this is my first reply to a post. you could do a tear out, but as you said, that would be very messy. how far do the textured tips hang down and how heavy are they? you could go over (actually under)the existing ceiling and use 1 x 3 firring strips 16" (or less) run perpendictular to (and screwed into) the ceiling rafters. you can find the rafters possibly with a stud finder, but i just take a hammer and tap until i heard a dull thud sound and the take a nail or screw and probe up to find both sides of the stud to determin the center, then measure over 16", 24" or what ever it might be and probe again. do this on both sides and the snap chaulk lines. You could also take a standard floor scraper, sharpen it up with a grinder and slice off the high points off. then determin rafters again and glue and screw in to the wood. i would recommend screwing the drywall up. less damage to dwl and easier to fill. they make a special drywall phillips tip (maybe a buck) for your grill/ screw gun magnetic tip holder that make it impossile to run the screw in too far. smooth finish is the hardest for the diy-er. a textured is easier if you can get ahold of a good brush (a well used one is the best). biggest mistake most make is to apply the almost soupy mudd to dry. practice on a sample piece. to do the knock down is actually easy. take the widest dwl knife you have and run it gently over the texture. TIMING IS EVERYTHING! the textured tips should still be soft, but whats under it actually stifens up. again practice. depending on temp/ humidity, could be 15 minutes to an hour. this technique is the best for covering any imperfection in the seam coats. last option- if you have an a.c., rent or buy a hopper gun for a spray on finish. it is actually easy to spray it on with the textured material. some call this a popcorn ceiling. if the ceiling is large or you don't have a lot of help, splurge and rent a crank up dwl lift. other wise the ole tee props work fine. hope this helps

Depends on the type of texture you have. If it's cottage cheese type sprayed on texture, first test a sample to see if it has asbestos. Most houses built after 1970 did not have aspestos in the textured ceilings. You can then wet it down and scrape it off, then sand and re-prime, then paint.

If it's knock down texture from the 70's, stucco, or swirls, you can skim coat it. This can be done by you, but it's easier to hire a drywall specialist to do it...cleaner, faster, and better results. They skim coat the existing texture, heat the room, let it dry for up to a week, then sand and prime. It comes out smooth as silk, and you're not having to throw more drywall into the landfills.

We did this with our textured walls from the 70's in our renovation, and matched it to the new drywall in the great room. You could not tell the difference, and we now have level 4 and 5 smooth walls. It does take a good drywall person to do it well, it's a bit of a craft and skill to apply and sand evenly, especially in corners and ceiling/wall joints.

I like the idea of skim coating over it, and there's certainly lot to be said for garbage reduction.

My house has textured ceilings which I don't like either, but I'm lucky, they're pretty sound but kind of yellowed - even if I was to be able to remove the stuff I know the drywall job under's pretty bad, you can still see one joint faintly in the living room!

What I did was buy a Wagner paint crew airless sprayer, mask the heck out of everything, and spray paint the ceiling. It looks great. I still have all the other rooms to do, I recently asked my wife why on earth we didn't do ALL the painting before we moved in!

I think for the rest of the rooms, to avoid the mess I'll try the roller attachment for the sprayer and see how that works. I know it'll probably dislodge some loose stuff, might try a broom or something on it first....if it doesn't mess it up too much, maybe that's how I'll do it...although I guess masking the individual rooms for spraying's not impossible.

Advantage of the paint is it seals the ceiling, too. I doubt it's washable at all, so I'd like to get a proper extraction fan for our kitchen, before I ruin my nice paint job!