If you’ve moved into a home that hasn’t been updated since the 1970s, you may have a textured ceiling that was super popular during that time period. The popcorn ceiling is the most common we’ve encountered and we’ve been asked this question about popcorn ceiling removal more than once.
Question
Popcorn ceiling removal. I have popcorn ceilings. I want to NOT have popcorn ceilings.
How do I remove popcorn ceiling without destroying my room?
Answer
Think carefully about this one. While I know the feeling, that little white light you see at the end of the tunnel…Yeah, that’s the train.
When you want to do popcorn ceiling removal yourself, you have to REALLY want it gone. Yes, it’s a DIY-able job, sort of. But if you believe any on-line video or article that says it’s ‘easy’, you’re probably screwed.
What’s involved in a popcorn ceiling removal?
So here’s what’s involved when you remove popcorn ceiling texture.
Protect your furniture and decor.
So layer #1, if your living room is as indoors as mine is, you have to remove all the furniture, knick-knacks and pictures before laying 6-mil sheet plastic on the floor. Some painters cover the plastic with rosin paper in large part because wet plastic is what I call death-trap-slippery. They also might cover the walls and electrical devices with plastic as well to funnel the water down to the floor.
If you cover your walls (you should) expect damage. Blue painter’s tape sticks to walls well enough but only grabs the lightest plastic, and even then, not so much. Duct tape sticks to both, but when you remove it, it may take wall paint with it.
Wet it.
Unless the finish is literally falling off the ceiling (sometimes the case in bathrooms where it’s humid) the way to get popcorn off (it’s essentially paint) is to soak it with water you spray from a garden sprayer, similar to how you’d clean an outdoor deck.
If—IF—the water soaks through what are surely several layers of latex paint, it’ll enable you to remove popcorn ceiling paint, sort of like dunking a cookie in milk makes it squishy. If it doesn’t get through the paint you may have to scuff the paint. Think sanders or scrapers or some other odious device that’ll be a dust factory in your house and that will light your shoulder muscles in fire inside of five minutes. But you can’t use too much water or you’re living room will be a swimming pool and you may damage the drywall.
If the water works, it turns the popcorn to slurry—a yummy slop you scrape off with a drywall knife. Some people try and catch it in a bucket or box or pail as they scrape, but see abovementioned conflagrated shoulder muscles and you can’t catch it all. The minute you need to get a snack or go to the bathroom you’re walking in it. I’d lay runners (drop cloths) around the house.
Good times.
Why did they use popcorn ceiling texture?
And that brings us to drywall. The reason builders use(d) popcorn paint is to avoid applying and sanding the third coat of joint compound that makes the drywall finish that you want in the first place. Expect the finish you reveal to be an unqualified 2-coat, un-sanded botch fest.
And there may be residue left over from the paint anyway that makes it hard to paint. And if your house is old, it may have asbestos.
So, you have to really, really want it gone to DIY this work. And, even if you read that applying a layer of joint compound that you’ll be happy with is easy, it ain’t.
You might just want to hang crown molding instead and ignore the popcorn ceiling or install a new plank ceiling. Just sayin’.
