How to Remove Popcorn Ceiling Texture From Your Home

Modern interior design is leading more and more people to remove popcorn ceiling texture from their homes. If you would like to add value and update the look of your home you will want to remove the popcorn ceiling texture and finish your ceiling so that it’s look is polished and modern. The process of popcorn ceiling removal is not altogether difficult so you can save a significant amount of money by doing it yourself.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Make certain your popcorn ceiling does not contain asbestos. Most homes built since the late seventies will not contain asbestos but you cannot be certain without first testing. You will want to make certain there is no asbestos in your popcorn ceiling before starting the popcorn removal yourself. You can test your popcorn ceiling for asbestos by purchasing an asbestos testing kit from your local drug store, pharmacy, home supply store, or online by simply searching the web for “asbestos testing kit”. If after determining that asbestos is not present you can move on to step two.

2. Popcorn ceiling removal can be a very messy process. Move all furniture and equipment from the area where the popcorn will be removed from. If your furniture or equipment cannot be removed cover them along with any carpeting, outlets, and walls in the area with a plastic tarp to keep things as protected, clean, and safe as possible.

3. Fill a spray bottle with water and spray the ceiling area you plan on working on enough to wet the entire ceiling surface. Do not spray enough to cause the water to bead and drip off. Once the water soaks into the popcorn texture you can spray more on to fully saturate the ceiling texture.

4. Wait. Once you have sprayed water onto the popcorn ceiling you will wait for the texturing to soften before scraping the popcorn off. You wait time may vary but ten minutes is a good guide.

5. Begin to remove popcorn ceiling texture by taking your flat edge scraper and scraping the popcorn texture from the ceiling. You will want to position the strait edge (scraping edge) at approximately a fifteen degree angle from the ceiling to minimize the potential of scraping too deep into the ceiling. Be very careful to not dig your scraper blade to deep into the popcorn as you might damage the surface underneath your popcorn ceiling texture. Scrape just deep enough to flatten the surface and try to remove as much as you can from each swipe of your blade. The popcorn can come off in the best cases like a bed sheet removed from a bed. Some cases however will be more difficult and you will have to more or less sculpt your ceiling flat with your scraper. If your popcorn ceiling texture is to difficult to scrape cleanly you might want to go back to step three and try spraying more water to soften the texture.

6. Work in sections. If you are removing popcorn ceiling texture from a large room work in manageable sections. Depending on the ease of your texture removal you might want to work in smaller or larger sections. A good starting point is three square foot patches. If the popcorn texture is coming off easy then try working in larger patches. Try not to work in patches that are too big as your ceiling might dry by the time you get to scraping it. Sections that are too big might also make keeping your work area clean too difficult.

7. Clean up your area when you finish scraping your ceiling and dispose of your waste properly. If your waste is excessive in volume you might have to haul it to the dump or negotiate a special pick up from your local trash pickup service.