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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 06 2012 at 11:36pm | IP Logged
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The house we're moving to has those dreaded popcorn ceilings...and it almost looks like a double layer went on!  We have about 10 days before we have to move out of this house that we can have the ceilings redone. I'm just wondering is it realllly worth the time and money. I think we'll have to hire most of the work so lots of $$ but I don't think it's a feasible project once we move in considering how very messy and very dirty I hear it can be.
If you were me, what would you do?! 
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Kathryn in TX
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pumpkinmom
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When we bought our house (brand new) 13 years ago it had popcorn ceiling. Not my favorite, but it didn't bother me until I watched HGTV and realized that nobody likes them.  We attempted to remover it in the smallest room in our house, the master bath. It came down really easy! The worse part is the redrywalling (if that is even the right word for it). It is so messy! We decided that you CAN'T remove popcorn ceiling while living in the house!!! If you want it off, get it down before moving in the house.  Also, if you aren't use to holding up your arms above your head all day . . . . . hiring someone will be easier and well worth it too. The people you hire do this daily, but we will suffer for days and take MUCH longer because our muscles aren't use to that kind of work.
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SallyT
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I think I'd ask myself how much it was worth to *me.* Everyone seems to hate popcorn ceilings, but every other house seems to have them . . . In the end, I wouldn't be looking at what potential buyers down the road might want/not want, but what you want/are willing to live with.
Our 1920s house has textured ceilings throughout most of the downstairs, alas -- the sellers rolled on the textured stuff I think to camouflage superficial cracks in the plaster and/or quickly cover the mustard-colored paint with which all the trim and ceilings seem to have been painted at some stage. I would never choose to do a ceiling like this, and I don't like it much, but we live with it, because it would be such a spectacular mess to deal with, and it's just.not.worth it to me to spend money and deal with the dirt. We didn't have the time/money before we moved in (an interstate move), and now we're just used to the ceilings. They're white, they're clean, we have other things to worry about, and we're not on HGTV! In general I love my house and the way it looks, so the ceilings just kind of fade into the background in my mind. I don't think anyone else really notices them, either.
So I think I'd just add that to my pre-move-in priority list: where are the ceilings in order of importance, relative to other things you want/need to do to the house before you move in? The odds are that if the ceilings end up not being that high on the list to begin with (our list included things like replacing a major pipe so that the upstairs bathroom in our house would have water -- ceilings weren't even on that list!), they probably won't bother you that much in the long run. I *have* had friends who've had their ceiling sanded down (a 1950s house with textured stuff over plaster) in the process of renovating and rebuilding part of the house, so that things were a mess anyway. I kind of can't imagine living through that whole project -- having my front porch torn down right now is traumatic enough for me! But it *can* be done . . .
Sally
PS Now that I think of it, we did have our upstairs bathroom (the one that didn't get water in the beginning) redone a couple of years ago, because once it did have water and my teenagers started using it, the old wallboard quickly deteriorated. In addition to having a fan installed, we had the whole thing re-drywalled, including the ceiling, which may or may not have had the popcorn texture, I can't remember any more. It was a messy job, but our contractors did a good job of containing the mess and cleaning up after themselves. I know you do have to sand new drywall to finish the surface, but it seems to me that that would be less sanding/dust/mess than trying to sand layers of texture off an existing surface, to get down to the original. So . . . I dunno how big and awful a job replacing wallboard with new and going from there would be . . . Can you get estimates? Can you get a contractor to work as fast as you would need him to to get the job done before you moved? If you suspect that this is something that would really bother you, it can't hurt to talk to a builder and get his opinion and an estimate. I like to ask, "If this were your house, what would you do?"
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 07 2012 at 1:09pm | IP Logged
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Yes, I think it bothers me *that* much. The thing is that we're moving from a house with nice, tall vaulted, FLAT ceilings into this older home with lower AND popcorned ceilings. Plus they had some foundation work done so there's also some areas that need to be completely done anyway b/c the patch job was very poor. And it almost looks like a DOUBLE layer of cottage cheese was thrown up there. So, where my mom has popcorn ceilings and we had them in our last house (but with vaults too) the fact with the low ceilings and almost an appearance of a double layer and some repair work needed I think it would bother me *that* much.
