Popcorn ceiling removal

Carol P
by Carol P
How do you remove the bumpy texture from your ceilings? Seems like it would be a big mess. Do you have to repaint then or does it look like it would need sanding down.
  6 answers
  • Sherrie Sherrie on Aug 15, 2014
    Wet it and start scrapping. Lay down plastic and drop clothes. Really simple I have three rentals everyone of those had pop corn ceiling!
  • Shari Shari on Aug 15, 2014
    Fortunately, I have never had popcorn ceilings so I've never had the "pleasure" of removing them but I have seen it done. Although it doesn't seem hard (except for working constantly over your head), it can be a messy proposition. It certainly helps if the room is empty of furniture and stuff so there is less prep work of covering everything up. This is a job I might have tried to DIY in my younger days and even though my husband and I still do a lot of DIY projects ourselves, I think we're at a stage in our life now that this would be one job that might just be worth hiring out. My advice is to go to YouTube, watch a few videos to see what it involves and then decide if you want to tackle it. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=remove+popcorn+ceiling
  • @Carol P Doing popcorn removal on a ceiling can be quite the challenge. They make all sorts of gadgets that have bags attached to scrapers and sprayers and chemicals. The very first thing you need to do is to have the material analyzed. Many older popcorn ceilings were asbestos. And you need to know if you have this or not. The test is very simple and low cost. You will take a small putty knife and a plastic sandwich bag. Scrap about two inches of the ceiling off. Place it in the bag and mail it to the lab. EMLab P&K https://www.emlab.com/app/contact/Contact.po Call the lab nearest you. They will instruct you on how to mail it and its cost. There are many other labs that are low cost, but this is the largest lab in the country and by far the best. They are the folks that I use for all my testing needs. Once you know what your dealing with will determine what method would work best to remove. Water and a plastic putty knife tends to be the best way. Lots of plastic drop clothes need to be put down. As it will be messy. If you have asbestos the best thing is to either have it professionally removed or put a fresh coat of drywall right over the ceiling to encapsulate it. The latter is the cheaper method, but ideally you want it out. So go with the pro removal if you can afford it. Also do a search on popcorn removal at the top of the page. There has been many detailed suggestions on how to deal with it.
  • Carole Carole on Aug 15, 2014
    Please get your ceiling tested for asbestos before you start. Houses built before a certain year (not sure of the exact year) commonly had artex or popcorn ceilings and this was partly to make them fire retardant. This stuff often had asbestos in it to make the surface fire retardant. If you leave the artex alone and don't mess with it and it has asbestos in it, then no problem, however, if you start scraping off the surface you will create dust and there could be asbestos in this dust. This should not come into contact with your skin and should not be breathed in. Asbestosis affects the lungs and is a death sentence. I am not trying to be a scaremonger but it is something all DIY'ers should be aware of. If there is no evidence of asbestos then you can happily scrape away. If you ceilings are high enough there is a membrane on the market (just Google it) that covers the ceiling and makes a nice clean, white surface and the artex or popcorn, stays put under that surface and you won't know it is there. This is an alternative for people who cannot scrape this stuff off due to difficulty in doing so (it is a lot of work) or danger of doing so due to presence of asbestos.
  • Carol Carol on Mar 28, 2015
    Carole is correct. It is more than likely that it has asbestos in it. I think they stopped using it somewhere around 1978. Dangerous for homeowner to tackle.
  • Becca Becca on Jul 04, 2015
    You could cover it with beadboard sheets. Beadboard isn't very expensive either.