Textured Ceiling Removal

Removing every kind of ceiling texture

Popcorn is only one of the textures on North Texas and southern Oklahoma ceilings. Knockdown, orange peel and stipple are common too, and each comes off, or gets covered, in a different way. Safe Choice Painting handles all of them as part of our popcorn ceiling removal work, from one room to the whole house.

What kind of texture is on my ceiling?

• Popcorn (acoustic): thick, soft and crumbly, like cottage cheese. Usually sprayed on.
• Knockdown: flat patches with smoothed-over edges, made by spraying joint compound and flattening it with a knife.
• Orange peel: a fine, even bumpy skin, like the outside of an orange.
• Stipple: a regular pattern of peaks or swirls, brushed or rolled on.

Some older ceilings have a sand finish instead, a thin gritty texture mixed into paint; it is usually skim coated rather than scraped. If you are not sure, the walkthrough settles it. A ceiling can also have more than one texture, where a room was patched or remodeled.

Can knockdown texture be removed?

Yes, but usually not the way popcorn is. Knockdown and orange peel are mostly joint compound stuck fast to the drywall, and after years of paint they rarely soften with water. Scraping them hard can gouge the drywall face. The more reliable route is to knock down the high points, then skim coat the whole ceiling with joint compound and sand it flat, which gives the same smooth result.

Scraping or skim coating: which is better?

It depends on the texture and whether it has been painted:

Benton Clean Air Agency notes that paint seals popcorn texture and can make it difficult or impossible to wet, which is why painted ceilings take longer. Our painted popcorn ceiling removal page explains that process. National Gypsum notes that a skim coat equalizes the porosity of the surface, so the primer and paint go on evenly afterward. Our smooth ceiling and skim coat page covers the Level 5 finish in detail.

What about older textured ceilings?

We assess the ceiling first. The EPA notes that you usually cannot tell whether a material contains asbestos by looking at it, and our popcorn ceiling asbestos testing guide explains how testing works. This matters most in towns with many homes from the 1960s to the 1980s: about 41 percent of Lake Kiowa's housing and about 32 percent of Lake Dallas's was built in those decades, by Census estimates.

How is the house protected during removal?

Texture removal is messy, so protection is set up before anything gets wet. Belongings are moved out of the room or grouped and covered, floors are covered with plastic and paper, and walls are draped from the ceiling line down. Heating and air vents and doorways are sealed off so dust stays in the work area. At the end of each day, debris is bagged and the room is cleaned, and the final cleanup comes after sanding.

Room by room or the whole house?

Either works, and the choice usually comes down to how you use the house. Doing the whole house at once means one setup and a consistent finish in every room. Room by room lets you keep living in the rest of the house; bedrooms are usually scheduled so each one is back in use by night. The estimate lists each room and its texture, so you can choose.

After the texture comes off

Once the ceiling is bare or skimmed, damaged drywall is repaired, loose tape is reset and nail pops are fixed. The ceiling can then be finished smooth, or given a new light texture if you want one, and primed and painted. Our ceiling painting page covers paint and sheen choices.

After removal

Once the texture is off, the ceiling is patched, sanded and primed, then finished smooth or retextured, your choice, and painted.

Nearby

• Popcorn ceiling removal
• Painting in Lake Dallas, TX
• Exterior painting in Lake Kiowa, TX
• Ceiling retexture
• Ceiling drywall repair after popcorn removal
• Popcorn ceiling repair