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How to remove cottage cheese ceiling


How to Remove Popcorn Ceilings in 5 Easy Steps

Is there anything more universally loathed than a popcorn ceiling? If you find yourself staring upward, wondering how to remove popcorn ceilings, you are not alone. Let’s face it: They’re eyesores. They’re also known as acoustic ceilings, stucco ceilings, or, worst of all, cottage cheese ceilings. They were big in the mid- to late 20th century. Builders installed the textured treatment to help absorb sound from above or cover up imperfections in the ceiling. (It also helped skip some steps and save money, since it eliminates the need to paint the finished surface.) But like many trends from the 1970s, the popcorn ceiling has fallen out of favor and many homeowners are removing or covering up the unsightly surface.

If you’re tired of looking up at lumps and bumps and are ready for a makeover, there’s good news. Removing a popcorn ceiling is a fairly easy and affordable DIY project that just requires some time and muscle. Should your ceiling need more TLC than just scraping and painting, there are also options for covering up popcorn ceilings, such as wood paneling, pressed tin tiles, or new drywall. Ready to tackle the home improvement job yourself and learn how to get rid of a popcorn ceiling? We asked contractor Justin Krzyston, president of Stonehurst, how to remove popcorn ceilings safely and easily.

1. Test for Asbestos Before You Begin Popcorn Ceiling Removal

Before you start, it’s important to make sure that your textured ceilings don’t have asbestos. “Prior to the early 1980s, asbestos was an ingredient that many used in textured popcorn ceilings,” Krzyston says. “The popcorn texture was used to help home builders deal with sound travel, and it was a great fire retardant.” He recommends having the surface tested by a professional, or at the very least purchasing a do-it-yourself test kit from the hardware store and sending the samples to a lab. If you go the DIY test route, make sure to use the appropriate safety gear, such as gloves, a ventilator or dusk mask, and eye protection. “Do some research before diving into a weekend project,” he cautions.

If your ceiling tests positive, you should have a professional licensed in asbestos abatement remove the texture or cover the entire ceiling with paneling or drywall. “If you have asbestos, it is best to leave the ceiling intact, as there is no real danger if it is in good condition,” he says.

2. Gather Your Tools

If your ceiling is asbestos-free, it’s time to get to work. Fortunately, the project doesn’t require any special tools, and you may already have everything you need on hand. The essential popcorn ceiling removal tools include:

  1. a garden sprayer
  2. a wide putty knife or drywall taping knife
  3. drop cloths or plastic sheeting
  4. painter’s tape
  5. ladder
  6. safety goggles
  7. dust mask

3. Protect Walls, Floors, and Yourself

Cover floors and walls with plastic sheeting.

Photo: Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

“Scraping the ceilings is very messy—so have plenty of drop cloths and tarps on hand,” Krzyston says. Remove furniture from the room, and cover floors and walls with plastic sheeting. Attach sheeting to walls with painter’s tape. Taking down ceiling fans or hanging light fixtures will also make the job easier—just be sure to cover electrical boxes with painter’s tape to protect the wires from damage and water. “Turn off your HVAC system and close and cover all vents and electrical outlets with plastic,“ he says. Since this is a job involving water, make sure to turn off the electricity to the room you’re working in.

11 Tips on How to Remove Popcorn Ceiling Faster and Easier

These popcorn ceiling removal tips will help you update your living space while staying safe and clean.

Every editorial product is independently selected, though we may be compensated or receive an affiliate commission if you buy something through our links. Ratings and prices are accurate and items are in stock as of time of publication.

Popcorn ceilings were all the rage back in the ’60s and ’70s. Applying texture to drywall and plaster ceilings was a quick and easy way to hide imperfections with no painting required afterwards. However, its rough texture attracts dust and cobwebs and makes patching cracks and holes a headache.

Removing popcorn texture from a ceiling is a messy chore but worth the effort if the substrate underneath is in sound shape. Here are some tips to take some of the pain out of scraping the popcorn texture off your ceiling.

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Do a Scrape Test

When learning how to remove popcorn ceilings, scrape a small test area first before committing to all the trouble of prepping the room. Try it dry first, then dampen it with water and try again. Some texture comes off easily without water, but in most cases wetting it is most effective. In the event that the water does not soak into the texture and soften it, the ceiling has probably been painted or paint has been added to the texture mix. In that case, wetting the ceiling may not help. You’ll have to decide whether you want to tackle a difficult scraping job or choose another way to hide your popcorn ceiling.

