Walls and Ceilings - plastering over popcorn ceiling?

Rather than going thru the massive trouble of removing the popcorn from my ceiling, i had another idea....can i spread plaster (the same stuff you use over drywall) over it to fill it in and create a textured look?

What is your definition of popcorn?

popcorn ceiling....as far as i know, there is only one definition. i don't know what else to call it but a popcorn ceiling

You must first remove all the loose popcorn. If you just troweled over it the popcorn would fall into your mud as you applied it - real mess. Scraping will remove the majority of popcorn. Lightly wetting the popcorn and then scraping will almost entirely remove it making for a better surface to coat with joint compound. Either way the removal is messy :(

There have been posts by people who think a textured ceiling is popcorn---hence the question. If you were one of those people you could indeed dispensed with the removal process and move on to filling as you described.

It is best imo to start from the same page that way the advice given is appropriate.

If you can afford 350$ for the room your trying to fix up and you can stand to loose 1/2 of space to your ceiling.. try this method.. I actually JUST saw it on city line and I plan to do it to my ceiling as well.

Dont remove the popcorn look, drywall over top of it. Stop the drywall two inches before the crown molding and put a simple panel molding at the top and painted all the molding to the ceiling.

trinity,
Interesting idea. What if there is not a joist to screw to 2" out from the crown?

Personally the best long term result is to do the job right the first time. Theres that old saying, if you didn't have time to do it right, you DEFINITELY dont have time to do it twice. What if you spread plaster over the popcorn ceiling and in 6 months you have sections of plaster falling down because it didn't bond well to the popcorn texture? If you live in earthquake country that can be an additional consideration. Secondly plastering is an art....sure you may be going for a textured look, but you can have high and low points while you are plastering over your head for a few hours, and it can look like crap.

I would bite the bullet, go out to Home depot, Orchard, Lowes, etc and hire a few guys at $10 a hour to scrap off the popcorn ceiling. Save yourself headaches down the road. From experience, Ive tried shortcuts and always ended up paying for it two fold down the road. :wall:

btw - tightcoat....very good point about the ceiling joists.

Keep us posted, Cindy! :)

There is a way to plaster over the popcorn. Use either 20 ga. galvanized woven wire lath like chicken wire or diamond mesh metal lath. Screw or nail to the joists. Apply scratch and brown coats of gypsum plaster and a smooth or textured, your choice plaster finish.

You said plaster.

i started to scrap off the popcorn ceiling in my living room. but got tired of it quickly. i put drywall over it and then put up ceiling tile. much quicker and easier.