Get some estimates and references from local pro's and see their finished work if possible. I would think cost for both options varies greatly around the country. We did this a few years ago. It was difficult to find someone to do this and it was a lot of money. Even with that, no one seemed very enthusiastic about the scraping part so my husband decided to take on that part of it himself. We hired pro's to tape/mud a couple of seams and then paint the ceilings after the scraping was completed.

The scraping part is 90 percent prep and 10 percent actual work. We removed EVERYTHING from the room and put down heavy tarps on the floors to collect the debris. He had never done this before and started in the garage and perfected his technique as he went around the house. We were able to take our time and do this at our convenience as we both work full time. The finished product looks great and looks like the house always had smooth flat ceilings. I hope this helps.

I agree with wantsideas. I did this to my entire home....my friends and I. My home is 20 years old as well. We scraped the ceiliings in each room, primed them, and then went over them with ceiling paint. Best decision I could have made. It is VERY easy to do and gives the ceiling a "textured" look, as long as there is still something left when you scrape. Time consuming, but definitely something you can do yourself to save money.

You can do it yourself, but managing the mess and discarding the residue is an issue. I paid to have someone do this on my 1400 sq. ft. condo when I got it ready to sell, and also on the 1960's house I bought (1700 sq. ft.) before I moved in. Used two different companies, but both bid within a few dollars of each other, and completed the entire job of the ceiling scrape in one day. Well worth spending the money as there was no mess for me to deal with afterwards either. Found companies on Angie's List.

In older homes built before the 1970s (in CA at least) you may have to have testing to determine if there is asbestos in your popcorn. I had my house tested ($200) but fortunately there was none.

There is a better way! It's called stretch ceiling.

Stretch ceiling consists of a non-porous membrane, stretched across the ceiling area, and tracks, or profiles, holding the edges of the membrane in place. The tracks are screwed into the walls or the existing ceiling, making later removal very easy, if you wish to remove for any reason. The membrane, unlike drywall, popcorn stucco, or dropped acoustic tiles, is fully recyclable. Not only does it release no toxic particles or chemicals whatsoever (it's been approved for food safety), it seals in asbestos or mould that it is installed over. It does not absorb cooking or smoke odours, and will never bubble, fade, peel, discolour, sag, or require repainting or maintenance.

The tracks and membrane take up less than one inch of room height. We carry membrane in over 280 colours, and high gloss, satin, matte, and canvas textured finishes. High gloss is the best for creating a powerful illusion of more height. The membrane can also be wide-format printed with any high resolution image. We take care of everything for you, from site measure to final installation.

Please take a look at our profile for ideas for your ideabooks, and call us for a free quote if this interests you!

The mess is awful but if you have an empty room and good plastic drop cloths that you can toss at the end it's not so bad . If you are worried about asbestos if you keep the popcorn wet during the process you do not have to worry you can do an average room in 1 day you will have to get someone to tabke and mud seams as that is why they use popcorn to not have finish ceilings properly.

Patricia, I don't know about where you live, but where I live in Southern California it is illegal to transport or deposit any asbestos containing materials to the dump or land fill; not only are special safety precautions required for the crew removing it (damp or not) but it must be transported to a special hazardous waste disposal area. I would never attempt this myself, and companies who do such removal could not legally do this either (and charge the customer the associated fees as well). The company who did mine not only removed the popcorn ceiling coating, but patched and painting the ceilings the next day. This was part of the package I purchased.