Being in the drywall and texture business for over 25 years, I’ve learned how to remove ceiling popcorn virtually dust-free.
Although the mess seems to be a monumental undertaking, it too can be made quite simple. With the proper preparation you can cut the cleanup time by 3/4’s using the following steps.
Preparation is key! The longer you take preparing and covering things up the less time you’ll spend on the cleanup in the end. Here are the things you’ll need to include:
Painter’s Plastic – 3400 sq. ft. rolls 1 mil. thick for the walls because it’s light.
Heavier Plastic – For the floors and furniture.
Blue Painter’s Paint – 1 1/2 inches wide or more. This will tolerate moisture without letting go and will not peel any paint off. Medium to heavy adhesive is recommended.
Regular Masking Tape – 1/2 inch thick is fine, this will be used to tack things up before you tape it off. The cheap stuff is fine.
Drywall Knives – A ten inch and a five inch. The 10 inch will be used for the field and the 5 inch for corners and fine tuning stubborn areas. Stainless steel is fine for either knife for they have more rigidity.
A Pump Sprayer With a Mist Tip – To mist over the popcorn ceiling.
Mics Items – Goggles, step ladder,face mask, and broom.
Now that I have outline what you’ll need let me tell you how to implement everything so you can do a professional cost effective job that’s a snap to clean up. Let’s get started.
Preparation Steps
Start by moving the furniture into groups away from the walls small enough to work around and remove anything that might get broken – pictures, lamps, etc…anything you deem fragile.
Let’s take the heavier plastic and cover the floors and run it up the walls about a foot. Now take the excess and tape it every foot or so covering the bottom foot or so of the wall and tuck it underneath the furniture as well. Now still using the heavier plastic, cover furniture, making sure nothing is exposed. Be sure to cover all ceiling fans & light fixtures,vents, or anything on the ceiling that’s not pop-corned. Now that that’s done, let’s move on to the walls. Take the lighter painter plastic and roll out pieces a bit longer than the wall to overlap onto the next piece. Tape it up leaving about a one inch gap or so between the top of the plastic and the ceiling using small pieces of regular masking tape every couple of feet until you have covered all of the walls. Now, take the blue painters tape and go around the top of the room covering the gap between the plastic edge and the ceiling running the tape horizontally.
You probably asking why we use two different kinds of plastic, let me explain. lighter plastic is perfect for draping on walls and is light enough to where it won’t pull down and fall on the floor. If you were to cover the floor and furniture with it, given the fallout from the popcorn removal it will most definitely stick to and wrap around your feet undoing all of the cover up work you have done creating nothing more than a hassle as well as a big mess. The heavier plastic offer superior protection for your floors and furnishings and won’t be so quick to stick to your feet but is certainly to heavy for the walls. So let’s not cheap out on the plastic for the floors.
Let The Scraping Begin!
Fist start by misting with warm water over an area you feel comfortable with, may 6×6 feet, let this stand for 10-15 minutes. Than, take the 10″ drywall knife and hold it at approx. a 45 degree angle or less, you will figure out what works best for you, and start scraping. If it is not coming off with relative ease perhaps you need to mist it again, sometimes wetter is better but not always necessary. The larger knife is for the large expansive areas and the smaller knife is for the corners and stubborn spots. It does not have to be a 5inch a four or six inch will serve the same purpose.
For popcorn ceilings that have been painted over there are a few extra steps such as:
Start off the same as above scraping off what you can but do not get to aggressive just be careful not to gouge the ceiling. Than re-mist the scraped area and repeat the routine. Once the initial misting and scraping is done and the outer crust of the paint is breached this will allow the water to penetrate the surface and get under the texture and do it’s job. Always let the water work for you. If you find yourself having to get to aggressive, than perhaps you should use another misting. Don’t work against yourself, let your tools do the work.
You’ll find most ceilings, popcorn that is, are not painted. It is not necessary because when it is applied it is 100% coverage and dries white, however you will know if it has been painted by the sheen that occurs by painting and if it is not it is a flat finish and crumbles off very easy even by just brushing against it.
Always start out in smaller rooms to experiment such as laundry room, closets, or spare bathrooms; this is just to get confident and figure out what you are doing before moving on to the larger rooms. Never tackle the whole house at the same time unless the house is vacant, and never mist an area too big as popcorn is absorbent and tends to dry out quickly. Working the room in quadrants you’ll be just fine.
Easy Cleanup
Start at one corner of the room and pull the plastic from the walls first, it should come down pretty quick. Now, the plastic that you ran partially up the wall will act as a catch all for all of the plastic from the walls and texture you just removed. Remove all the plastic from the fixtures, furniture, vents, ceiling lights etc., making sure all of the popcorn texture is well to the center of the plastic which covers the floor. Now, all you have to do is un tape it from the wall and carefully roll it up, put it in a garbage bag and throw it out with tomorrows trash. Although airborne particles are few you may consider wearing a mask during the cleanup. I wish you luck on your project. Remember, the more time you spend in preparation the less time you spend on cleaning up, as I said preparation is key!
