Scraping a Textured Ceiling

Rick_B

Rick
Corporate Member
I have recently done this in two rooms - a small bathroom and a 10 x 14 bedroom. My method was a 6" drywall tool, a sprayer bottle and a step ladder. This was not hard - just a lot of up the ladder, spray with water, scrape as far as I could reach on all directions, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, yada yada. The texture came off easy, almost two easy, in sheets. A lot of clean up after the fact. Also the drywall knife with sharp corners left a lot of drywall dings that required a skim coat to remedy. I don't believe a skim coat can be avoided but I think it can be less intense.

I have an upcoming project that requires ceiling scraping so I'm looking for a process that is a bit easier. The ceiling in question is in a bigger bedroom that has a cathedral ceiling of sorts - slopes up from the sides to the center - maybe 2-1/2 or 3 feet. I want to eliminate the ladder climbing to some degree. I have considered adjustable steel saw horses (which I have) with a plywood platform - maybe 2 x 4 or 2 x 8. I have also considered a rolling work platform that I could rent or buy. I also have seen that there are specialized tools for this work that involve a low angle blade with rounded corners, an extension handle and a method for attaching a plastic bag to catch debris. This keeps me on the ground and greatly reduces the clean up. I wonder though if this works as advertised or if there is a control problem with the scraper given how far away from the work you are - kind of like handling a long limb pruner from the ground as it wobbles around.

So anyone have any thoughts about the best way

Rick
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Cbozz

Chris
User
I found the tool advertised for scraping popcorn to be just about useless. The metal is too thin and it flexes too much to put the force in the right place. I just zip-tied a 12" drywall knife to an 8' painters pole and kept the angle low, which worked pretty well. But if I had to do it again in any sizeable area, I'd pay the money to get a mirka/hilti/festool drywall sander, a HEPA vac with filter cleaning, and just go to town with some 80 grit. Just test for asbestos first (should do that regardless)
 

PeteM

Pete
Corporate Member
I have recently done this in two rooms - a small bathroom and a 10 x 14 bedroom. My method was a 6" drywall tool, a sprayer bottle and a step ladder. This was not hard - just a lot of up the ladder, spray with water, scrape as far as I could reach on all directions, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, yada yada. The texture came off easy, almost two easy, in sheets. A lot of clean up after the fact. Also the drywall knife with sharp corners left a lot of drywall dings that required a skim coat to remedy. I don't believe a skim coat can be avoided but I think it can be less intense.

I have an upcoming project that requires ceiling scraping so I'm looking for a process that is a bit easier. The ceiling in question is in a bigger bedroom that has a cathedral ceiling of sorts - slopes up from the sides to the center - maybe 2-1/2 or 3 feet. I want to eliminate the ladder climbing to some degree. I have considered adjustable steel saw horses (which I have) with a plywood platform - maybe 2 x 4 or 2 x 8. I have also considered a rolling work platform that I could rent or buy. I also have seen that there are specialized tools for this work that involve a low angle blade with rounded corners, an extension handle and a method for attaching a plastic bag to catch debris. This keeps me on the ground and greatly reduces the clean up. I wonder though if this works as advertised or if there is a control problem with the scraper given how far away from the work you are - kind of like handling a long limb pruner from the ground as it wobbles around.

So anyone have any thoughts about the best way

Rick
Top
 

mikeh74

New User
Mike
I've attached a mud knife to a shop vacuum extension. Worked pretty well. Didn't catch everything but made cleanup much easier. You can also lay down plastic to capture what lands on the ground and just throw the whole thing away.

Ceiling texture can contain asbestos so I'd recommend testing it first.
 

Craptastic

Matt
Corporate Member
Agree with radiusing the knife. It doesn't eliminate poking into the sheetrock but will significantly reduce it. Also, consider using a simple rolling 6' scaffolding like those sold at tractor supply for under $300. Less up and down ladder work. I've always just liberally covered the floor with plastic and bundled it all up afterwards. Let it dry a day before rolling it up and it will be much lighter.
 

JGregJ

New User
Greg
My wife and I have done a couple of rooms using the same technique you used with one minor exceptIon. When scraping we hold a cardboard box cover under the scraper to catch the bulk of the material to cut down on the clean up a litttle.

For our rooms the scraping was the easy part. The texture hides the poor taping and muddying of the joints - so we had to refinish most of the joints. Made me appreciate the skills of the professsional dry wall folks. Took me a long time to get the ceiling smooth and involved a lot more going up and down the step laddder.

