Painting and Cleaning Textured Ceilings

By

jadeibert

We took the Pop-corn off the ceiling, and it seems that it was a lot less work than all of you have done with sealing and painting etc.

It is just plaster that comes off with water.
- Remove furniture
- Cover floor with plastic
- Use a garden sprayer with hot water and spray one section at a time
- Scrape the wet pop-corn with a wide metal putty knife. When you have it all off, go back and wipe it down with a wet cloth to make sure it is smooth
- paint with regular ceiling paint, and you will never have to mess with it again!

By Alex (Guest Post)

I researched this subject a lot. Recently I removed a drop down ceiling (30 years old ceiling tiles) in my bedroom. Under 6 inches of insulation I discovered popcorn ceiling. Plus 6 beautiful holes 6''X12'' in the ceiling from the recessed lightning. I patched those holes first, then I applied a 1-2-3 OIL BASED primer. It is very important to seal it with oil based primer otherwise that popcorn might fall in your mouth during sleep. Prepare to use a lot of primer. I used 1.5 gallons for 9.5' by 15.5', the popcorn sucked it all. After that apply 1 or 2 coats of ceiling paint. I repaired the holes I was talking about earlier with texture compound and this is bright white. I might have to use semi gloss paint for the second coat cause you can see the spot where I did the repair. Good luck.

By Rutland (Guest Post)

Has anybody heard of spraying straight bleach to clean a water stain off an unpainted textured ceiling?

By Wendy (Guest Post)

I took your idea one step further and used the paint roll attaching the wet mop pad with rubber bands on each end.It worked great! The ceiling looked so much better. Thanks for the idea.

By

Cyinda

The BEST & EASIEST thing to do is to NOT clean your ceiling, but to instead, SEAL IT with a STAIN-BLOCKING primer. Then, use one of the new "Ceiling Paints" like the one from Dutch Boy. These new "Ceiling Paints" are less prone to dripping, have better coverage & go on pink (while wet) but dry white. (So you can see if you've missed a spot) Another bonus: You'll need less paint if you first prime you're ceiling, You may only need one coat of Ceiling Paint.

---> Stain Blocking Primers will seal in nicotine & cigarette smoke, water damage, odors, & sometimes mold. So why CLEAN it, when you can SEAL it instead!? These day's they have made great strides when it comes to the new High Adhesive Stain Blocking Primes. "These are not your grandmothers primers!" < as they say...>

* There are many Stain Blocking Primers on the market, but I've had great experience & I'm partial to "Zinsser 1-2-3"... (which also inhibits mold & can also be used outside), or "B-I-N" (which is also made by Zinsser & is great for people with allergies because it's made for places like hospitals, restaurants & schools) PLUS the Zinsser Brand Primers can be TINTED to any pastel color you like. Home Depot or any hardware store sells Zinsser products.

* But I HATE "Kills" brand of primer, as I've had bad experiences with the smell from Kills lasting for weeks! ... OH-MY-GOSH, it's NASTY stuff! ... I'm serious when I say: You need a respirator when you apply it & need to leave your house for at least a week afterwards!... (& YES, I've tried the new "low odor" & water-base "Kills" & I'm not fond of these either!)

Here's info about the Zinsser Primers:
http://www.zinsser.com/subcat.asp?CategoryID=1

By Tracy (Guest Post)

We have, it seems ,to be a coke stain on the ceiling in my sons bedroom. It has been there for some time and we don't want to paint the ceiling but if we get it wet we are afraid the texture will start to fall off. HELP!

By

purplewindow

I read somewhere you should check for asbestos before removing a popcorn ceiling.