What's the easiest way to remove popcorn from ceilings?

by Theresa Mayser

Answered

The ceilings in my entire house have popcorn on them. You can see where some of it is lifting. It's hard to get dust off of (especially on the vaulted ceiling) without knocking popcorn off each time. Need to find a procedure/ product that will lift the popcorn without damaging the sheetrock or taped areas. icon

3 answers

Gk on Jul 13, 2018

The only way you can remove the popcorn is by scrapping it off. You can do it yourself or hire a contractor. Depending on how well the ceilings were finished before they sprayed on the popcorn you may or may not have some repair to do before repainting the ceilings. It is usually not as simple as scrapping off the popcorn and being able to repaint without some repair.

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- Theresa Mayser on Jul 13, 2018
  
  Is this scraping dry? I’ve heard some people spray with a mist of liquid.
  
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- Gk on Jul 13, 2018
  
  Yes Theresa! You can spray water on the popcorn with a spray bottle--I used an old Windex bottle--in about 4 x 4 ft sections at a time. Spray well--let set about 8 to 10 minutes and then start scraping with a wide metal dry wall spatula. I put newspapers on the floor to catch the popcorn--plastic gets slippery. Be careful not to goudge the ceiling as you are scraping. You can add more water if the area you are working on gets dry. When you finish one section, spray the next and clean up the mess from the first while you are waiting for the water to soak in--at the end there's not so much to clean up. You will be surprised that scraping off the popcorn doesn't really take that long. I did a 10 x 12 room in about an hour and that was a ceiling that has been repainted several times. If you have helpers it will go much quicker. Once I had all the popcorn off the ceiling I had to decide what I could do next. I opted for my Plan B which was to install primed ship lap on the ceiling. Plan A was to paint but I would have had to have a skim coat done on the ceiling and I didn't want to wait for a contractor to come and do it!
  
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Peggy L Burnette on Jul 13, 2018
Hi this is Peggy Hope it helps. How to Remove a Popcorn Ceiling | HGTV https://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/how-to-remove-a-popcorn-ceiling

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DD on Jul 13, 2018

I am dealing with this right now and I found this article that I sent to my contractor, not sure if it is more or less then removing the popcorn but absolutely less of a mess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqfBEul3ihM

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