Should I remove popcorn ceilings?

YOU bought a house with popcorn ceilings. Why do you think somebody else wouldn't?

No.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

No.

responding to OP

OK...

Just do it yourself

Bought a house built in 1967. popcorn ceilings through the whole house. we just wet them down and got a cement smoother and scraped them off. in hindsight, we probably should have put masks on since they were probably loaded with asbestos. like everyone else said, it's a really messy job but since we hadn't moved in yet, it was the time to do it.

the only thing we regret is NOT doing the closets. also, if you have to do any patching and you are fried, wait a day. we've been in the house for almost 16 years and when i look up at the ceiling and can see where i didn't do a great job. it bugs me.

Running out of cash wrote:

Buying a house built in 1993. It has popcorn ceilings. Should I shell out the money to get them removed? How big a turn-off are they to other buyers?

They actually don’t bother me much, but will be an issue when I go to sell it, so thinking I should just get it done now before I move in. One problem is that I’ve got other repairs needed and it costs 6k.

The popcorn was often use to hide a wavy ceiling in a cases like under roof trusses (which flex) at 24”o.c. or in tract developments where green lumber was used. You take the popcorn off and the smooth ceiling shows the waves unless you strap it and add another layer of lightweight GWB. Maybe just strap and add the GWB would be less messy.

I had them removed at my previous house. I don’t recall it being that expensive as I had the whole interior painted. You will enjoy the house with a proper clean ceiling and it might not add much for resale but it will be one less deterrent for buyers.

A matter of scale wrote:

If you have any of these other features then the popcorn ceiling won’t matter to your resale value:

House is on a cul-de-sac

Snout house garage

House painted beige

Fixed window shutters that don’t cover window

If none of these apply put the money into the money into improving the ceiling.

I'm confused. Are these all intended to be good or bad or a mix of the two? I see a mix but perhaps we think differently.

FTR, I recently bought a house on a cul de sac and have painted most of it beige/grey-ge but it does have fixed window shutter on the exterior (like most houses in the area). It has a turned garage.

I cannot understand why homeowners cannot simply use what they have until it requires repair or replacement. When we've bought houses we've walked through many that were horribly outdated (to us) and were now for sale because elderly owners moved to assisted living. I've come to appreciate those sellers as having done it the right way.

Buy house, maintain house, make it comfortable for you but don't rush out to meet every new style or decorating demand. Let the next buyer worry about those things when you're gone. I'm thinking continuity, comfort, stability, money saved, priorities in order.

Joe Jackson wrote:

A matter of scale wrote:

If you have any of these other features then the popcorn ceiling won’t matter to your resale value:

House is on a cul-de-sac

Snout house garage

House painted beige

Fixed window shutters that don’t cover window

If none of these apply put the money into the money into improving the ceiling.

I'm confused. Are these all intended to be good or bad or a mix of the two? I see a mix but perhaps we think differently.

FTR, I recently bought a house on a cul de sac and have painted most of it beige/grey-ge but it does have fixed window shutter on the exterior (like most houses in the area). It has a turned garage.

I’m suggesting that if a prospective home owner pulled up to a house on a cul-de-sac, that was painted beige, with fake window shutters and still went inside to take a tour, they wouldn’t be surprised to see popcorn ceilings and it wouldn’t drag down the resale value. They might even insist on popcorn ceilings at that point.

McMansionHell.com

JustLive wrote:

I cannot understand why homeowners cannot simply use what they have until it requires repair or replacement. When we've bought houses we've walked through many that were horribly outdated (to us) and were now for sale because elderly owners moved to assisted living. I've come to appreciate those sellers as having done it the right way.

Buy house, maintain house, make it comfortable for you but don't rush out to meet every new style or decorating demand. Let the next buyer worry about those things when you're gone. I'm thinking continuity, comfort, stability, money saved, priorities in order.

And I don't understand why people don't update their house.

Instead they buy a newer, bigger one with just a newer cheap ass kitchen.

If you would update your kitchen yourself, you would get better products for a lot less money.

I used the kitchen example but it's true for everything else.

I bought a 50ies house and it still had original lights in there.

You would have a hard time to see that in Europe where people invest in there homes to make them nicer.

My house was built in '72. I removed the popcorn myself. I heard from neighbors that some houses in the neighborhood had asbestos popcorn and some didnt. I didn't want to take any chances so I assumed mine contained asbestos. Here are the steps I took. Covered the floor and walls in plastic and taped up all the seems. Basicly created a clean room. Put on disposable coveralls. Wore a quality resperator with replaceable filters. Sealed myself in the room. Sprayed down the ceiling with water. Used a floor scraper to scape the ceiling. Then primed the ceiling to seal in any missed dust. Then pulled down all the plastic to the center of the room so that dust stayed in the plastic. Rolled it all up and shoved it in garbage bags. Finished by vaccuming everything with a shop vac using a new HEPA filter. The process took a long time. The prep took just as long as the scraping. The coveralls was really hot, I sweated a ton. It may have been overkill but now I don't have to worry about whether there was asbestos or not and the house stayed dust free.

I guess most of you are well intentioned in many areas, but you seriously have bought this stupid, asbestos hype?

You really think having bound asbestos embedded in a material is anything close to being a miner exposed to and breathing in the fibers every day?

Biggest trial lawyer scam ever.

More liberal hysteria wrote:

I guess most of you are well intentioned in many areas, but you seriously have bought this stupid, asbestos hype?

You really think having bound asbestos embedded in a material is anything close to being a miner exposed to and breathing in the fibers every day?

Biggest trial lawyer scam ever.

This is an F’ing message board for runners. If these folks don’t care about their lungs who will?

You can’t explain everything away as a liberal conspiracy. Runners shouldn’t breathe carcinogens. I think that’s pretty safe advice.

Spraying and then removing works well unless the ceiling has been painted over at some point. Then what people will usually do is try and skim coat the ceiling smooth. It looks great if done correctly...

Not worth it. Leave it as is. You'll probably forget about it after a while. I don't know if the homes of people I frequent the most have popcorn ceilings or not. Ie, most people don't pay attention and don't care. Besides, styles come and go. Wait and it just may come back in style.

Many of those popcorn ceilings were made with asbestos.

Before you take it down, make sure you get it tested. Just to be safe.