Popcorn ceilings

It is better to scrape it off. You can do it yourself. Make sure you wet the popcorn and use a scraper. Then you can add texture to the ceiling and paint.

Scraping it off is the preferred route. You have about an equal amount of mess.

Then you can find out why the popcorn was sprayed up there to begin with.

Before scaping it off yourself, please have it tested for asbestos.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will def get it tested for asbestos first

It is also not an easy task to remove it. How big of an area is it? You might want to hire somebody to help you

I agree with primer, and what neighborhood is this in?

Thanks Primer. I agree - it's not big (around 600 sqft of ceilings total) but I've heard it is messy so I am hiring somebody to do it. It's a 1970s highrise in the upper west side. I'm aware there is risk of asbestos for buildings built in that era. The selling broker said the building should be abestos-free but I will get it tested first for peace of mind.

>The selling broker said the building should be abestos-free but I will get it tested first for peace of mind.

Smart of you to hire experts for your own determination.

A & A Services Inc. does asbestos testing in NYC - 845-782-4443. Will take a few weeks to get results. Even if there is Asbestos you can still get it removed, but you will have to hire a specialty contractor and it will be in the tens of thousands of dollars (like 10-20k) instead of a few thousand to remove.

It's also possible to get a good painter to plaster and paint popcorn ceilings away. I've seen this done at a relatively low price very effectively.

I've found that scraping the ceilings can be a bit labor intensive, costly, and in short - useless. You can find a good painter to plaster right over the poopcorn ceilings as mentioned by mneuwirth.

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