouldn't say is a necessity. H palm-sanded the ceilings, and the scaffolding was a big help doing that.

[mominatrix]

Jul 18, 2013 12:40:54 GMT -5 BAMFMrsB said:

Have you ever accomplished this? How bad was it? I really don't like the look of a popcorn ceiling and if I want to remove it, I'd like it done PRIOR to moving in, to keep the mess to a minimum.

yeah, we did it before moving in, except for the ceiling in the stairwell, which still has glittery popcorn in it... we needed to get big scaffolding to do in the stairwell, as it's of the type where the ceiling doesn't go down with the stairs, but stays horizontal.


It's much dirtier than it is hard. Although you might want to consider what kind of ceilings you want. We wanted them to be smooth, which meant hand-sanding (with a palm sander) all the ceilings in the house. Again, not hard, but time consuming and dirty.

[kaylie]

The sellers removed ours before we moved in, but they left the light fixture in place when they did it, so when we went to change it we found some hidden popcorn. I was freaked out at first, but I really just sprayed some water on it and scraped with a putty knife and it came right off. I think the clean up would be the most annoying part.

[BAMFMrsB]

I found this link:

m.wikihow.com/Remove-a-Popcorn-Ceiling

Looks very easy, if messy!