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To Golddust re mudding over popcorn rather than scraping

15 years ago

Hello, golddust -- I just read your post in worldmom's thread about the trials and tribulations in her very cool house and noticed that you said, wrt popcorn ceiling, that you mudded over it?!

Golddust...my interest is *piqued*. Could you say more about the process? Did you just scrape mud up across the popcorn? Was there much showthrough? How much sanding did you have to do? How thick did it end up? Our ceilings are only 8' in this area and I don't want to sacrifice any more height...

I'm loving that idea. I wonder if there's any way to do that instead of making my DH scrape the rest of it off. He's only done a small portion, a sample...we could just mud thicker there, yes? But we'd avoid the retaping, hole-filling, etc. and skip directly to the smoothing/sanding...Please share whatever you can about your process, if you would. TIA.

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Comments (4)

golddust
15 years ago
My BIL (Bill) is an award winning set designer/painter/magician who saves our butts on our DIY projects all the time. He is here now working on our bathroom so I asked him... Apparently we didn't have the *real* popcorn ceilings. It sure looked like it to me... Every time I'd try to clean the ceilings of spider webs, my cloth would stick to it. It would just hang from the ceiling !! Bill says we just had a very heavy texture that looked like popcorn. He said for real popcorn ceilings, he steams it before using his putty knife. He says it comes off pretty easy when it gets damp.

Our ceilings are tall (old house) and he just put a skim coat of mud on top of the heavy texture. It is 100% better. He's a magician. I still think we had popcorn ceilings and I just don't think he remembers... It has been almost 5 years ago.
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golddust
15 years ago
OK, we didn't have the popcorn ceiling that was sprayed in... We *did* have a very heavy texture. (Still do in a few more rooms). Apparently the real popcorn ceilings were thick, soft and sparkled...
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Even if you have your ceilings tested and they're found to have asbestos, you can still remove it yourself in most states. Whether or not you consider it safe is a different matter, of course, but as far as what's allowed, it is usually possible for a homeowner to do it. The key, as others have said, is to get it really wet. It just "glops" off when you scrape it. If you google the process, you'll see instructions for how to catch the mess, keep dust from spreading through your home, and how to safely dispose of it. We had all the popcorn ceilings in our house tested for about $200. Only one little section in our entry way was found to have asbestos, but we've been systematically working on the rest of it. Unfortunately, a lot of ours was also painted, and that requires a lot more elbow grease to remove! We've decided that we're going to cover our dining room ceiling with 1/4" drywall rather than scraping it. When we get to the entry way area with asbestos, we're going to do it ourselves and just be very careful about it.
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Since you asked, I just completed an exhaustive renovation of my dining room ceiling where I removed the popcorn texture and added faux beams and custom crown molding (see the link). So, as to your question, "how much 'perfection' should I expect in a smoothed ceiling finish?" Remember you are talking about the ceiling and few people really notice/view/stare at what is going on with a ceiling. In my renovation, there are many areas where I did not sand the ceiling perfectly smooth after I scraped it. Flat paint works wonders for hinding all of them. What I would expect is that any imperfections not be noticable to the average guest who visits your home. How much wave is present? Fixing that would likely involve removing the sheetrock and sistering framing to the existing rafters to make them straight, then replacement of the sheetrock, etc. - a significant job in my mind. It just depends on what makes you happy and how much trouble you want to go to fix the concern you have. Here is a link that might be useful: Custom Crown/Faux Beams
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Our house is early 80's with popcorn ceilings throughout. DH and I don't mind the texture at all. When we remodeled the kitchen, the remodeling company wanted smooth ceilings, but we wanted a popcorn texture that blended in with the rest of the house. They were aghast. However, changing the kitchen would have meant changing the rest of the house, and consistency is preferable. We did not want the kitchen remodel to mushroom into a whole house remodel. So, yes, we intentionally added popcorn texture. We do have very smooth ceilings underneath if we or anyone else ever wants to get rid of it. It may not be trendy, but it's also not something I really notice.
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mahatmacat1
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh. Rats. Guess my DH has to do it the honest way. I'll take his word for it. Ours are thick popcorn; it can come off in bits and has been determined not to be asbestos.

How cool is that about your "BIL Bill"? (love that too, as that's how I say "BIL" in my head when I read--made me laugh out loud :)) Please thank him for his advice. Wish he could come work his magic with our ceilings, but no nose-twitching is going to make this go away :)
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Buehl
15 years ago
We were told our ceilings aren't popcorn...that they're a texture (kind of like a starburst pattern). It sounds like we could do what your BIL did to your ceilings....intriguing! It sounds like a lot less work than moistening, scraping, & repairing.

I would really like to get rid of the textured ceilings on the rest of the first floor (they're gone in the Kitchen & DR b/c the ceiling had to come down in those rooms during the remodel).

Is this what your BIL means when he says "textured"?

So, did he just put the mud over the existing ceiling? Any prep work? (Our ceilings are over 13 years old.)
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