We recently bought a new mod home and all the ceilings in the home are "stucko" I think is what its called. They have that popcorn look. My wife is chomping at the bit to do some painting but I don't want to paint the room one color and leave the ceiling another. Is their a secret or special way to remove this?
Other than telling you how stucco is usually spelled, I can't offer much help with removal, but I do know this....
The guy who schleps and stack up the bags of dry stucco for the apprentice who mixes it and hands it up to the master plasterer on the ladder troweling it onto the ceiling is called.........
An unstuck stucco sticker upper stoker stacker.
Jeff (Ducking...)
popcorn ceiling texture is easily removed by a drywall knife and some elbow grease. Warning Will Robinson.... Depending on the age the popcorn texture COULD have asbestos in it. To be safe wet the area your working on with a hand sprayer and wear a mask. Good idea to plastic off the whole room. Your going to have a mess.
Sadly you not done. In my experience you will need to float all of the ceiling joints with drywall mud to get the seams flat. The popcorn hid the imperfections so the contractors did not take much time on the ceiling.
If your home is newer then the texture could be nothing but drywall mud sprayed on the ceiling. If that is the case your in for some serious work to get it flat.
This is a new modular home bought and built in May of this year. So it sounds like were in for a mess then. Is their anyway to successfully paint over this then?
Thick napped roller or spray
My parents recently tried to remove the popcorn ceiling that's been in their house for the last 20 years. The entire house, except for bathrooms and kitchen, has the stuff, but they decided to try just the dining room alone, first. If you thoroughly wet the stucco (you can even use a squirt bottle for this), it practically falls off. Trouble is, as SQLit mentioned, it's a huge mess, and the resulting ceiling is rough. And, working on a ceiling is a serious pain in the neck.
For my parents, they decided to stop after the one room (they'd had enough), did a quick job spackling imperfections, and are now painting it with a faux finish texture to camoflage the flaws.
They decided to do all this stuff themselves (they have always been do-it-yourselfers, but they were hesitant to tackle this project) because the cost of having it removed was so high due to a special hazardous materials charge after trace amounts of asbestos were found in it. Since your house is new, I don't think you should have any asbestos, and the removal cost may not be too bad.
Oh, also--the stucco is easier to remove *before* the first time it's painted. And as far as painting goes, are you planning on painting it a color? If you are painting a color significantly different from the existing white, you are in for some major work getting it into all of the nooks and crannies. Even with hwm's suggestions, in my experience, it will take many passes to get a roller into every crack, and spray opens up a whole new ballgame as far as mess, etc., especially for the inexperienced.
I would concur with the spraying and scraping method. In addition, while scraping, hold an old cake pan under the scraper. 90% of the junk fell into the pan.
I just completed my whole house...and touching up the joints and fixing the dings was worth the effort. Re-textured the ceilings and wall, and it looks practically brand new.
Good luck! Darwin
This is why you don't have it tested. Key word: "trace amounts". It is harmess if done properly and saves a bundle of money.
The testing is part of the estimate process. At least in their area (and I'm sure other places aren't much different), if you call someone out to remove the stuff, they will test it first, no matter what. Of course asbestos is only a problem if you disturb it, and the amount found (which was a typical amount) is not enough to pose a threat to someone doing this once in their lifetime. Then again, it's not the kind of thing you'd want to be exposed to on a daily basis. So, I can understand why they would do this (plus they can charge more, plus I think it's legally required).
At any rate, not having it tested was not an option if they paid someone to do it. Unless, as it just occurred to me, they hired an unlicensed "handyman" to do it, without testing. That scenario has problems of its own, though.
Usually if you wet it down with a garden sprayer you can scrape it off with a wide knife easily. Typically it is just expanded polystyrene suspended in gypsum. Often, if you wet it enough it just falls down. Huge mess but doable. BTDT
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