I am assuming that this is the soft stuff
that flakes off when you touch it, whether painted or not; aka "popcorn" or
"cottage cheese." This is near impossible to clean but it can be painted
with a special roller or airless spray. This is a cheap ceiling for a builder to use
because the ceiling drywall does not need to be perfectly taped and filled, and
spraying on the acoustic texture is about the same cost as any other texture. Plus,
it does not need to be painted. I have serious doubts about its acoustic qualities;
I think it is just plain cheap! Most people tire of it quickly and want to remove it.
Note that if it was installed before about
1970 it may contain asbestos. There is a lot of controversy about asbestos,
but I am not paranoid about it. I have removed a lot of popcorn ceilings without
harmful effects; in fact, I have handled asbestos off and on in various forms for over
60 years. The people who have had health problems from it are those who worked around
the air-borne fibers for a long time; smoking is also a factor. The technique I
describe below contains these fibers. However, if you are seriously concerned about
it, then have it removed by a specialist and be prepared to pay the price.
Ceiling popcorn is easy to remove. Removing it is a messy
process so cover everything with thin plastic sheet, from the top of the walls on down.
Spray the ceiling with water using a garden tank sprayer or a hand spray bottle. Spray right
in front of where you are working and keep it damp. You will know if it is damp
enough if it comes off easily, usually in sheets, even if it was painted. The popcorn
will sop up the water and will need to be wetted continuously. The tool I like best
for this is an old 4" putty knife, one that is somewhat dull, so it doesn't nick the ceiling.
If you are starting with a new putty knife, round the edges and corners with sandpaper.
Leave the plastic in place for the rest of the job; when through, roll it all up
and trash it.
With the popcorn off, you will probably see that
the drywall taping is not perfect. You can apply additional fill to make it
nice and smooth, but I have found that it really isn't necessary. Just
spray on a light coat of orange peel texture. You can do that with aerosol spray
texture in a can (several cans!) or you can use a hopper texture gun. I
have had the best luck with Homax brand water-based spray texture; the nozzles
work reliably. They have a new version that goes on in a light blue color and
turns white when it is dry; that way you know when it is safe to paint it. Somewhat
expensive, but neat!
They also sell a petroleum-based fast dry texture but it has to
be cleaned up with solvent, and it is a mess to work with; I don't recommend it.
When the texture is dry, prime and paint. You
can use Zinsser's Bulls Eye 1-2-3 (latex) primer but any of their primers will work;
Cover Stain (oil) is the cheapest and it works just fine.
Then paint with a latex flat paint; white or an off white is the best choice.
Using instead a paint with any sheen at all is not recommended; it will reflect
light and magnify all the imperfections.
Tough Stuff! Added Notes 3/21/04
I recently removed texture from the
ceiling of three rooms in an industrial building. This was the toughest texture
like this that I have removed, more like cottage cheese than popcorn, if you will.
Heavily coated with nicotine stains and black dust from the heating vents. I am
not really sure why this material was tougher than the typical, except that it
was heavier; it may have been thinned drywall compound. Here is how I did it.
I tried a garden spray tank, but was not able to
wet the surface in a controlled manner, so I used a hand spray bottle. This was
a little hard on the hand, and I had to switch hands every so often, but it worked
better. I would spray to the point that I could see the moisture on the material,
but it still wasn't coming off easily. At least the dust was controlled. So after
the first scraping, I sprayed again until I could see droplets of water on the surface.
That allowed me to get off most of the remainder. Then I repeated that for any areas
that were still rough.