Recently bought a new house but the rec room area has a "popcorn ceiling." What's the best way to get this stuff off?
Popcorn ceilings
- Thread starter spankingman
- Start date
Get a spray bottle of water, spray it down then use a tapers flat trowel and scrap it off. this is only good if the ceiling has not been painted before. one way to tell if its been painted or not is take your finger nail and scrap it on the ceiling, if it flakes off as is chalky then it hasn't been paint and your good to go. one more thing get some 2mil poly to cover your floor because it make a mess. You will need to tape the joints once you remove the stucco I hope this will help you out good luck with it
Messy but....as long as it hasn't been painted, mist it to wet it, allow to sit a couple minutes then scrape it off with a wide bladed putty blade.
If you get it moist you can scrape the popcorn off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzVpegoFV54 It's a messy process though so make sure you have some plastic sheeting laid down. The popcorn often masks things, like poor tape jobs along seams, so be ready to do a little touch up mudding and sanding to get a nice clean ceiling.
Tape a scraper to a wet/dry vacuum and then scrape it with the vacuum cleaner on. Saves you having to do a major cleanup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu3ov27D928
another way is to screw another sheet of 1/2 drywall on top of it. perfect flat finish. it may be a lot less labour and time then scraping and sanding and not having a perfect finish.
Awful , messy job, But I understand why people want to get rid of it.
My neighbour is a pro painter and the going rate he charges to completely remove, refinish, and paint ceilings is $1,000 per room. He absolutely hates doing them though.
My neighbour is a pro painter and the going rate he charges to completely remove, refinish, and paint ceilings is $1,000 per room. He absolutely hates doing them though.
paying a pro to do it has its advantages you might find cheaper than 1k per room if you shop around. i had it done a few years ago and it was not that much.
pick the smallest room and try for yourself.
Born2star and angrymimie666 raise some serious points.
If height is not an issue, then slapping a half inch drywall on top is easy to do (taping and mudding aside). Otherwise, unless the popcorn ceiling is that bad, slap a coat of paint on it and live with it.
Remember that once you complete it you rarely look at the ceiling.
IMHO, peeling off a popcorn ceiling is more work than it is worth.
I would just pull the whole ceiling down and then install new 5/8 Drywall.
End of story
Done right.
Consider Crown mould around the perimeter to support the edge of the drywall.
End of story
Done right.
Consider Crown mould around the perimeter to support the edge of the drywall.
You can cover the entire popcorn ceiling with multiple skim coats of setting compound and premix finishing compound. The finish ceiling will look warmer and flatter than the conventional drywall ceiling (the butts joints tend to flash).
It's tiring (your arm and shoulders burn from working above your head) and requires some skill with this method but if popcorn ceiling is in your living room or dining room which gets alot of sunlight, then it's worth the effort.
It's tiring (your arm and shoulders burn from working above your head) and requires some skill with this method but if popcorn ceiling is in your living room or dining room which gets alot of sunlight, then it's worth the effort.
This comes on sale every once in a while https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/electric-extendable-drywall-sander/A-p8531766e
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