removeing ceiling popcocrn

[Cheers]

I have a large ceiling 20x20 ft that was textured and I need to remove it and get down to the sheet rock . I think that it comes off by spraying water and scraping. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[Eric Wettschreck]

I recently finished a similar project. It's messy but really the best way is to scrape it with a sheetrock blade.

I didn't use any water. It came off pretty easily but things get dusty.

[Tom7227]

The deal with the water may depend on how well it was primed and painted. I suspect if it was painted that the water would lock the stuff up and not penetrate in a way that would allow the material to come off easily.

[Macgyver55]

If it has never been painted a light mist of water with a spray bottle loosenes it up very well and it scrapes off easily. Better yet do what I did, offered my daughter (who was 15 at the time) 50 bucks to do the whole kitchen and surprisingly she jumped on it!

[Huskie]

On thing that I did was to look at a few videos on U tube, using the water trick as well. One thing I found out was that it was much more difficult and messier than the video showed. I'm thinking that mine had a couple of coats of paint on it. Cover the floor with plastic, the clean up will go faster.

[CAMAN]

Depending on the age of the house the popcorn texturing may contain asbestos.

[delcecchi]

Depending on the age of the house the popcorn texturing may contain asbestos.

A good reason to use water, and wear a mask.

[tacklejunkie]

I recently finished a similar project. It's messy but really the best way is to scrape it with a sheetrock blade.

I didn't use any water. It came off pretty easily but things get dusty.

This is what we did. It does come off easily with the sheetrock blade. If I were to ever build a house again, no and no to popcorn ceiling

[CAMAN]

A good reason to use water, and wear a mask.

Asbestos can stay airborne for a very long time and unless you have a hepa filter it won't get caught by the furnace. So you can use a mask and water but if you don't saturate the popcorn enough and a bit of asbestos gets airborne it will stay airborne until it gets filtered by something such as your lungs or released out a window.

[delcecchi]

The asbestos fibers in a popcorn ceiling are so small it takes a hepa filter, and they don't settle out? What was the point of the asbestos in the first place?

[CAMAN]

The asbestos fibers in a popcorn ceiling are so small it takes a hepa filter, and they don't settle out? What was the point of the asbestos in the first place?

A binder. It came in hair like strands that was mixed in with plaster. If it gets disturbed and is allowed to fracture it then releases it's fibers that spread throughout.

[delcecchi]

So the fibers lose their integrity and break into tiny pieces?

And about when did they stop using asbestos?

[Archtek]

As I recall, it was in the mid-eighties that they figured out asbestos was a bad thing. When I built my first house in 1980, the building inspector told me to go to the hardware store and buy some sheets of asbestos to wrap the range hood duct. It was just a few years after that that asbestos was discovered to be a problem. The removal of asbestos generated a whole new group of specialty consultants and contractors. As an architect I was not allowed to have anything at all to do with asbestos; all I could do was advise a client to hire a separate consultant and contractor for asbestos abatement.

[CAMAN]

It actually isn't completely banned, it is still out there in certain products. Here is an interesting article on what happened.

http://www.asbestos.com/blog/2012/09/17/why-isnt-asbestos-banned-in-the-united-states/

Now to get back on the original subject, I did this in my house last summer. A little water and a 12 inch drywall blade works great. If your walls are already finished I highly recommend taping some plastic sheeting up on all the walls BEFORE you begin scraping. The dust that settles on the walls during scraping makes it almost impossible to mask off the walls(tape doesn't stick) so you can texture and paint the ceiling without having to clean the walls later.

[Gordie]

I use a Hudson/weed type sprayer with water and a bit of dawn dish soap in it and mist the ceiling down and let it soak in the hit it again then scrape with a 6 inch blade

[Down Deep]

I have done a few ceilings with popcorn texture and it is a slow process. I used a weed sprayer to apply water. Don't over do it. If you penetrate the paper the rock will need repair. Use a wide blade that is stiff but has a little give. Go slow to avoid damaging the rock. It is a messy job so place disposable plastic on the floor that you can roll up and trash. Use a long handle to get an angle that will allow you to stand back a ways to allow for you stay out of the droppings. I used an 18 inch scaffold to stand on to give me a better angle. Use a sanding block on an extended handle to do touch-ups.

When I remodeled a house I own my wife suggested popcorn in the living area for a retro-look. It was a very short lived conversation and she did not bring it up again.

[Cheers]

Well I tackled the job yesterday and it is a done deal now . Yes it is MESSY. I would recommend to anyone that is going to do the same to first use double side tape and put drop sheets around the entire room . You need to wear a mask and goggles to protect your eyes . I used a 6 inch scraper and the popcorn came of in clumps with no effort , the area around the seams was a different story , the only way to get the stuff off was to sand with med grit hand sanding block. I wish I had purchased a pole sander as suggested I think it would have been the ticket. I did try water spray but it didn't help with the hard stuff and wasn't needed with the easy parts .

Thanks for all your posts