Popcorn ceiling. how to cover up?
Question:We are flipping our house but the ceilings have painted popcorn and we hate it. The popcorn is tolerable except they are nasty dirty and that would take forever to clean something upside down. We are not going to remove it so don't say that. We want something that will cover it and look nice too. It will make good for extra insulation too. serious answers please.
Answers:
You're in quite a quandry with this one. You either need to remove the old popcorn finish or drywall over it. Scraping it off and repainting will be much cheaper and less time consuming than re drywalling over it. If you drywal over it the seems at the edges where the wall meets the ceiling will need to be taped and mudded causing you to have to paint the walls as well. One last suggestion is to spray the ceiling with wet down drywal mud out of a hopper sprayer. Do it in 2-3 applications and not too heavy at one time as it may dampen the popcorn finish too much causing it to peel or fall. You will still have somewhat of a muted popcorn finish on ceiling but after you paint it it will look much better and you will save aggravation of cleaning or scraping. Just remember, you cant make chicken salad out of chicken crap..
The only thing you can really do, is to paint it, but you can't use a roller because the popcorn stuff will come off, you have to use a sprayer.
Well, I would have suggested scrapping the ceiling but since that is not an option, quickest way is to drywall on top of it. It will insulate well and you would have a flat surface you are searching for.
If you don't want to re-paint it, you have to remove it. It's messy and pain staking, but that's your only option unless you want to install a new ceiling throughout your house. I'll post a link below for instructions on how to remove it and precautionary measures for doing so. We have them in our home, too, and will have them painted because of the mess in a fully furnished house. Whoever came up with the popcorn ceiling idea wasn't thinking clearly, don't you agree? What a nightmare.
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infpa...
You can try what is called a "drop ceiling" or "suspended ceiling" but those are usually found in commercial type installations more than in homes. Removing popcorn is not fun, but it can be done, wet it & scrape off (messy), then sand, spackle & paint. You could also try putting up wood strips around the perimeter & about 2' apart, then nail up gypsum wall board or paneling to the wood strips. If you use a decorative paneling, like bead board or something, you'd avoid a lot of caulking, painting, etc.
the easiest way is to repaint the ceiling with a deep nap roller i. e. 3/4" or better. If you have good coverage with the old paint flat latex will be fine, else flat oil is better. Yes it stinks but latex will peel texture off. No matter how you do it, it still gonna be a mess.
If your ceilings are high enough you might consider a drop ceiling, or a suspended ceiling. Depending on which lights you use, you will loose 4-6 inches of height.
There are so many choices now in ceiling tiles, some look like old tin ceilings, some like wood planks, different textures, tegular edges and straight edges. These styles range from ultra cheap to very classy, just depends on your budget.
Visit the Armstrong website, (they even have a DIY section) or your local Lowes/Home Depot so see some of the different styles available.
depends if you want to do it right or not. I would highly recommend not just "covering it up." Thats just asking for trouble, and things should be done right, even if on a budget for flipping a house. I would recommend either painting it, yes I know we all hate painted popcorn ceilings, or otherwise i would recommend scraping it off yourself and then having someone come in and do knock down ceilings. You can easily scrape off the existing popcorn ceiling if they havent been painted yet (ever) by spraying it with water and then scraping it off. it will go right down to the gypsum board. If they have been painted already, then you have to dry scrape as smooth as possible, mainly to get the "popcorn chunks" off, and then the mudders would have to skim coat ones or twice, and that will raise your price. You could do a whole house in a day's work. It is very cheap to find someone to come in and respray the ceilings, someone is doing two of my bathrooms for under 100 dollars, and thats with patching about 8 holes (ran new lighting) and he/she/they could have your whole place done in less than a day. I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I would personally laugh at the remodelers and walk out if they tried some scheming way of disguising a house problem. It doesnt say much for the morality of the people to turn a quick buck.
If you can't remove it then paint it.
This is what I've done in the past,Go to your big hardware supplier store and buy the tiles that look like old fashion victorian tin ceilings . They go on using a product called liquid nails. It works awsome, You can choose from a bunch of designs. I would also reccomend using ceiling pendants for your chandaliers to tie in with the rooms that are not being covered with the fake tin ceiling , You might have to order the tiles in could take 3-4 days all depends. This gives a beautiful effect of a redone ceiling without all the ripping and tearing only a few people I know know about this product and it is absolutly wonderful for redoing popcorn ceilings. It also comes in a variety of colors. I would say this is your best bet look into it you will be so happy!
What everyone has failed to mention, or even realize I guess, is that popcorn ceilings contain asbestos. The texturing agent contains enough of it that scraping an average room will be very hazardous. This is especially true for any ceilings done prior to 1980, but even todays manufacturers use asbestos fill.
The best way to deal with your ceiling is going to be to spray it. Encapsulating the texture is the safest way and rolling/brushing just doesn't work well at all.
The solution about putting a drop ceiling in is a great idea, if you can give up 4-6" of ceiling height this will be a very good way to redo the ceiling. Not to mention it will allow you to place can lights and ceiling fans in places you don't have them already if needed. Drop ceilings are great for concealing a poor ceiling and for giving that extra bit of space needed to rearrange the lighting in your home.
Serious answer. You are a buyers worst nightmare. Covering that would place the building at greater risk if a fire were to ever break out in that home. It is against most building codes to do this. You could be asking for a lawsuit down the line or the home inspector might write you up & set you back in the selling of the property. A popcorn ceiling can EASILY be removed & repainted to look like a regular ceiling. Just wear a face mask & tape off all doorways leading to other rooms to contain the mess. If you don't want to remove it, then simply paint it. You can go right over the dirt & it will be sealed in & never have to fall on the floor or on you. RENT A SPRAY GUN & APPLY OVER THE DIRT. A word of advice. Ask you local Police Department if a drug lab was ever known to exist on your property. You could have more problems than you realize! Serious answer.
spray another coat over the existing coat
a medium texture looks good its around $12 a bag the spray hopper is around $80 home depot or other large lumber store will have what you need. just need air compressor
mix 5 gallons of water per bag tape or staple plastic to walls and floor and go at it. the finished texture does not need to be painted.
Paint it. I do that in smokers houses and houses where there are fireplaces, or where they waited to long to replace the roof(so it leaked water onto the ceiling)leaving a stain. Use Kilz on strongly stained areas first. and then roll the ceiling. Just like new when I get thru. Cleans it right up.
if you don't want to scrape it off, and are trying to make money by flipping it, why don't you just sweep the ceiling with a push broom, then spray it with a primer-sealer (to cover and hide stains), and then spray it with a coat of finish paint? after it has been primed, you can even re popcorn it over the old if you have bare spots or thin spots. either of these solutions would look better than a cheap drop ceiling, which would lower the ceiling height by at least 6", if not more. you will know what the next step will be after you have primed it. good luck, hope this helps.
Let keep this simple!
Removing painted popcorn texture is done all the time and not a big deal to do. Because the paint creates a penetration barrier you will need to dry scape some of the text off. This will allow the barrier to be penetrated. Next use a spray bottle and wet down the ceiling. Because the moisture needs to get behind the painted texture you may need to wait five minutes and then re-wet the surface. Once the ceiling text is moist it will come off with little effort. Simple!
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