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Hi, anyone remove popcorn ceiling from an old house?

17 years ago

Hi, new to this website. I'm looking at buying a house built in 1972 that has popcorn ceilings. Anyways, we're wanting to remove it, but worried about it more than likely having asbestos. I'm looking for average prices people have spent having this removed by professionals. Thanks a bunch!

Laura

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Comments (7)

sharon_sd
17 years ago
It is an easy, but messy DIY job. You can get a sample tested for asbestos before you start.

Try the search at the link below. If you still have questions, ask them here.

Here is a link that might be useful: popcorn search
brunosonio
17 years ago
We had some removed in a house from 1968. We were lucky, no asbestos. The contractor simply sprayed it with warm water, let it sit, then easily scraped it off. Very messy job, but quickly over with.

I made sure to wash, rinse, and dry the ceilings before painting. Then used a very strong primer (Bullseye latex) before the topcoats. Figured I wasn't going to take a chance of the paint not sticking.

But do make sure to have a sample tested...1972 was still around the time of using asbestos in some areas of the country.
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I removed painted popcorn, scrap the painted popcorn first with a scraper. The perlite comes off in balls. Then spray with solution of fabric softener and water. Let it soak for a while. Mine came off (the brown thick paint came off in sheets), 15 x 11 room took me 2 days. Tape off room with painters plastic. Scrape ceiling with trowel. spray ceiling with water solution, wait 10-15 minutes to soak through. Watch out for overworking an area, you'll gouge it. Then use Magic Trowel to skim coat the ceiling. Here is a link that might be useful: Great tool for DIY skim coat
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The big question is - does it contain asbestos or not? You can look in the yellow pages and find asbestos testing places. Or you can look the other way, which I do not recommend, based on experience. I had an estimate of $600 for a 15 x 25 foot living room/dining room - decided to do it myself. I got a lung infection from the dust, developed pneumonia, etc. Doctor bills plus lost time from work was way over the $600. (Antibiotic pills were $400 for 10 days.) Also, the hugest mess you ever saw, anywhere. But, if you are really a die hard DIYer, please invest in a respirator, not a little painting mask. Good luck!
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I have, but probably not in the way you are thinking. This was in a house new enough for asbestos to not be an issue. I held the hose right below the scraper, and that way most of the stuff I scraped off got sucked in instead of letting it fall to clean up after. I've never tried spraying one down first, but always scrap, then just wash off the residue, comes off real easy at that point with a big sponge and warm water - I use the same type I use when putting up wallpaper. Don't be surprised if you find who ever did the taping of the ceiling did a horrible job because they expected the popcorn to hide it. I have one I need to take down soon, it was put up about 5 years ago and now we are considering a mini-split system and need to do some changes to the ceiling. DH does not want to attempt to patch in the popcorn so it is all coming down.
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Hi Everyone, I wanted to report back about what we ended up doing. We hired a drywall company and had the popcorn ceiling scraped off, and they then did several coats of 'skim coat plaster'. They did a great job and the ceiling looks great! It looks higher than with the popcorn. We are having it painted now, and then will repaint the walls ourselves. Our new kitchen cabinets arrive April 6th., so all should be done and ready for their installation. I am very happy we decided to remove the popcorn on the ceiling. Our rooms look larger, and ceilings higher, and not so dated. It was well worth the expense, and mess, and we were able to stay at a friend/neighbors house while they were out of town. Thank you all for your advice & input.
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bcar473
17 years ago
We had our painter do it with his bid for the entire house. He was more than happy to do it and charged around $600 or 800 for all 1600 sq feet of the house. Although he didnt do such a great job with cleanup! But thats a different story....
Kimberlyinva
17 years ago
I found that Febreze in the water makes the job easier then plain & it smells wonderful...but it's still messy as heck!!! If it has been painted I found that a sharp (razor) long handled wall paper remover worked best. It takes some practice to get under the paint but once you get going you can make quick work of it. Get it tested then if possible take it down! You might have to touch up the drywall seams but the effect of clean smooth ceilings is sooooo worth it! :)
Kimberly
golddust
17 years ago
Err, we just mudded over it. Can't tell it was ever there... My Brother In Law is a painter and award winning stage designer. His talent has come in useful over the years.
Debra
ventupete
17 years ago
From that date it is possible that there is asbestos in it. If it does have asbestos, the cost of removing it increases significantly. Whether or not you have it tested is your decision. Be aware that once you know it has asbestos and you either don't disclose this to a contractor or decide remove it yourself, you have violated the law and could incur significant fines if discovered.
sis3
17 years ago
I had the popcorn tested just to be sure. $20. I first tried scraping a small bath ceiling but I didn't like the finish after scraping. It seemed that it was going to take a lot of work to make it perfectly smooth and even. The next attempt I scraped off all the cottage cheesey lumps but didn't scrape completely back to drywall. This left a very lightly textured 'orange peel' look which goes perfectly with the textured walls throughthe rest of the house. A coat of paint and it was finished! At first I was a little heavy handed with the scraper in places but a small can of spray-on orange peel texture from HD quickly fixed any bald spots. It only took a few minutes practice to be consistent with the amount of popcorn I removed. Much less work than trying to get the ceilings smooth, no repairs required, and we are very happy with the results.

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