Here’s My Simple Guide to Popcorn Ceiling Removal

Typically, if your home was built before 1990, you have a higher chance of having asbestos and lead in your home. It is a well-known fact that asbestos is a carcinogen and may cause serious health issues or death.

Even if you want to remove a popcorn ceiling yourself, you should have a professional test for asbestos. Once asbestos is found it must be removed by a licensed asbestos contractor. Asbestos is definitely something that you don’t want to risk being exposed to as it requires special care and removal.

In addition to Asbestos, you will need to check for lead. Years ago, when popcorn ceilings were in the height of popularity, they were coated with lead-based paint. Again, lead also has adverse effects, particularly for children, pregnant women or elderly people.

We can take a sample of the texture by scraping a small amount and sending it off to a lab for professional diagnosis.

Wet-Scraping Popcorn Ceiling

The most used DIY popcorn ceiling removal is called wet scraping. This process simply involves soaking the textured/popcorn ceiling with water and manually scraping it off. Although I would like to warn you that if your ceiling has tested positive for either asbestos or lead, you should not use this method!

What you will need:

• Dust or plastic sheeting
• Mask or respirator
• Fan (preferably electric)
• Water pump sprayer or you can use a bucket with warm water
• Ceiling scraper/tool
• Bucket (to collect the scrapings)

So, if you’re confident that it’s safe to remove your popcorn or textured ceiling, follow the next steps:

1. Start by using your water pump sprayer, or manually soak an area of your ceiling. I recommend that you do one section at a time. Also, you need to be sure that you don’t oversoak your ceiling, as the moisture will soak and damage your ceiling/drywall.
2. Let the water soak into the ceiling for around 15-20 minutes. Now, if you notice that the water isn’t soaking into your ceiling, it is possibly because it’s coated in the paint (not necessarily lead). If this happens, you may want to seek the help of a local popcorn ceiling removal company.
3. When the water has soaked into the textured ceiling, you should notice that it has softened. Simply use your ceiling scraper, or preferred tool and start to remove the popcorn texture. This process is where the bucket comes in handy, as you can just place the removed popcorn into the bucket. Also, I would like to note that you need to take care not to scrape by applying a lot of pressure, as again, you can end up damaging your drywall.
4. Once you have repeated steps 2 and 3 for each section of your ceiling, you can begin preparing to paint your ceiling.
5. Paint the ceiling, I recommend using between 2 to 4 coats, depending on the age or condition of your ceiling.

That’s all you need to do, as I mentioned it does take a lot of patience and time, but it more than do-able. Although, please do check that it is safe to remove your popcorn ceiling yourself.

Popcorn Ceiling Removal Specialists Wellington

We keep it Clean.
Popcorn removal and smooth ceiling installation is our specialty. Popcorn is a gypsum-based product, which makes removing it messy and difficult. Working with drywall, popcorn removal and smooth ceiling installation is all we do and we have been doing it since 1993. A large home with a lot of popcorn removal requires the skills of experienced drywall and popcorn removal professionals like us.

We will clean up after we finish like we were never there because we know how important cleanliness is to both our residential and commercial clients. Our attention to detail, our cleanliness and exemplary customer service has made Jason Lopiccolo Drywall and Spray Textures an industry leader in Wellington.

If you want a professional, licensed and insured
drywall contractor in Wellington, call us today.
561-254-0058