I just moved into a house build in 1971 and the living room has a popcorn or acoustic ceiling. It looks like it's been painted, probably a few times. It doesn't look the best anymore, so a friend of mine offered to re-popcorn the whole ceiling for me. He said I just have to prime it first. However, I'm debating if I really want to do this. I've read that the bond of the "popcorn" is very week and the more stuff you add to the ceiling the more weight and the possibility of patches coming down due to the weight of a couple layers of paint and new texture. Is re-popcorning such a ceiling a common practice? Does it usually come out good when done by someone who knows what they are doing?
Or should I just get rid of it. I'm concerned about asbestos though. I've called around to get a sample tested, but it's quite expensive and it takes a long time for results. I've got about a weeks to figure out what to do and actually do it, since that's when the floor guy is comming to refinish the floors, after that I'd rather not mess with the ceiling anymore.
Thanks for any input, Harry