What if I just use a dust mop on them? Will that be enough?

Has the ceiling ever been painted before? If so, it's a little tougher than if it hasn't and you should be able to dust it gently with a broom or a fuzzy headed duster.

If the ceiling has NEVER been painted, you won't be able to roll it, as all the texture will come off on your roller head. It needs to be sprayed in that case.

vacuum or pain over it if really needed , no moisture of water please it will make the dust stick and stain it . use gentle strokes with the vacuum brush to prevent bits from falling down .

The ceiling has been painted before. It actually doesn't look too bad except in a couple of bedrooms. We just bought the house & are painting all of the walls. Since its empty & we are painting, I want to go ahead and make it all look new. I also know after I paint one bedroom ceiling, there will be enough color difference that it will make the rest look bad. Thanks for saying that if I use something wet it will make the dust stick. I hadn't thought about that.

Looks like I will be just giving it a good sweeping/dusting. Thanks so much!

I've attached a couple of pictures of trim. I am painting the red a darker, less orange red. I'm painting the mustard a nice medium taupe-Lyndhurst Gallery Beige from Valspar I think. The trim will stay white. Do I paint the trim first or the walls first? I'm thinking trim first & then tape it off well. I can touch it up easier I think.

The 2-color wall is just in the entry & hall. The rest of the rooms will be 1 solid color.

You should get rid of them. Have them tested to see if safe to remove. How old is your house? Nothing dates a home as cottage cheese ceilings. Not only would it improve your prop value, but will lighten up the place. You can not clean them. In fact to remove them, you use hot water and scrape off.

Like I said I don't like them either, but I'm afraid of how much work will be involved in changing them. The main floor is 1300 square feet with a basement the same size. The basement also has textured ceilings, but its not as textured & looks better. We already have a lot of work to do there & we are doing it ourselves. We're painting everything, putting wood floors throughout the main floor, new vanity & sink, new light fixtures except for the nice one in the entry, new appliances as there were none there, & hopefully new cabinets.

The house was built in 1980.

I do like the idea of making it less textured. After doing that did you just paint it & that's it? I'm guessing holding a brick over your head got a little heavy?

I had over 1000 sq ft removed, before I moved in. And one guy did it in 4 hrs. Most companies come in with 3 guys and its done in no time at all. It's messy, but hey put plastic dn. it was done and cleaned up. But the look of all the rooms was so much better. You won't regret it. I always recommend removing the 70s look.

Anyone have ideas of something we can scrape it down with that we can put on a long handle? I would like to do this without having to move a ladder a hundred times & hold a heavy brick over my head. That could be disastrous! Also its a split level with the split being at the entry. That makes for a very tall ceiling there.

What about having them skimmed over with plaster?

Thanks travisinteriors. I would love to see it gone. My concern with bringing someone in to do it is the cost. With so many other projects, I don't have any extra money. Do they have to re-mud the ceiling like its new drywall once the texture is removed?

I don't mind the mess as my husband is ripping out carpet today & we are down to subfloor. There's nothing in the house so it can just be swept up.

Plaster sounds like even more work. I'm not sure about that plus its still textured although a better look.

I don't think I could convince the husband to do that anyway. I'm afraid I couldn't talk him into a complete removal either, though there's a better chance of it. I will try to check into pricing for it.

Anyone ever tried to DIY a textured ceiling removal? It's not a popcorn ceiling-it's textured with dry wall mud. I think that will make a difference on removal methods. If you have done this, can you list out the steps & time it took?

Worst case, I'll use the brick over my head to smooth it out some.

Since you are painting the house after you have vacuumed the ceiling give it a fresh coat of paint as well this way it will be all freshened up for you . I have used ceiling paint and a roller for it ,its hard on the neck to paint any ceiling ,

Take it down. You will be much happier. 1980 should be lead and asbestos free. Spray gun or steamer and large plaster knife. At present my sister in another state is taking popcorn down on a house I just bought. Also check out the new issue of Family Handyman there is an article on doing ceilings by overlaying them with new skinny wall board.

We are in the middle of a reno and I really don't like the popcorn ceilings but we received quotes from 2 contractors and the price was over 1000.00 just to change the ceiling in the front room to a regular ceiling. We finally brushed with a broom and painted with ceiling paint. Ask the paint store which roller to use as there are lots of options.

