Hate Popcorn Ceilings

It seems like everyone is turning against pop corn ceilings these days. My guess is, we are just tired of seeing it everywhere we go. Another concern of popcorn ceilings is that, it is water soluble and should it get ruined by moisture it is extremely difficult to repair, it usually needs to be removed. Pop corn ceilings are a by-product of the Reaganomics era and is looked upon as cheap and dated. I have nothing against the look of pop corn textured ceilings but, I am glad you hate it and want it removed, that’s fine with me. The problem is, most companies who remove pop corn ceilings want to replace it with another texture on the ceiling and you don’t want texture. Most popcorn ceiling removal specialists do not install smooth ceiling surfaces because, it is too labor intensive. Basically,they simply scrape off the old and spray on the new. On the other hand, thoroughly cleaning the ceiling and re-mudding it is a whole  different story. It sucks and I love it.

I have yet to do a ceiling job that didn’t turn into a major re-do. Often I get the paint, molding, tile, kitchen, bath, doors and all sorts of work and referrals from one ceiling job, done right. These photos show a recent job where the ceilings were 16 feet high in some areas and the skylight boxes as high as 20 feet. The home owner did not want a scaffold in the house so I did it all with ladders (this also sucks). The textured walls remain as they were. Each wall had a different texture. Due to the mold damage found in almost every room in the house, many areas of the drywall had to be removed and finished to match the existing. In spite of my misgivings about pulling this off, I surprised myself. Even I have a hard time seeing where the patch work was done. So I’m happy about that.

The happy eventuality of all this is a clean and updated look. In this home  3/4″ X 6-1/2″ square stock was used as base molding and 3/4″ X 3-1/2″ square stock became the casement around the doors and simple 4-5/8″ Colonial crown was used on the lower ceiligs and 6-1/4′ up high. Also on the exterior French doors I installed a wood valance right in the jamb to hide the window shade hardware. In the guest bedroom where there is a sliding glass door I built in a valance across the span of the room made of drywall and hand matched the texture of the existing walls. This way, the crown molding is installed directly on the valance, so that it looks like, it was always there as part of the walls and continues that clean look.

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