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Home Repair Design Dilemma Paint

textured and smooth/ flat ceilings in same house

last year

I’m planning to have the popcorn texture removed from the ceiling in my home. I live in a split level house and the ground/ basement level has knockdown textured ceilings. they’re still in good shape and smoothing them out isn’t a huge priority for me at the moment due to cost. will it look bad if I remove the popcorn ceiling on the upper level (vaulted ceilings) and have it done smooth/ flat, but leave the knockdown ceilings downstairs? will it even be noticeable that it’s different since you won’t really see both ceilings at the same time? I just want to make sure that it won’t look too in-cohesive. thanks in advance

Comments (14)

elcieg
last year
Removing the textured ceiling is going to be a mess. Have you investigated other options, like a skim coat?
ci_lantro
last year
No, it will not look bad. It will look a whole lot better.
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Smooth finishes are more pricy as they are more labor intensive with multiple coats of the seams ,typically four, follwed by a skim coat of the entire surface, level 5. It could also be that the finishers your builder uses aren't familair or capable of smoothe wall/ceiling finishes. Not many are, imo, and you're not going to get the same results form drywall that you would a blueboard, skim plaster finish. Sanding down the slap isn't going to give you the same texture as a knockdown although you could have them do an area and see if you care for it. Otherwise it's a matter of sanding down and skim coating the area that has been done to try and achieve a decent smooth finish. Whatever is specified in your contract, otherwise it would be a change order, all in writing.
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I guess we're willing to accept that we may have imperfections in the smooth ceiling. But like many of you have said, we can always start with smooth, and if down the road we find the lighting shows the imperfections too much, we can texture the ceiling at that time. I couldn't find the Italian swirl texture that gsciencechick mentioned. But I found other swirls that were a bit too 'swirly' for my taste. Thanks to all of you for your feedback. My husband and I have decided that we're going to go with smooth. We may try Carol_from_ny's idea and paint the ceiling a very light shade of the same color we put on the walls. We'll try the idea in one room like a bedroom to see if we like it. If not, then with it being a smooth ceiling, my 6'4" husband can easily paint back over the ceiling with white.
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Luan is thin and light weight 4'x8' plywood paneling that is fairly smooth - light sanding is all that is needed; recommend that IF you're going to paint them, that you do the painting before nailing it up, with touch up after hanging but before adding trim boards. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/e5/09/7ce5092bf1495433410c43e15bd84247.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/luan-acoustic.jpg https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=650&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=Z_A4WrylLIGkmQGf4YKYDw&q=luan+wood+panels&oq=luan+wood+panels&gs_l=psy-ab.3...2562.8257.0.8405.18.13.1.4.4.0.153.1385.6j7.13.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.17.1484...0j0i67k1j0i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0._TXFKUs7dgU
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Malia Barnett
Original Author
last year
Judianna- I was going to have the popcorn removed professionally and smoothed. I figured professionally would be the least messy route. I’ve not looked into a skim coat option
kandrewspa
last year
I don't think it's a problem to leave it in the basement and smooth it in the main living areas.
ci_lantro
last year
I have removed a whole house worth of popcorn ceilings. It really is not all that messy to remove, especially if it has not been painted.

I sprayed it with a soapy water solution in a garden sprayer. Let soak and scraped it/ peeled it off with a wide drywall knife, catching it on a drywall hawk. Then scraped the hawk off into a large trash can.

A bit more mess if it has been painted. Because I used the wide knife to knock off the high spots of the popcorn before wetting it down. This exposed it enough so that the water could easily penetrate and loosen it up.

Drag the drop cloth outdoors and shake it to remove the small bits.
kudzu9
last year
What's the age of the house? Anything from the early '80's or earlier could have asbestos in the texturing material.
arcy_gw
last year
Chances are no one will even notice. You have two different ceilings now...how many comments have you received?
la_la Girl
last year
Agree that it won’t be noticeable - enjoy your new ceilings, i was SO happy when mine came down!
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Go for it it will be fine lots of basements have different ceilings mine has all dropped since we have hot water heat so pipes all over and access is a big must.
Malia Barnett
Original Author
last year
arcy_gw no one has commented on the different ceilings before, but seeing as the whole house is outdated, i’d imagine it’s the last thing people notice. since I want to upgrade and renovate bit by bit, I just want to make sure I’m not missing little details
Malia Barnett
Original Author
last year
kudzu9 the house was built in 1988 so I think the chance for asbestos is very unlikely. however I will still likely send in a sample when the time comes to renovate it!
kudzu9
last year
Malia- You should be good. It was prohibited from manufacture after about 1978, although contractors were allowed to use up all their remaining stocks after that. The likelihood that a contractor would still have supplies of spray-on texture with asbestos in it 10 years later is pretty remote. But it never hurts to check. It's typically under $100 to have an accredited asbestos lab examine a sample or two.
cat_ky
last year
The ceilings in your basement, are in great condition, and many have knock down ceilings done, even in new builds, yet, today. Remove the old popcorn, and enjoy your new flat ceilings. It will all be fine.
functionthenlook
last year
I have swirled ceilings in my home except for the kitchen and bathrooms which are flat. Nobody has even noticed so i highly doubt anyone would notice the difference between levels.

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