Having owned a home previously with the popcorn ceilings, I would definetly take it off!! I took mine down with a spatula, my husband walked in and I was covered in ceiling powder. I never even knew of asbestos then LOL. I had a painter retexture smooth. AMAZING difference. Messy yes, but worth it!

I want to flog every builder who threw that crap on the ceilings instead of doing a nice job with tape and mud.

Oy! Asbestos is a HUGE and awful problem - mesothelioma is no picnic. Hopefully there was none in your popcorn, Margo!

The drywall mud texture can be sanded off -- UNLESS they used cement plaster, then it's a different story. If drywall mud, using pole sanders with very rough grit mesh to start, then finish it with fine grit sandpaper can either knock the texture down or take it off.

My parents' house is all cement plaster with deeply-coved ceilings & I remember Dad scraping the popcorn off the entry way, but the texture on the family room ceiling as well as the garage walls is all an "oriental finish" made from cement plaster over metal lath, which...well...it's still up. I think the den ceiling took 5 gallons of mushroom-colored paint to cover it -- it just soaked right in.

Everybody has it right - brush it with a broom, vacuum it, then paint.

Coved plaster ceilings... no more popcorn

I have seen shows where they scrape down the popcorn ceiling, but mine is not popcorn. I have seen my kind of ceiling in older homes & even in new ones. It's a lazy way of doing the ceiling so the contractor does not have to make smooth seams. Drywall is put on the ceiling, then they use the drywall mud (what we call it here-may be spackle or putty elsewhere) to make flower, cloud, geometric, etc. designs on the ceiling. If I try to scrape it, I don't think I will end up with a flat ceiling like I have seen when people remove popcorn from their ceiling. I think I will end up with a lumpy mess. Someone who is good with drywall would have to come in and fix it. Someone mentioned that it was $1000 for one room. I can NOT do that! Right now, getting kitchen cabinets is going to be a stretch, but I REALLY WANT them! Much worse than a flat ceiling. If I do the ceiling, there's no way I will get cabinets. New cabinets will be a better return on my investment if I sell in a few years.

If I could do this myself, the ceiling is a maybe. Has anybody actually removed a textured ceiling, not a popcorn ceiling?????

ooops sorry chrisinky, I should have read your dilemma more closely, it did say textured but my brain registered popcorn...I am sure textured is better than popcorn. Even the name sounds better;)

@chrisinky - yes, it is extremely unlikely that the texture your builder put up is scrapeable. If you have a coat closet, check and see if they put the texture in there, too (often they do), and test the different methods -- sanding, scraping, brick smash...

This is the heavy grit sandpaper I was talking about to clamp into a pole sander
http://www.all-wall.com/Categories/Abrasives-Drywall-Sheets/Screen-Kut-Mesh-Screen.html

HOWEVER -- whatever you choose to do, please have the material tested for asbestos before you start.

It's my understanding that scraping textured or popcorn ceiling off completely is like running through your house with an opened bag of confectioners sugar (icing sugar) the mess is everywhere!

I use a vacumm on ours and it works great!

Popcorn ceilings can be a pain to clean and it would be better to get rid of it. The fact that it has already been painted is not a good thing because it could have been an easy removal by just spraying water and removing the stuff. Mind you, I hear that older homes can have asbestos in popcorn ceilings so it may be better to hire a professional. I do personally have an older home with popcorn and its ugly looking. When I do have time to renovate we will start with the bedrooms and work our ways down. That way we can rip out the carpet after the ceiling is done and put down hardwood.

Popcorn ceilings and kitchen cabinets are both great investments if you are in a bind you could always just reface the cabinets with a new front. Personally I had to redo my kitchen cabinets because the home when I bought it had water damage. Then when our dishwasher broke down if flooded the floor. It was a disaster... But now I've a lovely kitchen.

Get rid of those popcorn ceilings!!! Do it now, before you've moved in....once you do, the mess will be awful. Do it, soot, JUST DO IT! Trust me....it will be a HUGE relief to have it gone...and nothing shrieks "cheap" like a popcorn ceiling. Our contractor (one guy) did our entire 1367 sf condo in one day

It's NOT POPCORN to those who still think it is. It is textured with drywall mud. I'm going to try the sanding that Lynne suggested to make it less textured. Thanks Lynne for your attention to my question & for your suggestions. I'll try to post some before & after pics if it works out.