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Test for Asbestos

If you have a popcorn ceiling installed before 1980, it is likely to contain asbestos, which is a known cause of lung cancer. Before removing any popcorn ceiling texture, contact your local health department and ask about getting a sample tested. If the test comes back positive, cover the popcorn with new drywall or tongue-and-groove planks, or hire an asbestos abatement contractor to help with removing the popcorn ceiling.

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Prep for a Big Mess

Cover your floors and walls with plastic drop cloths as you begin the popcorn ceiling removal process. It is not recommended to use canvas drop cloths because water can soak through them. Using plastic drop cloths also makes cleanup easier, since they can be rolled up and thrown in the trash once your project is finished. After the popcorn ceiling texture has been removed, leave the plastic in place to catch any mess you’ll make repairing and sanding it later.

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Get the Furniture Out

If possible, remove all furniture from the room you’ll be working in. As you remove the popcorn ceiling, you will not want furniture to be in your way when moving the ladder. If moving everything out of the room is not possible, arrange it in a cluster and cover it with drop cloths.

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Remove Ceiling Fixtures and Fans

Shut off the breaker to any fixtures and remove them. Leaving lighting and ceiling fans in place may seem easier, but they will only get in your way and get covered with wet popcorn scrapings. Plus, you do not want to accidentally spray water into electrical fixtures.

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Protect Can Lights From Water Spray

For recessed “can” lights, stuff newspaper or rosin paper inside them to ensure that they remain dry when water is sprayed around them.

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Cover Electrical Boxes

Shut off the power to any electrical boxes in the ceiling and cover them with painter’s tape. This will keep the wiring dry when spraying water on the textured ceiling. Overlap the sides of the junction box with tape, and then trim the perimeter with a utility knife, taking care not to nick the wires.

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Wet it With a Pump Sprayer

For easier scraping and practically no dust during popcorn ceiling removal, use a garden pump sprayer to mist the ceiling. Let it soak for about 15 minutes before scraping. Give it only a light misting – too much water could damage the drywall or cause the joint tape to loosen. If the texture hasn’t softened after 15 minutes, spray it again and wait another 10 to 15 minutes.

If the texture still hasn’t softened, it might have been painted, or paint might have been mixed into the texture before application. In either case, water won’t easily penetrate it. If the texture is painted, you may be able to dry scrape it first to reveal some of the unpainted texture, and then wet scrape the surface. If the texture contains paint, you may have to dry-scrape the entire ceiling or abandon the project and cover it with drywall or T&G boards.

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Work in Small Sections

Spray and scrape only a small area at a time-about four square feet. If you work on too large an area at once, the popcorn might dry before you have time to scrape it off. If that happens, repeat spraying the area and wait another 10 to 15 minutes before scraping.

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Tame the Mess With a Mud Pan

Use a mud pan—the kind used for joint compound—to catch the wet popcorn before it hits the floor. That way, you’re not tracking it all over the place when you walk and move the ladder around. You may also use the edge of the pan to clean your scraper when it becomes loaded up with wet popcorn.

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Prevent Gouging

Round off the corners of your popcorn scraper—whether it’s a wide putty knife or drywall taping knife—so it won’t gouge the ceiling and leave you with dozens of ceiling wounds to repair. Use a file, a sander or an electric grinder to do this.

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Smooth After Scraping

Scraping alone won’t leave you with a paint-ready ceiling. It’s likely you’ll have some small dings and gouges to fix. At a minimum, you’ll have to sand the ceiling to get it perfectly smooth before painting.

Originally Published: October 17, 2019

Manufacturers “cut” expiration dates: how to choose cottage cheese for cottage cheese Easter

What is cottage cheese like

This product can be conditionally divided into three categories - natural curd, sourdough curd, curd product.

Natural curd contains only milk. High-quality cottage cheese produced using sourdough may contain milk, a milk-clotting enzyme, and sourdough. Svetlana Demkina, technologist, category manager for dairy products of the online aggregator and delivery service for farm products Esh Derevenskoye, considers ingredients “beyond” this list to be redundant. nine0005

Taste and smell. How to recognize palm oil in cottage cheese

Natural cottage cheese on store shelves can be easily confused with a curd product, in which . ..

