House came with a "textured" or "orange peel" ceiling and walls. The ceiling has been painted with what seems like wall paint, which probably complicates matters.

Whomever sprayed the texture put it on full blast, resulting in a thick, awful looking mess. There are literally chunks of this crap hanging off the ceiling like stalactites. The walls aren't awful and I can live with them, but the ceilings have to go.

What can be done to either remove or cover this stuff? I really don't want to re-sheetrock a brand new house, but this stuff IS that bad. What solvent can be used to try and scrape it off, or should I try sanding it off? Least awful to worst solutions for me would be - scraping, sanding, sheet rocking, spackling over/sanding.

And finally, WHY would someone ruin new sheetrock with this blasphemy? Popcorn ceilings were thankfully halted in the 80's, why'd they decide to make a comeback with something even worse 30 years later?

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anarchyreigns t1_j6gfeus wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:25 AM

Be sure it’s not something applied before asbestos was banned. Not sure the age of your home or the country.

loganab13 t1_j6gfc0l wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:25 AM

Knockdown hides less than perfect finishing & is extremely common in tract/spec homes. Your best options are either skim coating the entire ceiling, or laminating with 1/4” rock. I would choose option #2.

ntyperteasy t1_j6gjmof wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:57 AM

I think the people before me having covered everything - its a cheap method to finish poor quality drywall work. Also commonly used to hide damage... Would make me very suspicious there is/was a leak or some other problem they decided to cover up.

If the building is very new, then asbestos shouldn't be an issue. If it is asbestos, there is nothing you can do without getting asbestos remediation done first.

About removing it - the common method is to scrape it off. Then you would sand (with a vacuum) and try to finish the drywall on the ceiling properly, which will be a PITA. You may find it easier overall to scrape to get it generally flat then add another thin (1/4" or 3/8" thick) layer of drywall and finish that.

lovallo t1_j6gm1w6 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 4:17 AM

I have done similar work.

I found a floor scraper at home depot to be the sturdiest option.
Also used a big drywall sander, then a little bit of skim coating.

SWATSWATSWAT OP t1_j6k6fv6 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 10:20 PM

Did you wet it first with some solvent or just start scraping?

[deleted] t1_j6l52c1 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 2:26 AM

[removed]

No_Pomegranate2580 t1_j6gjq9f wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:58 AM

Need to see pictures.

SWATSWATSWAT OP t1_j6jzqzd wrote on January 30, 2023 at 9:38 PM

The house is brand new. I probably should've mentioned that. The finished spackling looked great the day I looked at it. The walls and all corners were sharp and ready for paint. I sent the realtor a text telling her to let the contractor know I wanted SMOOTH ceilings and walls, none of the texture crap.

As luck would have it, she did not relay the message for a day and a half and they sprayed the ceilings and walls with this crap the prior day (literally hours after I checked on the progress). It would've cost me to have it all redone at the time AND add to my already delayed closing date. I kinda had to bite the bullet or the wife would've killed me.

Do I need to do prep work on the ceilings before going with 1/4" sheetrock or can I just screw it on, spackle, and go about my life?