I went to a contractor's auction yesterday & found a nice set of all new solid wood cabinets that will work in my kitchen. Yeeeaah! We got a really good deal on them so now I don't have to live with the old ones. The old ones were pressed wood with a plastic dark wood look veneer, but painted white. They were in bad shape. The new ones are birch with an almost cherry stain on them. I wanted a honey hickory so I could do a medium dark floor. Now it looks like my floor will have to go a bit lighter to look right. I am still so happy about them though. It's a compromise I can live with.

Things on our house are moving a bit slower than I thought it would. We worked on plumbing last night & ended up with a basement floor full of water. We had shut off the meter at the end of the drive, but later found out that one is no longer hooked up. The good one is in the yard & we didn't notice. We still have a few minor leaks to fix, but nothing terrible-we think. There's so much to do. I will try to post pics & new dilemmas as we make some progress.

Thank goodness for a wonderful new neighbor who brought over his shop vac.

I tried the idea of sanding some of the texture down & that was way more work than I am willing to do. I thought about using sheets of bead board painted white over the texture. That's always an option I can do later because I really like that look. For now I've decided to just paint the ceilings white which I have already done to most of them. They look so much better!

We have also painted the inside of all of the closets a bright white. I am fairly certain that they had not been painted since 1980. What a difference a coat of paint makes! I am trying to get the 5 million nail holes in the walls spackled so painting walls is next on my list. I guess I am a little OCD about the nail holes. My husband & mom say the walls look like they have the measles. :)

I'm not at all a fan of textured ceilings, but we have them in two downstairs rooms of our older (1920's) house and have decided to live with them--at least for awhile. One, in our sunroom, has the same texture on the walls and ceilings (fairly subtle, like stucco, and original to the house) and one, in our dining room, has a more spiky ceiling texture very much like yours that I don't think is original. I'm hoping to change the dining room ceiling someday, but in the mean time I'm pretty sure the last time my husband painted in there he first vacuumed the ceiling with an upholstery brush attachment and then wiped it down gently with a sponge and TSP.

If you happen to be using a light neutral shade on the walls, consider using a 50% reduction of it on the ceiling instead of bright ceiling white. It helps draw less attention to the texturing (but only works if you are going neutral and light anyway--otherwise you are in danger of creating a cave).

I found the secret to getting rid of drywall texture this weekend (and really, the secret to hanging drywall.) Google "magic trowel" and drywall. There's a tool and series of similar generics that makes applying a skim coat as easy as pie. You can just cover the texture with joint compound. It's idiot proof. I probably sound like own stock in the company/ies that makes this product/s but I would have saved days of my life if I discovered it sooner.

Our 1925 house has textured ceilings and walls --- in EVERY room! The living room ceiling is the most textured and bothered me the most when we moved in last year. It felt so. . . low and heavy.

It is not currently in our budget to change the ceiling, so paint had to be the solution. The ceiling in the living room was painted almost a blue/white with a decent level of gloss. So the lights in the room reflected off of it and made the texture look even more. . . "textury". It was awful.

We repainted it flat SW Alabaster. When my painter started painting, the Alabaster looked absolutely yellow next to the existing blue/white ceiling paint. Now that it's done, it has literally lifted the ceiling. It's not perfect, but it's a major improvement.

I have to say now that I have painted all the ceilings, they bother me much less. I plan on tackling walls this weekend. That will make it even better. I have ignored the ugly blue carpet that's in every room but the kitchen & bathroom in our current house for 5 years. (I couldn't change it because we don't own it.) I can surely ignore a textured ceiling that has fresh white paint. We are painting the whole house, and getting new cabinets, vanities, flooring, light fixtures, etc. I will have plenty of things I love to look at so the ceiling won't be getting much of my attention.

Thanks to all who have given me ideas & advice.

the best thing to cover those kind of ceilings is with stretch ceiling. Done in few hours, without dust and a perfect finish. tendlight@gmail.com

Do you people not pay attention. It is a textured ceiling, not the same as popcorn, more like stucco. And the house was built in 1980. They didnt use asbestos in 1980. Try a dust mop or rag wrapped around a broom. You can just take some warm water on a damp rag and wipe if you feel it needs more than dusting.

It's an older dilemma, but no...people don't tend to listen. Looks like the solution was to clean it and paint it and it became much less objectionable.

Can you mud and paper tape seams over painted texture?