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“In my opinion, the most useful and delicious is curd of natural fermentation. It is not subjected to heat treatment, does not require the addition of starter cultures, has a lumpy-friable texture and a fresh milky taste. Cottage cheese made with sourdough is also very good,” says the expert. nine0005

As for the curd product, it usually contains powdered milk, vegetable fats (most often this oil is palm, sunflower, rapeseed). “It cannot be compared with cottage cheese either in terms of benefits or taste - it’s just another food with a similar name,” Demkina emphasized, and urged to carefully study the label, because visually the curd product is practically indistinguishable from cottage cheese.

Real cottage cheese must be labeled "BZMZH" - a product without milk fat substitutes. nine0005

Farm or “regular”

When it comes to milk, the thesis “Farm is just a marketing ploy” does not work, says Anfisa Eremenko, restaurateur, co-owner of the Delmar Family restaurant chain in Sochi.

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As Svetlana Demkina said, at large processing enterprises, milk is purchased from a dozen producers, mixed into a single stream and goes to processing. The technological process is designed to optimize the cost of production and increase the shelf life of the product. nine0005

“Farm cottage cheese is prepared by hand, from “own” farm milk, without the use of complex technological processes, additives and ingredients that reduce the cost of the product. Raw materials in the preparation of such cottage cheese are subjected to minimal processing, ”explained the technologist.

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According to the restaurateur Eremenko, farm cottage cheese has many advantages (despite the fact that the shelf life of farm cottage cheese does not exceed 5-7 days) - a creamier taste, good graininess. It preserves minerals, vitamins, nutrients, because of which the product is so valued.

But there is one “but” that can cross out all the advantages of farm cottage cheese. “The price of a product can be 2-3 times higher than the cost of milk in large retail chains. So everyone makes their own choice, based on their capabilities and preferences,” sums up the restaurateur. nine0005

How to choose cottage cheese on the market

It will not work to choose a product on the market “by eye”, cottage cheese is a must-try. “A quality product is only white, perhaps with a slightly yellowish, creamy tint. Its texture is homogeneous and delicate, and the smell has pleasant milky notes,” said Anfisa Eremenko.

Otherwise smelling cottage cheese may be of poor quality or expired.

“The development of pathogenic bacteria gives cottage cheese either an excessively sour or bitter taste and musty smell,” added Svetlana Demkina. nine0005

Fans of making purchases in the market need to be prepared for the fact that the real expiration date of cottage cheese cannot be found - you will have to take the word of the seller. “Weighted cottage cheese is to be sold within 12 hours, and when using a refrigerator, one or two days,” the restaurateur recalled.

How to choose cottage cheese in the store

Here you have to focus only on the information indicated on the product packaging. To begin with, study the composition - this is natural fermentation cottage cheese, sourdough cottage cheese, a curd product. Then look at the expiration date. nine0005

“When I see that a product has the last day of its expiration date, I act according to the principle “Who is the consumer?”. If I know that children will eat the finished dish, I don’t risk using such cottage cheese. Let it go better to those who decided to please their adults at home with tender cheesecakes, ”said restaurateur Anfisa Eremenko.

Technologist Svetlana Demkina takes the position that a product with an expiring shelf life will not negatively affect the quality of the future dish. It is especially appropriate to use such cottage cheese for cooking dishes where heat treatment is implied (cheesecakes, fillings for pies). nine0005

“Manufacturers very often “cut” product expiration dates so as not to put consumers at risk. For example, in the technical specifications there is a shelf life of 14 days, and seven are indicated on the label. Therefore, if the storage conditions are observed within the expiration date, the product will always have all the necessary properties of taste and quality,” says Demkina.

There is no need to be afraid of “liquid” at the bottom of a container with cottage cheese, or a “wet mark” under a briquette. The main thing is that there is little curd whey. “If cottage cheese is “drowned” in whey, this is not normal, but it is not dangerous either. Either the technological process at the supplier’s production went wrong, and therefore the humidity of the cottage cheese turned out to be excessive, or the conditions for transporting / storing the product were violated (there were temperature jumps),” explained Svetlana Demkina. nine0005

Which cottage cheese to use for cooking Easter

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The restaurateur and technologist are unanimous in their opinion that in this case cottage cheese of maximum fat content is ideal.

