That 80’s Popcorn Ceiling is Coming Down!
I have wanted to repaint my living room walls for several years, but I have put it off because of the popcorn ceilings.
Why has the popcorn ceiling stopped me from repainting, you ask?
Because …… when you scrape the popcorn off the ceiling, it’s a crazy mess!
The walls get goopy, the window sills become filled with wet mud, the window frames get “gunked up,” the baseboards become icky, and let’s not talk about the floor!
This all happens, even after protecting these elements with plastic and drop cloths. UGH 🙁
During the past 2 1/2 years, I have scraped the textured ceilings in almost every room in my house. It all started with the remodeling of our master bath. I thought, while we were updating, we might as well do it right and get rid of the popcorn.
Poo and I acted as our own contractor and lined up all the work at the proper times. We asked the drywall contractor if he could scrape the ceilings. He said they would just replace the drywall.
Not in our budget …………
I did what any financially challenged homeowner does when faced with a pricey home repair, I asked “The Google.”
You can find just about anything on the internet, including a lot of tutorials and videos on how to remove popcorn ceilings.
Yay 🙂
The worst case scenario would be that my scraping skills would bomb or it wouldn’t be as easy as presented on the sites I visited and we would end up paying the drywall guy. It was worth a try and, as it turned out, well worth the effort ………… well, at least for our pocketbook.
My neck ached for weeks afterwards but, I successfully removed the textured popcorn from the master bath ceiling and master bedroom trey ceiling.
After realizing this was an update we could do ourselves, I decided I would tackle one room at a time. That was 2 1/2 years ago. During that time I have also done the other two bedrooms, the hallway and the kitchen.
Now it’s time to deal with the living room. I can’t put it off any longer.
Footnote: It is a cathedral ceiling with the center beam measuring 13′ high.
I happen to be scared of heights. That might be a problem.
A normal step ladder is not going to get this job done, so I pulled out my secret weapon. It’s an adjustable ladder that I specifically bought for this project, although I knew I would be using it for many more things.
If you don’t have one of these babies, you should get one! The Little Giant Ladder is a homeowners dream. It will come in handy when I take on the entryway, where steps will be involved.
They come in different sizes and are easily maneuverable for petite women, like me.
After laying drop cloths, covering windows and walls, the first step to removing the popcorn is spraying a section of the ceiling with water. On smaller rooms, I used a spray bottle but in my living room, where the square footage was close to 400, I used a basic bug sprayer or fertilizer sprayer to cover more area at one time.
After wetting an area of the ceiling, wait 5 minutes for it to soak in and then start to scrape. Let it fall to the floor.
It is the fastest way to complete this tedious task. After you complete the entire ceiling, roll up the plastic and throw it all away.
The step that I did in the first two rooms that I now have realized I can skip is, patching and sanding. If you are careful when you scrape, those small digs and paper-pulls in the drywall will not be seen after priming and painting. It's not worth the extra effort - spend your time somewhere else!
The next step was to wipe down all the walls with clean water. Use a Wet-Dry Vac to suck up the mud from the window sills and baseboards as well as the edges of the floor.
Finally ………. the easy part:
Lay down some clean drop cloths in preparation of priming and painting.
At this point ……………. YOU ARE HOME FREE!
It looks great, doesn’t it!
I do need to make you aware of a very important aspect of taking on a challenge like this:
I was completely ignorant of the fact that some "popcorn" ceilings have asbestos.
Let me repeat myself :
I was completely ignorant of the fact that some “popcorn” ceilings have asbestos!
I posted a picture on Instagram of me in the process of scraping the living room ceiling. My brother, who is a contractor in San Francisco, made the comment, “Be safe. Wet it down and wear a mask and full throwaway suit.”
OOPS …… CRAP-OLA.
But, why?
According to the EPA, the use of asbestos in textured ceiling paint was banned sometime in the late 1970’s however, companies were permitted to use whatever stock they still had on hand.
So ……. if your home was built before 1990, most likely, your textured ceiling has asbestos. If it was built after 1990, your ceilings do not contain asbestos.
My house was built in 1988. I haven’t had my ceilings tested and, after already completing most of the rooms in my house, I’m not sure it matters.
I do feel very stupid and vulnerable. I thought the popcorn ceilings were just “textured” mud and, although I researched the process thoroughly, I never came across one reference that sited asbestos as an issue.
Needless to say, I will be consulting my Internist, in the spring, at my regular checkup.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking
xoxo, Katy