How To Remove Popcorn Ceilings In Your Home

There’s a lot to love about

older homes

—the character! The quirks! The superior construction materials! But one thing modern homeowners usually don’t like about an older home? The popcorn ceilings.

If you own a home with popcorn ceilings you’d like to get rid of (or maybe you were the one who added them years ago and now regret that decision), it’s possible to remove the ceiling texture without getting a contractor involved. However, there are some important steps and precautions you should take before going scraper-first at your ceiling. We’ve gathered the best tips for how you can safely and cheaply get rid of those pesky popcorn ceilings yourself.

What Are Popcorn Ceilings?

The textured, stucco-like popcorn ceilings we know today came into popularity in the middle of the 20th century for their ease of installation (they didn’t require painting over), ability to cover up imperfections in ceiling construction, and soundproofing characteristics. The ceiling texture continued to be regularly used into the early 2000s.

The Dangers Of Asbestos

If your home or the ceiling in question is likely older than the 1980s, it’s important you do a test for asbestos before going any further. Asbestos is a mineral fiber that was often used in popcorn ceilings because it was strong, fire-retardant, and could improve soundproofing capabilities. Left untouched and alone, asbestos isn’t harmful. However, the dust and particles of asbestos have been known to increase cancer risks when disturbed, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

1

Testing For Asbestos

There are at-home asbestos test kits you can buy from places like Home Depot or Lowes, where you scrape a small piece of the potentially affected area and ship it to a lab for testing. Take the necessary precautions before doing a DIY test, like wearing the proper personal protection equipment. This includes a mask. However, the EPA recommends hiring a professional to come and safely test for asbestos.

2

What To Do If Your Asbestos Test Is Positive

If your ceiling tests positive, you have a couple of options: You can hire a professional to safely remove the ceiling or you can

cover it up

with wood paneling or drywall. If the ceiling is intact, it’s perfectly safe to leave it as-is and simply cover up the texture you don’t want to see.

How To Remove Popcorn Ceilings

If your ceiling doesn’t test positive for asbestos and you want to handle removing it yourself, the tools you’ll need are likely already in your garage: a ladder, a putty knife or paint scraper, a garden sprayer, and lots of plastic sheets and drop cloths to protect the rest of your room from the mess you’re surely about to make. Expect the process to take a long time—

days, even

. You’ll likely have to spend at least a couple of hours per step, depending on how large the room is.

Step 1: Test The Ceiling

To get started, test scraping a small portion of the

ceiling

while it’s dry. If it’s proving very difficult, try lightly wetting the area with warm water, wait 15 minutes for it to soak in, and try again. If scraping is simply not going to happen, it’s likely your ceiling was painted after the popcorn texture was applied, which makes the substance that much harder to remove. If that’s the case, you’ll likely need the help of a professional, or you could simply cover the ceiling with drywall. If your ceiling is scraping easily, power on!

Step 2: Prep The Room

You’ll want to be sure to properly prep your room for this project: Remove as much furniture as you can and cover the rest with plastic sheets. You should cover the walls and floor with plastic sheets as well, using painter’s tape to seal off the edges. Remove any light fixtures and ceiling fans and stuff the holes with newspaper or tape over them to prevent any water or dust from entering an electrical socket.

To be safe, you’ll want to go ahead and turn off electricity running to the room altogether, and also turn off central air or heat when you start scraping so you don’t stir up the dust. If there are windows, though, open them to create better air circulation.

Step 3: Work In Small Sections

Put on your PPE again, and it’s time to start scraping the ceiling surface. You can dry scrap the popcorn ceiling with your paint scraper, or you can spray the ceiling with warm water. When using water, it’s best to work in sections no larger than a 5-foot area at a time—otherwise, parts of the surface you spray will dry before you get to it. You want to only use as much water as necessary, since too much could damage the drywall underneath.

Continue this process around the room. Use the putty knife to help get at corners and tight spaces. If you have a wet/dry vacuum, use that to help clean up the falling material. There are scraper vacuum attachments that you can buy, like

this one

from Amazon, so you can basically vacuum the popcorn materials directly off the ceiling, which will minimize the mess.

Step 4: Finish The Ceiling

After removing all the texture you’re able to scrape away, you’ll want to sand down the ceiling so that it’s smooth to the touch before priming and

painting

the entire surface. It might be a time-consuming and difficult product, but all that work will surely be worth it for a smooth, textureless ceiling that not only will look better but will also add value to your home.