Painting - How to remove "Pop Corn" on the ceiling

My house was build on early 1980's and all my ceiling has Pop Corn on it, I'd like to remove it by myself.

Any suggestions on how to remove it?

From what I know you can't remove it. I have been told that the ceiling has to be replaced. What we just did is a go over ceiling which is the easiest an least expensive way of replacing the ceiling.

it should be able to be removed by spraying on water with a garden sprayer or something similar and scrape off with a scraper.
a light sand and some spackle and it should be ok.
try in a closet first to see if it comes off easily first

My house is built in the 80's also and had that ugly popcorn ceiling as well. I rented a biggest size scraper with a longest handle and started scraping'em off the ceiling.
You'll take out the paint, but you'll end up re-painting your ceiling anyways so it's not a concern.
Wear proper eye protection(enclosed goggle) and respitory protection(preferably a respirator but at least a dust mask) since it'll be very dusty and dirty. Wear long sleeves and long pant. Open all windows & doors for proper ventilation.

Try to attack it in one direction to minimize scraper marks on the ceiling. You could spray water to soften the popcorns a bit like it was mentioned in other thread; but I didn't and I had no problem removing'em all.

It's not a difficult task. Good luck!!

Ii just finished doing this in 3 rooms of my 70's condo. It was very messy but easy and the results were well worth it!!

Here are some lessons I learned that I haven't seen posted already:

First, last, and of utmost importance is to make sure that the abestos content of the popcorn is below the "safe" levels established by the EPA. No need to repeat here all the nasty stuff that inhaling asbestos fibers can do to you. Apparently, by the mid 70's most popcorn ceilings were non-asbestos, but there are also labs where you can mail in a sample and they'll send you the results. You can find them with a Google search.

I disagree with the last post; I would definitely spray the ceiling with water. In fact, I sprayed an area, waited 30 minutes for the water to be absorbed, then sprayed again. I found that without spraying, I had to scrape harder, scratched the ceiling more, and created about 10 times more dust!!

Even with water spraying, you will create a big mess and a lot of dust. Make sure that before you start the project you remove or cover anything you wouldn't want to get covered in a film of dust or wet-popcorn-muck, and protect your floors with painting tarps or plastic sheeting.

Save up the cardboard box bottom from a case of soda -- you can use it to catch the pieces of popcorn as they fall off when you scrape them. Home improvement superstores will try to sell you a special gimmick -- a 12" putty knife with an attachment wehre you can clip a plastic bag to catch the popcorn pieces. I bought one and it was a waste of time...hard to control and heavy as a scraper and did a poor job actually catching the ceiling pieces.

Finally, when you're done, you will need to repaint. To get a smooth surface, be sure that before you do, you've cleared off all the popcorn and dust (I gave the ceiling a mild scrubbing with a damp sponge (but not too wet or you could damage the drywall!!) ), and make any necessary repairs to the drywall with joint compound and a tapers knife. Then be sure to use a primer before you paint.

You will be amazed at how much better it looks when you're done!!

I so much agree with the two post about spraying and scraping.This is the fastest and easyest way to do them. I do them all the time.Just when you get through scraping let dry ,sand over it, prime and paint.;) You might want to put down plastic over floors that way all you have to do is roll up your mess and throw it out.Hope this helps;)

Hey all, this is a great thread. Thanks for the information on popcorn ceilings.

I actually just scraped the popcorn off our ceiling and used the water/scrape method you talked about.

That worked well, but now I am left with a chalky residue. Our situation is different because it is a high-rise and the ceiling is concrete, but I am trying to figure out what to do next.

Do I have to get all the chalky residue off before I can prime it? There are some irregularities in the concrete ceiling, but nothing too terrible. Then, after I prime it, is there some kind of special paint I should be using?

I have been scrubbing the ceiling with a bristled brush, but that is EXTREMELY time consuming. (Plus, I'm probably getting some serious asbestos exposure.) I'm wondering if this is even necessary.

Bottom line question: Where do I go from here?

Thanks for all your advice. It's really appreciated!