I'd like to remove or flatten out a textured ceiling in our living and
dining rooms.
I'm not sure if 'textured' is the correct term and don't know how the
texture was achieved.

You can see our ceiling at:
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mrubin...ing/index.html

1) Any suggestions on how to remove it or flatten it out? Is there some
material that I can use to make the job of getting rid of it easier?
Searching on the web I found a product called x-tex, but the only about
it was from a company that sells it:
http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/e/ECOXTEX

2) Can you tell just by looking whether there might be asbestos in it?
The layer doesn't seem to be very thick. The last photo on the posted
website shows the transition from the ceiling to the wall.

Thanks for any advice.

is this ceiling drywall or plaster?

if it's drywall, then the texture is probably joint compound covered
with paint. the paint basically seals in the texture and makes it more
difficult to get rid of. in any case, getting rid of it is no small
matter. if you didn't have the crown molding, you could just hang new
drywall over it, but this wouldn't work with the molding i think. it's
possible there is some kind of stripper that would remove this stuff,
but it would be a ton of work and terribly messy. i think you might be
better off tearing the drywall off and starting over. if you scrape it
off somehow, you will spend many hours working over your head, and then
you will have a job of fixing the existing surface. those hours could
be spent on ripping out the old and redoing it.

if your ceiling is plaster, then things are more difficult yet.


i wouldn't hazard a guess whether there is asbestos there or not, since
i have no idea of the age of this ceiling and whether it is drywall or
plaster, etc. asbestos tests are cheap (usually less than $20) and
readily available. i have seen test kits in our local big box store.

wrote in message
ps.com...

I'd like to remove or flatten out a textured ceiling in our living and
dining rooms.
I'm not sure if 'textured' is the correct term and don't know how the
texture was achieved.

You can see our ceiling at:
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mrubin...ing/index.html

1) Any suggestions on how to remove it or flatten it out? Is there some
material that I can use to make the job of getting rid of it easier?
Searching on the web I found a product called x-tex, but the only about
it was from a company that sells it:
http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/e/ECOXTEX

2) Can you tell just by looking whether there might be asbestos in it?
The layer doesn't seem to be very thick. The last photo on the posted
website shows the transition from the ceiling to the wall.

Thanks for any advice.


I'm not an expert, but your ceiling doesn't look like the common sprayed on
popcorn coating. It looks as though it was plaster finished that way. Have
you tried scraping a small section to see if it comes off easily?

It isn't the sprayed on popcorn ceiling. We had that in other places in
our house and we easily removed it by wetting and scraping. This stuff
is pretty old and does not come off easily when I scrape.

The house was built in 1927 and the ceiling is plaster, at least under
the textured stuff.
I'm not sure when the textured portion was put in. Was it common in
1927 to make the ceilings
the way they appear in the photos?

http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mrubin...ing/index.html

It looks like plaster splattered, then painted. You're right, removing
popcorn involves wetting it down and then scraping it. You won't be
able to wet and scape. One option that works well is to hire somebody
that does this kind of work, and if they're good, then can float 2-3
coats of mud on top of that plaster and smooth it out. I've seen 3
houses done like this, 2 were good (Professional did it), and 1 was bad
(homeowner didn't know how to float mud).

good luck, tim1198