painted popcorn ceiling

mike davenport

what is the best way to remove popcorn texture from a ceiling that has multiple layers of acrylic paint

JohninSC

Hot water, vinegar, and a few drops of dawn in a sprayer. Spray a 5x5 section and let it sit a min or 2 and scrape. You may need to respray. Thats what I did but I'm not sure about the acrylic paint.

Red Squirrel

Don't, it's just a HUGE mess and hassle. Also chances are if they put popcorn ceiling it was because the drywall joints were not very nice, so you'll have lot of repairs to do.

What I did in my house is I painted the popcorn with an offwhite color.

If you really want to remove it you can, but sometimes it's just more hassle than it's worth.

JohninSC

It is a messy job but it's what I wanted it to look like. My joints were not that bad I had to mud/sand 3 times before I was satisfied.
Before

After

painted

sdsester

I say again, popcorn ceilings are the work of the devil and I think it best to take them down when they start falling apart in chunks. With a nice wide drywall blade it will go fast. We it as suggested. And do lay down disposable tarps you can fold up and toss at the end. You can try patching them but I have found this to be a losing set of battles. The patch materials get expensive too.

Popcorn ceiling applicators used crappy pellets (some with asbestos in the early days but mostly something like polystyrene) suspended in the worst paint possible. All this was usually sprayed over non-taped, non-mudded, non-primed ceilings.

Popcorn ceilings grab dust and usually look nasty and dated. Nothing shouts, "My builder did not care! Louder than a popcorn ceiling." They were a dream come true for cheap contractors that did not want to finish ceilings the correct way.

Those in kitchens and falling loose are conceptually hyper gross to me! I don't want that stuff in my food.

stoner529

I will probably have to disagree with the vinegar and water solution. All it does in my opinion is make a house smell like a douche bag. And the reason they put popcorn in homes in the first place is because it saved steps which meant it cost people less money to build a home. As we americans know, we are always looking for ways to spend less. POPCORN was the solution.

Yes its messy to remove and you wont know how hard the painted stuff is to get off until you try. I have a few pointers on my website

http://howtoremovepopcorn.com

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toocheaptohire

I removed painted popcorn using a $50 wallpaper steamer I bought at Home Depot (which has gotten lots of use since house was covered in wallpaper and popcorn). Just hold tray against ceiling for a couple of seconds (not too long, don't want to soak it) then remove and scrape using 5 inch scraper (being careful not to gouge softened ceiling). Put 2 layers of thin poly on floor - 1 to protect floor, 1 more to catch mess of popcorn. Also, if your house was built before 1978, recommend testing popcorn for asbestos (quick, cheap test).

stoner529

I may try that if wetting it doesnt work. I have only had that not work one time and even then i still managed to get the paint off of the ceiling and still leave the popcorn, then had to remove that. I ended up with a 20X 30 sheet of paint that i rolled up into a ball. the steam thing seems like alot of work.

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