I think that’s what it’s called, various size pieces of stuff from maybe 1/16 to 1/4 an inch that was originally painted on my ceiling.
Do I just use a deep ‘nap’ roller and go over everything, do I have to scrap it down, or should I just sell the place and let the next guy worry about it? ]
I borrowed a paint sprayer from a friend, covered the entire rest of the bedroom in plastic and sprayed it.
Or you could hire a professional.
I guess it depends on the kind of “popcorn” you’ve got. Mine comes off easily if you swipe at it, so I wouldn’t try and roller it. It would just stick to the roller and come off in sticky globs. On the entryway ceiling, where there was a lot of water damage, I used the scrape-it-off method. That was messy, but actually easier than dealing with the paint sprayer. Paint sprayers are the work of the devil. But then I had to re-spackle and sand, since the popcorn is sprayed on so they can leave the actual ceiling underneath rough.
Also, if your popcorn has asbestos in it, scraping should only be done by professional asbestos-removers.
I recommend you move.
Help Around the House host Henry Harrison has high hopes for spray paint. (With pix.)
Take a water bottle full of hot water, find a scraper and remove it all! Nasty stuff it is! If you want a textured look buy textured paint. Looks better than popcorn crap! 
Wear a mask, vis a vis the aesbestos advice, above.
I was born in 1980. This whole thing about popcorn ceilings not being standard still takes me by surprise every time I hear it discussed.
Same thing with wall-to-wall carpeting.
Hot melted butter-like substance?
:: d&r ::
Bad advice if you don’t know what’s in the texture. Much popcorn surface contains asbestos, as noted above.
Again, bad advice. If you are not certified to abate hazardous materials, you shouldn’t be mucking around with it. Your face mask provides dubious protection for you and zero protection for others in the house, including pets. Once friable, asbestos becomes a serious problem.
We scraped all the popcorn crap off our living room ceiling with no problems, no asbestos at all. No ill effects at all.
Also Chefguy are you a professional? How do you know Kanicbird’s ceiling has asbestos? I WAS being a smart alec when I posted my response.
I suspect nobody knows whether it is asbestos or not.
But if it is, and he removes it in an unapproved manner, he has just rendered his house an economic disaster area that may not legally be sold wtihout great expense. Heck, it’s probably not even legal for him to live in it after he does that.
And regardless of legalities he has increased the likelihood of health problems for himself and his family. How much? I’m no expert, and I consider the whole asbestos thing to be mostly hysterical overreaction, but the answer isn’t zero.
Bottom line: A prudent course is to not disturb it until you know what it is and are prepared to deal with whatever the answer turns out to be. If you know now that you can’t stand one of the possible answers, best not to ask the question & leave it alone.
Out of curiosity, is there any benefits to having a popcorn cieling? Is it economical? Does it keep in heating? Is it just for looks? My college decided to do a popcorn cieling, which meant that they just mixed styrofoam bits into white paint, it seems. I couldn’t see any use for it, other than getting into my hair when I got onto my bunk.
This “popcorn ceiling”… is this code for stucco?
Yes I am. I run a maintenance staff of 60 persons, an engineering staff of four and and environmental staff of three, all of whom are hazmat certified, and I have been in the construction business for 40 years. You?
Of course you have no ill effects. . .yet. Asbestosis is a long-term problem. Did you have your ceiling material tested? It’s impossible to tell by merely looking at it. I have no idea if his/her ceiling has asbestos or not, and didn’t imply such. My notes were cautionary as to the poor advice offered. As to being a ‘smart alec’, you might want to indicate that in a forum where folks come for serious answers.
When I bought my house, the realtor told me he was required by law to identify the possibility that the popcorn ceiling contained asbestos and that if we chose to remove it we should use a trained service.
“Popcorn Ceilings” help with soundproofing and insulation. To a point.
When I was in the painting business I found that you can paint such a ceiling but very carefully.
Use a VERY deep knap roller. Saturate the roller and screen it so it dosen’t drip but is full of paint. If you roll back and forth, the old ceiling probably will fail because the water in the paint will saturate it.
Run the roller ONCE across a section of the ceiling. If it dosen’t cover, let it dry overnight and touch it up with a brush.
Also, check the ceiling first with your hand to be sure the old paint hasn’t separated. If it has you’re going to have to scrape it off.
(Or, you could use an airless sprayer, but you have to know what you’re doing.)
The above advice is not to get a new Popcorn ceiling, but to refresh an existing one.
No. It’s a spray on texture that’s pretty standard on houses built in the 70s and 80s (and much of the 90s) around here. Hideous, vile stuff and my whole family was quite jealous when I bought a house that didn’t come with it.
There are rollers that are designed for painting popcorn ceilings. I don’t know how well they work, though.
Reminds me of a Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling joke:
“How do ya make Polish spackle? Paint over the boogers!”
Thanks
90% of the reason for popcorn ceilings (and walls) is to hide imperfections. The quality of installation of most sheetrock is so bad that if you actually looked at the wall/ceiling closely you would be very unhappy. Straight on it usually doesn’t look bad, but from an angle, the sharper the angle the more obvious, seams and bumps and dips in a smooth surface are obvious. Rather than doing a good (read careful) job, contractors on a schedule put texture on the surface. The eye can’t see the imperfections because of all the bumps and shadows.
How much of a difference does texturing make? I recently redid my house. I live in Katrinaland and replaced all my walls. The cost difference between allowing the contractor to use texture and not was 25%. And the contractor that charged $20K to replace my walls probably lost money after factoring in all the time he spent coming back to fix the flaws.