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Removing plaster ceiling texture


How to Easily Remove Popcorn Ceiling

Very few things date a space like a popcorn ceiling—and not in a charming way. They're difficult to repair, hard to clean, and catch dust easily; but despite all these cons, their popularity exploded beginning in the late 1950s because they made easy work of finishing ceilings and hiding imperfections.

If it's time to redo a popcorn ceiling, there are three popular ways to take on the challenge: scrape, cover with a new layer of drywall, or skim coat with plaster to create a new textured ceiling.

How Much Does it Cost to Remove Popcorn Ceiling?

The national average for popcorn ceiling removal is $1,707, according to Home Advisor.

Removing popcorn ceiling can be a labor-intensive process that is best left to a licensed professional to ensure safe removal. In some cases, there may be asbestos present in the ceiling, so it’s always a good idea to consult with a pro before starting the project.

What is the Best Method for Removing Popcorn Ceilings?

Which is best? Depends on a lot of things, including the age and condition of the substrate (ceiling). We spoke with drywall and stucco expert Mike Poellinger, owner of Poellinger, Inc., in La Crosse, WI, who filled us in on everything a homeowner should know before deciding how to remove their popcorn ceiling. With his help, we break down the three methods to redoing popcorn ceilings below.

How to Scrape a Popcorn Ceiling

When scraping popcorn ceilings, you'll want to use a 4-inch utility knife or a drywall knife to chip away at the texture and create a smooth surface. You'll probably need to skim it with a thin layer of joint compound to smooth out imperfections, then sand it smooth before repainting.

Why do it?

This is by far the most common method of popcorn ceiling removal. Scraping your ceiling is a messy and slow process, but it's the most cost-effective and can be completed by one person. However, popcorn finishes and paint applied before 1979 often contained asbestos and lead, respectively, which could be toxic if sent airborne. If you live in an older home, purchase a home test for lead paint, and consult with an expert about testing for asbestos. If it tests positive, do not scrape it.

If your ceilings are not at risk for asbestos or lead paint, but they have been painted, it may be near impossible to scrape them, since the porous popcorn material will have soaked it up. Drywalling over them may be a better option.

Pro tip: Don’t spray your ceiling with water before you scrape

A lot of people spray their ceilings with water before scraping to loosen them up, but Poellinger doesn't recommend it. "Not only will it be a sloppy mess, but it will absorb into the ceiling and make it heavy; then it could start to expand and crack. It's more time-consuming, but it's best to scrape it dry."

How to Cover up with Drywall

Affix ceiling-grade gypsum board, which weighs significantly less than standard wall board, right over the existing popcorn ceiling. You'll need to securely screw it into the framing and be proficient at mudding and taping for a seamless job.

Why do it?

This is a better option than scraping if you have lead paint or asbestos, because you can encapsulate the harmful substance instead of sending it airborne. Plus, you'll get the smoothest possible finish, if you mud and tape properly. Alternatively, a team of pros will be able to complete the job in no time. Finally, if the ceiling has damage or if you already need to cut into it to reroute electrical or HVAC, you can make large cuts into the existing substrate without worrying about patching, since they'll soon be covered up anyway.

This method will come at a price—a 4-by-8-foot sheet of ceiling-grade gypsum board costs $9 apiece. It may also be difficult to maneuver the boards single handedly if you're DIYing it. And if you have crown molding, you'll likely have to remove it and replace it.

Pro tip: For a DIY removal project rent a drywall lift

Rent a drywall lift if you're DIY’ing it. It might cost about $40 per day (The Home Depot; location pricing varies), but it's safer and allows you to get a better handle on the material.

Skim Coat on a New Design

Yes, it's still a texture, but according to Poellinger, it's making a comeback—and it's fairly easy for homeowners to do themselves. Often found in older homes—pre-popcorn-era—this type of textured ceiling involves cleaning and prepping the existing substrate with quick-set drywall mud, applying a bonding agent like joint compound, and then applying a finish compound with a trowel or knife to create a new texture.

Why do it?

Many old-house owners want to recapture the history of the home, and a smooth ceiling won't fit the bill.

The most important consideration is to make sure the substrate is structurally secure, since adding a wet product could create more weight than the ceiling can handle and cause it to come down. You might need to consult with a contractor before getting started.

Pro tip: Don’t use ready-mixed material as your base

If you opt to skim coat, use a quick-set drywall mud, then touch it up with a ready-mixed joint compound. Don't use a ready-mixed material as your base, as it has a higher moisture content and contains silica, which is prone to causing some shrinkage, affecting your final look.

Do Popcorn Ceilings Have Asbestos?