We have gotten quotes and they're about 3x what I thought it would cost. But I think having it done BEFORE we move in (hence to avoid the mess) I might just have to bite the bullet and say "well, I can't have that remodeled master bath after all". Ohh...decisions, decisions. The house and yard has so.much.potential but I'm wondering if we are attempting to bite off more than we can chew.  Only 10 days to closing and 2 weeks till we were supposed to start school. Please pray for us.
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Kathryn in TX
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Aug 07 2012 at 10:39pm | IP Logged
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It would bug me, too, Kathryn. Praying for your remodel and move. 
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Caroline
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 07 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged
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Yes, I see what you mean. And I can totally see that the whole-house mess factor would bump it up the priority list. You could remodel the master bath later, but fixing the ceilings in the whole house would be a much bigger concern once you were in.
Happy moving (I say with tongue in cheek, having done it too many times . . . but with great hope that all will be wonderful once you're actually in).
Sally
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Mimip
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Kathryn,
WE have A LOT of experience with popcorn ceilings and their removal.
Two pieces of advice:
If it bothers you that much: DO IT BEFORE YOU MOVE IN!
To this day we still tell stories about the removal of the popcorn ceilings in our childhood home. We had dust in the furniture for YEARS! it was the biggest mess ever!!!! Just like Cassie said, we were not ready for the sheer amount of work it would take with our arms above our heads. It was awful
Which brings me to the other piece of advice:
Hire a professional! I know its expensive but it really is worth the extra expense. We did the living area for ours and it took a full week. We absolutely despise our popcorn ceiling in the bedrooms but would NEVER do it again ourselves. Waiting to budget a professional!
Good luck and wishing you popcorn-less ceilings!
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Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 08 2012 at 10:10am | IP Logged
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Thanks guys for the info! I guess I'm looking for permission to not only dislike it so much but then to actually pay.the.money to have it done. It seems like such a very frivolous way to spend money when (relative to other parts of the world) we still have a nice, comfortable roof over our head. We're getting another quote tonight so hopefully we can find someone within a reasonable price range and my DH already said he could repaint b/c he has a spray rig from painting in college.  Now maybe he could do some prep work, clean up etc. to bring the cost down.
Will keep you posted.
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Kathryn in TX
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asplendidtime
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What is meant by a popcorn ceiling? It's very common here in new home construction to have a spray on ceiling. We have a new home with those throughout! It's really lovely though, so I'm guessing not what you are referring to? Ours looks a little like stucco, but fine and they "knock" it down and paint it afterward, it gives a subtle texture. But I rarely saw this in Ontario where we are from, other than in older classic homes.
When we finished our basement, we did the ceilings and walls with this technique also. It's actually very popular here! Funny!
I just looked it up, apparently they need to be tested for asbestos before removing.
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SallyT
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The ceilings we have are a paint-on kind of thing which does add a cottage-cheesy effect that is impossible to paint with regular paint, which is why they're a pain. It's very nubbly and rough. You *can* sand it down/off -- in our living room the sellers didn't quite finish the job, so for four years we had this lovely nubbly-with-big-blotches-of mustard thing going on, until last year when we were having some painting done.
The texture on the living room ceiling was minimal enough that the painters could very lightly sand it down and then roll ceiling white over it. That ceiling is now not perfectly smooth, but it does look a million times nicer, and the process didn't create that much dust. Otherwise, our ceilings are pretty high and still very clean, which is why they don't bother me so much, and the texture isn't *that* heavy or noticeable. If they were low and also dingy, I would be bothered, because it is hard to do anything about them, other than spraying on more stuff (which it sounds like somebody's already done, or overdone!) or getting rid of the texture completely.
In general, I really do think that hating something that much, plus knowing that it will be that much harder to fix it once you're in the house, is justification for making it a high priority. I've lived with things I disliked in every place we've lived, and in some cases come to like things I initially hated (like the fire-engine-red dining room in our last house. I would NEVER have painted my dining room that color, but it wound up being the only room I didn't paint in the end!), but I think something like a popcorn ceiling falls into another category, because it's not an easy fix with people living in the house, and it's not something you're likely to learn to love over time! You know it's going to stare you in the face and annoy you, and your options are either to learn not to see it forever, or to do something about it while you can, and put other projects on the back burner for now.
