Removing Popcorn Ceilings After They've Been Painted?

15 years ago

My husband and I are starting to do some DIY remodeling to our house. It was built in the mid 80's and has popcorn ceilings, which I hate. He owned the house before I met him and painted over the popcorn ceilings, several times in some places. He doesn't want to do anything with them now because he thinks they will be too difficult to remove and he is usually right about these things, but I really hate them! I read some of the other popcorn ceiling posts and they all seemed to say, "If your ceiling hasn't been painted, do this..." Has anyone had any experience trying to remove popcorn after it's been painted, or know if it is even doable without wrecking the ceiling? If it is possible, do you have any suggestions, or know of any products that might help? (I am assuming that plain water won't cut it.) We are starting with a complete tear out of a small powder room in the next few weeks, so it would be the perfect time to try a ceiling in the smallest room of the house.

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

sierraeast
15 years ago
Here's a recent thread:

Here is a link that might be useful: removing painted popcorn
mlessirard
15 years ago
I removed painted popcorn, scrap the painted popcorn first with a scraper. The perlite comes off in balls. Then spray with solution of fabric softener and water. Let it soak for a while. Mine came off (the brown thick paint came off in sheets), 15 x 11 room took me 2 days.

Tape off room with painters plastic.
Scrape ceiling with trowel.
spray ceiling with water solution, wait 10-15 minutes to soak through.
Watch out for overworking an area, you'll gouge it.
Then use Magic Trowel to skim coat the ceiling.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great tool for DIY skim coat
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beckstar275
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the tips and the link to the other thread. I thought I had looked through the old threads so that I wouldn't post something that had already been asked, don't know how I missed that one - sorry!

I'm sure I can talk my husband into trying this - the room is very small, approx 4x6 feet. I know it won't be the easiest thing, but totally worth it. Plus where we live, having popcorn ceilings makes it really hard to sell your house.