In article .com,
Harry Muscle wrote:

I just moved into a house build in 1971 and the living room has a
popcorn or acoustic ceiling. It looks like it's been painted, probably
a few times. It doesn't look the best anymore, so a friend of mine
offered to re-popcorn the whole ceiling for me. He said I just have to
prime it first. However, I'm debating if I really want to do this.
I've read that the bond of the "popcorn" is very week and the more
stuff you add to the ceiling the more weight and the possibility of
patches coming down due to the weight of a couple layers of paint and
new texture. Is re-popcorning such a ceiling a common practice? Does
it usually come out good when done by someone who knows what they are
doing?

Or should I just get rid of it. I'm concerned about asbestos though.
I've called around to get a sample tested, but it's quite expensive and
it takes a long time for results. I've got about a weeks to figure out
what to do and actually do it, since that's when the floor guy is
comming to refinish the floors, after that I'd rather not mess with the
ceiling anymore.

It's easy to remove with a taping knife and spray bottle of water.
Don't worry about the asbestos. There isn't enough in the popcorn to be
concerned about and you'll only be exposed to it for a day or two. Note
that the only confirmed cases of asbestosis are in people who had
heavy, long-term exposure to the raw fibers, such as miners, e.g.
Virtually no consumers have been affected.

Your primary concern will be what's under the popcorn, likely to be
unprimed, poorly taped gypsum board. Skim-coating and texturing that
surface (with the inevitable dings and scraps from the taping knife)
will take practice, practice, practice . . . or a pro.

-Frank

--
fwarner1-at-franksknives-dot-com
Here's some of my work:
http://www.franksknives.com/