my living room has that horrible popcorn finish and it really dates the room, any idea on how a woman can safely remove it? thanks alot

First thing you hae to do is find out if it is the kind with asbestos. If it is then it has to be removed by professionals. If not then it is just messy, but not difficult. Just tape down pastic everywhere. Get a garden sprayer and wet the celing with a fine mist. Do small sections at a time. After it is just moist enough it will scrape off very easily. Just wet it enough to remove the stuff easily, but not soak it to the drywall.

My brother-in-law straigtened a garden hoe to scrape the popcorn off his ceiling after spraying with water. You can stand on the floor and not climb up and down ladders.

I also head that before 1980 it had asbestos, i just took it down in my dining room of course cover cover the floor, the secret is wet wet wet, i used a long about 1 foot putty kife i think my son dry wall with it, work in small sections. mine came out really nice. again spray, and you will not get any dust

myna102

People often don't realize lots of things commonly had asbestos in them, including old drywall compound!
As mentioned, cover the floor area with heavy plastic or tarp. Wear a mask and goggles, and KEEP IT WET. The sprayed wet material should easily fall off when nudged. As long as it is wet, it is not dusty and clumps together easier to pick up, place in large plastic bag lined garbage cans, tie off bags as they are filled and discard.

How can you tell if there is asbestos in the popcorn?

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How can you tell if there is asbestos in the popcorn?

You can't, you need a pro. Asbestos abatement is serious business. And a lucrative one too.

I used the steamer that we bought to take off wallpaper. I just held it up there for a minute or so and scraped. It was very messy and a pain b/c your arms are over your head all of the time, but it worked well!!

I think it depends on how many layers of paint you have on it as to how easily it comes off. But I agree wet, wet, wet is the answer. And it is well worth doing, makes a room so much brighter and newer to live in as well as for resale.

I find the information on this posting very interesting because I am in the process of getting the texture taken off the ceilings in my house. I hired a 66 year old man who is retired from a drywall installation firm where he did this kind of work (drywalling etc) since he was 18 years old. He dry scrapes the ceiling to remove the outer layer of texture. This is followed by a minimum of 2 coats of drywall "mud". The ceilings are then sanded and are left perfectly smooth, ready for painting. At no time did he wet the ceiling and therefore there was no need to repair damage done to the taping or drywall.

If you do wet the ceiling and scrap of the popcorn, what does the ceiling look like afterwards? Does in need to be mudded or just painted or something else? I would love to get the popcorn off my ceilings but didn't know what to expect after. Also, my house is about 14 years old if that matters. Thanks!

Hi, i did my dining room, my ceiling was nice, if not i think it would only take minimel mudding going by the size drywall comes in. i read that pre 1980 it had asbestos in it went to aco and bought some little blue masks, only 2 dollars, of course cover your floor good, use a squirt bottle and warm to hot water, wet wet wet in about 2x2 or a little more, i used a scraper that was about a foot long i think it a drywall tool and it's my son i think he forgot i have it lol if it gets dusty you don't have it wet enough, i sprayed went and did something, right watched tv lol about 5 minutes. my ceiling wasn't very high if your's are use a taller latter i was about 1 foot from ceiling,and of course wear safety glasses, i'm not saying it was fun, but it looked nice. just remember to wet wet wet.

myna1022

We had the popcorn scraped off our ceilings by an asbestos abatement company. Our house was built in 1972, and one of the ceilings tested to 3% asbestos. It was expensive (about $8/sq ft) but worth doing it right. Asbestos fibers are tiny -- you can't see them and you cannot filter them out with ordinary dust masks. The guys who scraped our ceilings wore full moon suits. Everything they scraped off had to be treated as hazardous waste. The final step in their work was to do air sampling to make sure there was no contamination.

After the ceilings were scraped, a drywall crew came in to skim coat. There was no avoiding this step since the ceilings were in pretty rough shape (uneven seams, stripped paper, lots of gouges). The drywall workers were superb, and the ceilings are flawless.

i always hear the term popcorn ceiling. what is that????

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Originally posted by mary_sally:
::snip::: He dry scrapes the ceiling to remove the outer layer ::snip:::

We did our downstairs level several years ago and the guys who removed the popcorn used the same method mary_sally describes in her post above. They did a dry scrape and sand. Nothing was wet. When done, I was doing a light plaster finish and that went right over the area without delay.

Because of the dust involved they did wear masks and hats to keep it from falling in their faces as well as goggles for their eyes. They kept the back French doors open and AC vents covered as well as plastic on every thing. It came out good.

Now, we just need to do the upstairs *sigh* who ever thought up this stuff anyway? Was it really "in style" at some point? Yuck!

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always hear the term popcorn ceiling. what is that????

Popcorn ceiling is that yucky textured stuff that is impossible to clean and looks awful! Here's a pic:


http://www.removeyourpopcornceiling.com/images/popcorn1.jpg