Should I take down the entire ceiling?

[MiamiCuse]

My dinning room has a water stain on one side - damaged from hurricane Wilma. I am remodeling that side, pulling up the carpet, peeling wall paper etc...I am also pulling down that part of the ceiling (about 20 x 16). The living room is connected and the ceiling there is ok, but a friend told me if I were to replace the ceiling sheet rock in the dinning room, I might as well pull down the living room too (20x20) as it would be difficult to match the texture. The ceiling is not popcorn but has the half circular shaped brush stroke, since it will be difficult and costly to do that to the dinning room side, should I pull them all down and do all new ceiling sheet rock and go with a smooth finish, instead of one half being new and smooth and the other half being old and textured?

Thanks,

MC

[BZ]

Is it just a cosmetic water stain, or is there structural damage to the sheetrock? If it's just a water stain, you can paint over it with Kilz and then repaint the ceiling.

[trader4]

Good point. And we can't see how the dining room and living room come together. But if it comes to doing the dining room ceiling drywall and there is no obvious seperation, then I'd do both ceilings to make it uniform.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If it is cosmetic, I'd consider putting new over the old. If it is structural or may have mold, I'd tear it down. I'd also go with plain smooth in both rooms rather than texture. That is based solely on my personal preference.

[Grandpa]

IME, what does SWMBO want?

[willshak]

She Who Must Be Obeyed