For our master bedroom decided to add crown molding to avoid having to deal with the wall to ceiling joints.
 

chris_goris

Chris
Senior User
I had 3200 SF of it removed in my previous house. The way the pros did it was to bag the entire room first. This involved taping up plastic just under the crown moulding and and all across everything on the floor. they did the perimeter of each room this way. Then they used garden sprayers and large drywall knives to remove the popcorn where they could. I say where they could because they told me the mix used in my house had so much plaster in it, they couldnt scrape it, so they had to sand alot of it off. then, they reskimmed the entire ceiling(s) and repainted. It was 5 guys for 5 days. But, once they were done, they simply pulled down the plastic and rolled it up and threw it away to contain the mess.
 

zdorsch

Zach
Corporate Member
I’ve always used a ladder or chair and just resigned myself to getting a leg workout. It always seems to go quicker than I remember (unless someone painted over the popcorn with oil based).

I found the sander pulls the popcorn texture from the hammer divots whereas the wet scrape method tends to leave it flatter.

I also run my plastic over the floors and then up the wall to just shy of the ceiling. After scraping I can wrap up the whole mess and throw it out with minimal cleanup.
 

Bill J

Bill
User
I've used this tool to remove the popcorn ceilings in my previous house. I did several large rooms and it worked pretty well as long as the ceiling hasn't been painted. It attaches to the end of a painters pole so you don't have to get up on a ladder. You can attach a trash bag to catch most of the detritus. You still need eye protection and a mask and spraying helps. I'm happy to lend it to you. I'm in Chapel Hill.
 

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Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
I just did this. I have done it before so I had already set up 2 blades 1 -6" and 1 -12" blade. I radius'd the corners on a grinder then, edge it a bit to match the rest of the blade. I use a hudson bug sprayer, (2 gallon) pum it up and spray a bit heay the 1st time doing about 8 sq ft. The go back and begin taking off the texture. If the sheetrock is too old, you might need to just rock over the existing and go from there. That it the usual way I do a bathroom, just rock over the ceiling. Usually is easier and faster in the long run.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
My 2000+ square foot house had popcorn ceiling in all the rooms including the great room with 16.5 foot ceiling and the entry area that is also that high. I've gradually removed all of it. I used a 6 inch knife a lot but the tool that Bill linked also works and gets a lot of the mess. Just putting plastic on the floor also helps quite a bit. I knew I was going to have the hardwood floors refinished after I got the ceiling fixed so I mainly caught as much as possible while I was doing it and cleaned up the floor afterwards knowing I was not getting all of it.

So besides the tool which will take a Walmart bag to catch a lot of the debris, I recommend 28 inch wide scaffold. I used regular scaffold in the great room but it isn't really meant for inside use and was a pain to move around. I did the entry with the 28 inch scaffold. I bought two sections which I still have. It is not either cheap or super expensive. I think I paid about $100 per section. It might have been more. But if I had rented it for a month it would have been more. I did not want time pressure so I bought it. It came with wheels which I used on the bottom section.

If the popcorn has been painted, it will take a lot longer. I found no alternative to just taking the necessary time to get it off in small pieces. Getting it wetter and wetter did not work nor did putting things in the water. I did not round the edges of my trowels. If you get the popcorn just wet enough to come off I don't think you will damage much drywall. Making it too wet will result in damage, however. My popcorn was mostly not painted but in a few spaces it was - probably to hide ceiling damage. I had some drywall damage to touch up when I was done but I also had entire seams that lifted. I might have used too much water sometimes but this house is also >50 years old and the mud was similarly old. Fortunately my seams were in general fully mudded originally. More recent popcorn jobs are used with only one coat of mud on the seams. That would mean at least another full coat.

I agree with your assessment. It is not hard work, it just takes time and makes a mess. But my smooth finish ceilings look really nice.
 

Rick_B

Rick
Corporate Member
Well I started this project yesterday. I bought one of these MetalTech Jobsite Series Baker 4.1 ft. L x 3.8 ft. H x 1.8 ft. D Mini Scaffold Platform with Wheels, Tool Shelf, 500 lbs. Capacity I-IMCNAT - The Home Depot and it worked perfectly. I used a combination of a 2, 6 and 9 inch knife with rounded corners. The rounding greatly reduced the amount of gouging. I also laid a tarp down. I got the bedroom ceiling 80% done before quitting - about 4 hours. Will finish that up today as well as the closet ceiling. Messy job but will greatly improve the ceiling appearance.

Rick
 

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