Removing popcorn ceilings

T

ToxicShock

100+ Posts
Can anyone give me a ballpark figure per square foot how much it costs to scrape and resurface popcorn ceilings? Thanks.
 
To reflect the sentiment above, I would rather rip all my fingernails out with a pair of pliers than ever scrape that **** again...don't know what it costs, but money well spent...
 
It costs a lot, and then it is difficult to get the ceiling smooth afterwards for a nice even paint surface. We had this done by a semi-amateur, and it was inexpensive, but then he only smoothed the ceiling a certain amount. This is where you will have difficulty with your worker. I expected this more or less because we paid a fairly low price, and am doing one room at a time myself (smoothing the sheetrock mud and painting).
Also, it makes the largest mess you have ever seen, even though they will cover everything with plastic.
You must specify exactly how good you expect the repairs to be, don't expect the $1000 job to be performed the same as a $5000 job.
 
If you wet it, removing the popcorn is a relatively easy job unless it has been painted over.

The only price I've ever found advertised in Dallas was:
In reply to:
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We've done this ourselves in several rooms at our house. Two tricks have made it easier.

1. use a pump sprayer to saturate the popcorn ceiling with water

2. Lowe's sells a pole scraper that you can attach a plastic bag to. it's still messy, but that gets most of it.

The hardest work of the whole job is retexturing but its not rocket science.
 
"I never understood the need to remove it, but I know that a lot of people chose to do so. "

Because when you stare up at it, you imagine the cottage cheese slowly gooping off of the ceiling and landing on your head. It's disturbing, and anyone that thought it was a good idea to use it as a texture was kidding themselves, or paid off by one of the companies that marketed it.
 
Concur. We have the stuff in our house but our not concerned enough with it to remove it. I think the fad died out in the mid 90s.
 
Thanks for the responses. I didn't realize so many had done this themselves. Unfortunately, all bedrooms, kitchen, living room and hallways have it so I don't really have the time to do it all myself. I'd be happy if I can get it done in the $2.50-3.00 per square foot range.
 
Blown on texture was for SPEED and consistancy. You blact the crap on, scrape off the excess and you are done in about 1/3 the time or less as a traditional texture job. It also helped hide shoddy float jobs better, for even more construction speed.
 
We recently paid $2200 for 9 rooms (dining, kitchen, study, living, three bedrooms, two bathrooms). ~1900 sqft

Would have preferred to have some texture versus smooth ceilings, but by the time I noticed it was too late.
 
I had this done on my house. They did spray a little texture on the ceilings, but there are spots where I do see imperfections. If you're going to get it done, don't go cheap.
 
I think some of that stuff has asbestos in it. Anybody ever run into a problem with that?
 
$2600 for 1950 sq ft. 2 1/2 baths, no closets done. Didn't include painting ceilings. Knockdown texture applied after popcorn scrapped off.
 
I have never had to do this, but I have thought about it and what I would probably do is either just remove all of the sheetrock and start over or scrape off the popcorn and install 1/4" sheetrock on top of (or under) the existing rock. It is far easier to tape and float right than it is to try to fix a bad job in my opinion.
 
We payed a day laborer $100.00 a day, for three days, to scrape a little less than 3000 sq. ft. of the ceiling of my girlfriend's mother's house. With a little guidance and quality control there was no problem at all and the end result was well worth it.
 
With that stuff up there, your house looks like it should have a disco ball on the ceiling, and you should be wearing white leisure suits.
 
One unexpected result of popcorn-scraping and retexturing is that now those rooms look bigger.

I guess because the ceilings are now whiter and brighter so the rooms look bigger.
 
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