If your home was built between the 1950s and 1980s, there is a chance that the popcorn ceilings contain asbestos, according to the Mesothelioma Center. The best way to determine if your popcorn ceilings contain asbestos is to hire an abatement professional, or you can purchase a test kit.

If you discover that your popcorn ceilings contain asbestos, don’t panic—and don’t try to remove it yourself. Removing it will cause the particles to escape into the air, making it easy for you and your family to breathe in the carcinogens. Leaving the ceiling intact poses no dangers.

If the ceilings must go, then it’s a good idea to call a professional abatement company to do the job.

Textured Ceiling: Quick Guide to Getting Rid

Spiky popcorn, sweeping swirls or – please, no – a floral pattern. Nothing dates a room quite like a strange texture on the ceiling. So if you have plans to redecorate, getting rid of a textured ceiling might well be top of your list, but know how to do it can be tricky, with lots of conflicted advice flying around.

Why do houses have textured ceilings?

Ugh, I know. They gained popularity in the 1950s because applying textured wallpaper or a textured render product is a cheaper and easier way of finishing a ceiling than a smooth plaster skim.

The main types of textured ceiling

To know how to get rid of your textured ceiling, you need to know what sort you have.

  1. Wood chip or Ingrain textured paper: This is made of two sheets of paper with tiny pieces of wood fibre pressed between them. It’s popular because there’s no need to line up sheets for continuation of a pattern, and can be easily painted with brushes or rollers. And it’s more common on walls but people also use it to finish ceilings easily and cheaply.
  2. Anaglypta-style textured wallpaper: These papers have a particular pattern. Craftspeople make them by spreading a wet mixture onto paper, before pressing with a roller embossed with the pattern. The high end version, Lincrusta, is made from linseed oil and wood flour. Patterns range from small and abstract to large scale impressions of period moulding. This latter is common on ceilings in period homes.
  3. Popcorn, Stucco or Artex ceiling: These are also known variously as acoustic ceilings, stipple ceilings or by many other names. The key difference here is that this finish is not a pasted-on paper – it is a texture that contractors spray or paint directly onto ceiling boards. Because it’s easier than a smooth render finish, it is very common in more modern homes – especially those built int he 1970s and 1980s. NOTE: textured ceilings installed before 1979 may contain asbestos or lead (read on to see what to do if you think this may apply to your home)

How to tell which type of textured ceiling you have

You can easily identify woodchip by the look of the finish – small, irregular splinter shapes behind a satin-finish layer of paper.

You can confirm other textured paper by looking for joins in sheets. However it is possible to expertly hide these joins (or simply obscure them with layers of paint) so try lifting a corner with a scraper.

In contrast, spiky ‘popcorn’ or Artex-style ceilings can be identified by the absence of paper. If there are no lines or creases, or the effect seems to extend in some places of your coving, that’s a painted/sprayed finish.

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How to remove a textured ceiling

So, now that you know what type of ceiling you have, there are 3 main ways it can be removed or obscured:

  1. Scrape the texture away
  2. Over-board, or cover with new sheets of plasterboard/drywall
  3. Skim coat

There are pros and cons to each technique, and not all of them are appropriate for all ceiling finishes. We’ll look at all 3 in a little more detail.

1. Scraping off a textured ceiling

This approach manually removes the texture from the ceiling.

Suitable for: Popcorn, Stucco or Artex ceilings
Not suitable for: Wood chip paper, Anaglypta-style paper

How to do it

  1. If the textured ceiling hasn’t been painted, use a spray bottle filled with room temperature water to lightly dampen small sections – don’t overdo this or you’ll make your ceiling itself wet and heavy! Add wallpaper remover solution for a quicker, more effective removal
  2. Use a drywall scraper to chip and scrape away the texture to create a smooth surface
  3. Finish with a layer of problem wall paint to cover imperfections

Pros

Cons

NOTE: textured ceilings installed before 1979 may contain asbestos or lead (read on to see what to do if you think this may apply to your home). If you’re worried about the possible presence of asbestos or lead and considering this approach, employ professional testers or order at-home kits to confirm or deny the presence.

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2. Over-boarding or plaster-boarding over a textured ceiling

This approach creates a new secondary ceiling to entirely hide the textured ceiling

Suitable for: all types of ceiling (with conditions below)

How to do it:

  1. Measure and cut sheets of ceiling grade plasterboard (this is much lighter than regular plasterboard) to size
  2. Identify position of ceiling joists and attach plasterboards using suitable length of screw and plugs
  3. Use mudding and taping technique for an even finish (this involves using fibreglass tape to cover seams and create sharp edges)

Pros:

Cons:

3. Skim Coating a Textured Ceiling

This technique applies a skimming composite directly to the texture to even it out.