But there is a caveat: it is better to use a product with a medium-weight texture, not granular, not pasty.

“I have my own life hack: even first-class cottage cheese, I put under pressure to remove moisture from it, and then I pass it through a sieve twice. It is in this way that I get the highest quality curd mass - airy like a cloud, with a special silky texture, ”said Anfisa Eremenko. nine0005

Why is cottage cheese bitter? Can it be eaten bitter?

Quick navigation through the article (contents)

  1. The benefits of cottage cheese for the human body
  2. The main reasons why cottage cheese is bitter
  3. Is it possible to use BITTER cottage cheese?
  4. How to fix the BITTER taste of cottage cheese?
  5. How to choose cottage cheese?

🍚 Cottage cheese is a tasty and healthy fermented milk product. It is consumed fresh. Various dishes are prepared from it: casseroles, cheesecakes, cheesecakes, etc. But often there are situations when cottage cheese made on its own or bought in a store is bitter on the market. Why this happens and whether it is dangerous worries many who are faced with an uncharacteristic taste for a fermented milk product. nine0005

Benefits of COTTAGE CHEESE for the human body

Curd contains milk protein casein. It contains a lot of phosphorus and calcium. The product is perfectly absorbed and digested. It is especially useful for children for the proper formation of the skeletal system. Calcium supports healthy teeth, beautiful nails and hair.

Cottage cheese is very useful for women. It helps to adjust the hormonal background, eliminate menstrual irregularities. During menopause, the female body begins to lack calcium. Therefore, to maintain bone health, it is useful to include it in the diet. Regular use of such a fermented milk product has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the kidneys, heart, vascular condition, prevents hypertension, heart attack, atherosclerosis and other diseases. But this applies only to a natural quality product. nine0005

The main reasons why cottage cheese is bitter

If cottage cheese has a bitter taste, the first thing that comes to mind for most is corruption. And really long-stored cottage cheese can go rancid. In addition to the unpleasant taste, it will also have a specific smell.

If the cottage cheese looks fresh, has been properly stored, but is still bitter, then the reason may be that the milk used to make it had a similar taste. Such a product is bitter if obtained from a pregnant cow. Also, milk is often bitter due to the fact that the animal consumed wormwood or other bitter herbs. Some medicines also give bitterness to milk. Cow's milk obtained during the treatment period should not be consumed. It may contain antibiotics and other substances. They will not bring benefits to the human body. nine0005

Among other reasons for the presence of bitterness in curds, the following should be singled out:

  • high concentration of pepsin.

    • Is it possible to use BITTER cottage cheese?

    Whether bitter cottage cheese can be eaten depends on what caused such an unpleasant taste. Much also depends on the severity of bitterness. If the curd is spoiled or was made from milk containing antibiotics, then it is better to refuse to use it. It is strictly forbidden to give it to children. A very bitter product will simply be impossible to eat, even if it is fresh and safe. Minor bitterness can be tried to remove. nine0005

    How to fix the BITTER taste of cottage cheese?

    The bitter taste of a fermented milk product can be masked. To do this, vanilla, raisins, cinnamon, sugar or condensed milk, sour cream are added to it. You can use milk instead of sour cream. It turns out a delicious dish.

    You can remove bitterness in this way:

    1. Pour it with sweet water or milk.
    2. Boil the mixture until whey appears.
    3. Drain the fluid. Transfer the cottage cheese to cheesecloth so that all the whey is glassed. nine0082

    As a rule, after this the bitterness disappears, and the product becomes more tender, with a creamy aftertaste.

    If the curd is slightly bitter, it is better to subject it to heat treatment. It cannot be stored for a long time. You can stick dumplings out of it or bake cheesecakes.

    How to choose cottage cheese?

    It is best to make your own cottage cheese. Then you can be sure of its pleasant taste, quality and freshness. On the market, a fermented milk product must be tasted and smelled. Quality cottage cheese should:

    If the product is bought in a supermarket, it will be offered in packs. Therefore, try and smell it will not work. It is also impossible to evaluate the product by sight, as it is usually packaged in plastic opaque containers.

    Learn more