In our kitchen and one back room, we do have wood ceilings -- kind of like beadboard -- which are original to the house. I wish we had them throughout! I have no idea whether putting something *over* your current ceiling surface is an option, or whether replacing the surface altogether with something like that would be any cheaper or lower-impact in terms of mess (probably not cheaper . . . ), but I have seen "cottage" makeovers of newer-house kitchens which did things like that. Just another thought to toss out there.
Sally
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 08 2012 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
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asplendidtime wrote:
When we finished our basement, we did the ceilings and walls with this technique also. It's actually very popular here! Funny!
I just looked it up, apparently they need to be tested for asbestos before removing. |
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This is popular?
http://www.amillionlives.net/popcorn-ceilings-spray-on-ceili ng-treatments.html
Asbestos was banned in 1987 but apparently they were allowed to continuing using what was still in stock until the mid to late 80s. Our house was built in 1991 and it's VERY unpopular here and quite surprising that a house only 21 years old actually has it...and a reallly bad job of it at that.
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 08 2012 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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Ooops...asbestos was banned in 1978...not 1987.
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Martha
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I have nothing but flat ceilings and HATE them. In the vaulted ceiling rooms, I hate them even more. It turns them into ampitheatres. Especially from the living to the upstairs hall way that over looks it and in the gameroom that echos like a cave.
I like sound buffers.
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Kathryn
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Martha...I read somewhere where someone mentioned this about the "acoustics". Do you have all tile and/or wood floors? We have carpet in our current home but also a lot of tile and it's never bothered me and our ceilings go from 9 up to 12' in some places and it's a very open concept floorplan. This new house has much lower ceilings and more compartmentalized rooms so keeping it for the sound barrier won't be a big deal. And they won't be completely flat...the texture will be about what's on the wall. I guess it's funny how things are done in different areas around the country and def. based on age of the house.
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CrunchyMom
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I know you said the ceilings were low anyway, so this might not work for you to lose another inch in height, but for all the money you would hire a professional to scrape off the popcorn and re-drywall, can you put ply-bead on the ceilings? Maybe you don't like the look, but we covered a bad ceiling tile mess in our older home with it and just put furring strips over the seams. It was cute and cottag-y feeling and something you could do yourself on a room by room basis. You can even paint it before you put it up
I actually would LOVE ply-bead on all my ceilings, and we're covering a bad kitchen ceiling with the wallpaper here shortly as an experiment (so much cheaper than the plywood version).
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SallyT
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Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of, but didn't know what you called it -- the beadboard stuff that comes in a sheet. I didn't know whether you could actually just put it on over an existing ceiling or not.
Sally
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Martha
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Nope. Carpet throughout and the ceilings in the living room and gameroom are much higher than 10 feet. We have to put a ladder on top of the bunkbeds in the upstairs gameroom/bedroom to change the lightbulbs in the drop down ceiling fan!
It's really just preference. I prefer an extra bit of noise reduction to aesthetics.
I do however love how easy it is to dust a flat ceiling!! :)
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CrunchyMom
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SallyT wrote:
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of, but didn't know what you called it -- the beadboard stuff that comes in a sheet. I didn't know whether you could actually just put it on over an existing ceiling or not.
Sally |
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Sorry I missed that in your post. Yes, you can put it over an existing ceiling. You can also put the traditional to tongue and groove sort on a ceiling, it is just more work and more $.
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SallyT
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No, I was really glad of the clarification! I didn't know what it was called. We toyed with the idea of ply-bead in our upstairs bath renovation but went with replacing all the old wallboard instead. It's an eaves bathroom with too many strange angles, we thought, for the beadboard look to work. But eventually, if we wanted to change our ceilings . . . we already have the real thing in two rooms and love it . . . So this may be solving a problem in my house, eventually, if not in Kathryn's! I do love that look.
Sally
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Kathryn
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I would ***love*** the beadboard but don't think it would fit with the style of the house everywhere (on ceiling) and I would be afraid it would make the rooms seem smaller and even lower (lack of large windows too). I might do some in a bathroom and/or under the kitchen peninsula (ohh...welll, when I GET a kitchen peninsula when I remodel!
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Kathryn in TX
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Popcorn ceilings....