Suitable for: Popcorn, Stucco or Artex ceilings
Not suitable for: Wood chip paper, Anaglypta-style paper UNLESS paper is removed first using a traditional steam-and-strip technique (the resulting ceiling finish will highly likely need re-finishing with this method)

How to do it:

Pros:

Cons:

NOTE: Because of the risk associated with this technique, I recommend always getting a second opinion if your contractor or plasterer suggests it.

Two plasterers I consulted advised against it and gave me all the information why, however they also explained the likelihood of a failure in our particular instance was low. Therefore they’d be willing to do it if that was our chosen route, provided we shouldered the risk. The third plasterer said he would not be prepared to use this technique at all due to the risks. All three made the point that if a plasterer ever enthusiastically suggests this approach and doesn’t discuss the risks with you – run for the hills. Therefore we opted for over-boarding in the end because your girl has a very low appetite for risk!

How to remove plaster from the ceiling without problems

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich


Before removing the old plaster from the ceiling, make sure that this step is necessary old cover. Beating plaster is not an easy and pleasant task, and if you have to do it yourself, tune in to a long, dirty and physically very expensive process.

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In what cases the plaster must be removed

not necessarily, if it holds well, does not threaten to fall off. Or if you are going to build a suspended plasterboard structure, which is not afraid of small collapses.

But the stretch ceiling from such incidents may well suffer. But situations are possible when such a coating requires full or partial replacement, a thorough repair.

The plaster will have to be completely chipped off in the following cases:

Please note. If the area of ​​such areas is no more than 15-20% of the entire surface, you can limit yourself to partial removal of the coating, followed by embedding with fresh plaster.

A ceiling in the condition shown in the photo would require a major overhaul

Fortunately, these situations do not occur often, and in most cases it is possible to minimize costs by beating off the plaster only in problem areas. These can be cracks along the joints between ceiling tiles, damp places, greasy stains that cannot be removed by washing and degreasing.

This is important! The old coating is removed not only from weak areas, but also around them by about half a meter in all directions. The cracks also deepen and widen into a V-shape. Subsequently, they are filled with a solution in several steps with drying of each layer.

Cracked plaster is sanded down to a stable layer

When partially removing plaster, make sure that the remaining coating is really holding well and will not start to fall off during the installation of "patches" from exposure to moisture from the mortar.

Technology for removing old plaster

This work can be done in different ways, depending on the thickness of the layer, type and strength of the plaster. In accordance with this, the necessary tools and fixtures are selected.

Tools

You may need:

There are also special machines for removing plaster, but the price of such a professional tool is quite high, and it makes sense to purchase it only with a very large amount of work.

Special concrete grinder with vacuum cleaner

You should also take care of protective equipment for yourself: gloves, respirator, goggles, headgear. If there is a risk of large pieces of plaster falling on the head, it should be a construction helmet.

Methods

Before removing the plaster from the ceiling, remove all furniture and other interior details from the room: the work will be dusty. Cover the floors with cling film or old newspapers.

Even if they do not need protection and are also subject to repair, this measure will allow you to quickly clean up the garbage after work is completed. First of all, tap the entire surface of the ceiling with a hammer so that the weakened areas disappear.

Then proceed according to the situation:

Gypsum putty cleaning

The water should be warm, to enhance the effect, you can add a little potato starch to it.

Spray the ceiling periodically with water from a spray bottle to reduce dust. And don't forget to take precautions. The safety instructions require the mandatory use of protective equipment and checking the stability of the ladder.

After removing all the plaster from the ceiling, the surface is processed with coarse sandpaper - manually or with a grinder. This will get rid of the remnants of the dry mortar and make the surface smooth. And before applying a new leveling layer, it must be washed with warm water and dried thoroughly.

Conclusion

Breaking is not building, no special skills are needed to remove the old coating from the ceiling. But it will take a lot of physical strength and patience. The video in this article will give you a complete understanding of the difficulties you may encounter in the process.

Removing plaster and putty from the ceiling: nuances, tools, quality assurance

All instructions for the device and application of plaster or putty compositions begin with words about preparing the surface for work.

Cleaning of the old coating is the main stage of in the process of preparation, and if you do not follow certain rules during its implementation, then it is simply impossible to achieve a quality result. Even if the final result immediately after plastering or puttying seems satisfactory, it will not be long. After a certain period of time, even with minor temperature changes or changes in humidity, gaps made during surface preparation work will begin to make themselves felt.

When a dull sound is heard when the applied coating is tapped , cracks or swellings begin to appear in some areas, then grief - the builders are looking for an excuse in the poor quality of the plaster composition or in another moment beyond their control. An experienced builder will easily find the cause. This is often the poor bearing capacity of the plastered surface .

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