Popcorn Ceiling and Asbestos

We had a popcorn ceiling removed years ago. It had to be sanded off, but it came out looking very good. I really don't think you can just wipe it off.

My uncle, Orville, said you should never attempt to remove a popcorn ceiling. He can be a bit old-fashioned about things though.

May = Very likely, if installed before the early 1980s. You need to take some samples and have it tested. Do a search, lots of cheap places to get the testing done.

Ease of removal (if no aesbestos) often depends upon how many times it was painted over. If of a relatively recent vintage, it can be wet and scraped off with not too much work with a drywall knife. It is nothing remotely as easy as just "wiping it off," however.

Lesson learned - a broker will tell you an apple falls up from a tree if he/she thinks it will get you to sign the dotted line.

Popcorn ceilings represented a nadir for civilization. I literally cringe when I see them in an apartment, a hotel, or on House Hunters. What was the point of this in the first place? I am anything but aesthetically oriented but for some reason the just rub me wrong. Fortunately I don't think there is too much of it in NYC, the apex of popcorn ceilings, the 70s, was not a high growth/heavy building time here.

As I noted two days ago when you posted this same question:

"blah blah blah asbestos yada yada danger spacesuit gasmask whatever"

Just wet it, scrape it, and throw it out. The asbestos thing is complete absolute and total bullshit, unless you chainsmoked while working for decades in an asbestos factory or the engine room of a steamship.

Cover it with 1/4 inch sheetrock. My house on the Cape had the very, very worst popcorn - plus the ceilings were slanted and angled and beamed. The popcorn fell off by itself here and there, refused to budge elsewhere. My sheetrock guy did a perfectly seamless job without the double work of getting the popcorn off then making it look nice. Ask around - you'll get recommendations for the kind of sheetrock pro I had.