Nothing cheaper than drywall. Put another layer on top if you've gouged it too badly from the popcorn removal. But, if you haven't tried removing the popcorn, that's the cheapest and easiest route. All you need is a ladder, a spray bottle, a scraper, and a bottle of Aleve.

You can totally remove the popcorn! It is a pain but relatively easy and certainly your cheapest option. We removed popcorn on every ceiling of a 2400 house. We actually used a garden hose with a mist nozzle on our tiled floor areas.

Sounds like a good idea, if some what messy. As some cabinets and lighting is already installed, but it still could be done now. Anything special to use in spray bottle or just plain ole tap water?

I wonder if you could adhere furring strips to the existing ceiling to give yourself a level surface and then use thin drywall over the entire ceiling. Obviously more expense than the hose option that kam76 suggested...but if you have cabinets and lighting in, I'm thinking that I wouldn't want to take water to everything.

How old is the house? Some dry-walled "popcorn" textures had asbestos fibers in them as did plaster that was sprayed on ceilings.

I would still scrape them even if aesbestos was in drywall popcorn compound after educating myself on the safest removal procedures; but I would hire an asbestos removal contractor if sprayed plaster needed removal. I thnk the sprayed plaster was more of 60s thing and more popular in public/commercial construction than homes

My dad, a former union plasterer, is suffering from lung scaring due to his prolonged exposure with no safety/hazardous equipment used; he had over a decade of exposure. The way he has described the asbestos mix and the ratio of plaster/fibers for a sprayed plaster ceiling makes me think that it would have more asbestos than a dry-walled popcorn ceiling. It also sounds as if the depth of the sprayed plaster is thicker; at least this is true of my dry-walled popcorn ceilings.

We will be scraping our popcorn ceiling in our 1980 kitchen in the spring. It is best to know what you are dealing with so you can take proper precautions to mitigate any potential issues. Samples of the texture can be tested.

Personally, I don't mind the ceiling that much, dh hates it though. Actually, the room was an addition put on in the 80's, as a bonus/family room with a handicap bathroom adjoining. We are relocating the kitchen to this room, as the old kitchen is dark, small and only has a 4 sq ft of work surface area. Original house was built in late 40's, but not digging into that area. Like I said, I am not totally put off by the ceiling, I will be putting up some crown molding and painting though.

80s gives you a better chance of no asbestos...the later the better!

Asbestos was banned in ceiling material in the late 70s but the law allowed manufacturers to continue using it until supply ran out. Just one more time that Congress ------ the consumer. Therefore, some builders/tradesmen continued to use product that contained aesbestos well into the 80s.

Realistically, I think I have a 50/50 chance in my 1980 house. About 10 years ago, I did scrape 10 square ft. underneath a section of drywall/framed ductwork that the drywaller popcorned in a basement bedroom after reading and taking serious precautions. I have no idea why he thought something that was textured like the wall should be popcorned underneath! It looked so stupid. Reading a description about what replaced asbestos in drywall compound makes me hopeful that what I removed is free of asbestos.

I sure hope that asbestos-free compound was used but will test the kitchen to make sure since it is a much larger area. If I am free and clear, the living room ceiling goes too. Popcorn in bedrooms does not bother me; like your husband, it bugs me in more public areas of my house eventhough mine is not a really heavy popcorn. However, if it has asbestos, I can live with it in the living room.

If your addition was late 80s, I think you can scrape away with little worry...mid to early 80s...test for piece of mind.

Thanks for the tips Ranton. Is there a way to date an addition by the materials used. They used the foil lined foam board as outer insulation/sheeting under siding. The neighbor says the addition was there before she moved here in the early 90's.
The rest of the house has the hard plaster walls over drywall, almost impossible to get a nail started to hang a picture. The ceilings in main house are textured, wouldn't call them popcorn. Maybe in the addition, I will test an area in baftroom and see how it removes. We will be tackling the bathroom in there when able.

You can date the addition by looking at the permits on the planning and zoning department, and by checking the assessed size and description in the tax assessor's files.

I used a couple of drops of liquid dish soap in the water to help it penetrate. and a 8" drywall knife as the scraper.

Mist a strip across the room as deep as you can comfortable scrape ... go back to your starting point and test it. You may have to mist it a couple of times before it starts scraping off.

Tedious but definitely improves the place.

You can do a light skip-trowel with drywall mud to cover the dings. Prime with PVA drywall sealer and paint.

I did a couple of rooms and hired out the vaulted great room and the remaining rooms.

Seriously? Scraping popcorn? Ugh, unless I had 7ft. ceilings, I do the furring strips and new drywall (or painted tongue and groove boards and have no drywall mess at all). I loathe drywall messes in any form, though... going on or coming off. Cover it and lose an inch of headroom.

Didn't they use that texture to hide crappy drywall jobs anyway? What if you scrape it all off and find out why they put it on in the first place?

Cover it.

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I have looked into the plastic ceiling panels that look like old tin. Going to set us back around $3000 for our 15x18' room. I know I have seen textured wall paper also, that may work, but think I would have to scrape ceiling anyways. Papering over my head , yuk!. Thank you all for the ideas, will keep plugging along and searching.

We covered the popcorn ceiling in our last house by putting very thin dry wall over it. Much less messy that scrapping.

If you like the Fasade ceiling tiles, the price at Menards seems to be about $1200 for the tiles (only). Plus they are offering a rebate now. I don't know how much the glue is. Fasade recommends smoothing out the ceiling first, but other sources say to just apply the adhesive thickly to the tiles.

My brother used something like carsiding on his ceiling, and I think it looked great -- compatible with the overall style of his home.

I just had a contractor in...we may just drop the ceiling Sheetrock and put up new...less mess perhaps (blown in insulation???) and better ceiling results due to less patching since I am taking out soffits which may not have been added on top of Sheetrock panels, moving lights and adding cans. How big of an area are you working on?

We have a little over 9 ft ceiling in room we are putting kitchen in, the room is 15.5'x 19'. It was used as a family/tv room before we moved in, and we just used it as office/and occassional karaoke bar, seemed to me like a much better place for a kitchen, then what we have now. The room had 2nd access to 1 bedroom with double louvered doors, that we closed up and also laundry area and bathroom. I can definitely try scraping bath or laundry area (which will become new walk-in pantry/freezer area.

Here is our layout as set, we had to use what we had, but is pretty close to my original plan.

I removed popcorn ceiling in my previous house (1982 cape cod). It was very tedious but better than removing all the 1982 wallpaper for sure. It is messy, make sure you cover everything well to make clean up easier. I just used a spray bottle and really wide putty knife thingie. I had to do very little patching and even though it was only 1/4" thick, getting rid of that crap made the ceilings look 1' higher.

The only thing it cost was elbow grease as I already had the materials.