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Stippled ceiling removal

Daisley | Posted in General Discussion on March 16, 2006 06:02am

I had an aging stippled ceiling that I wanted to strip off.  After reading on the interweb about how messy, difficult and time-consuming this job is, I wondered if I was nuts to proceed.  Anyhow, I used a compressed-air sandblast gun, loaded with water and vinegar, not sand! and sprayed the ceiling in large sections. (A regular paint gun didn’t put out enough water volume to do the job).  After letting it soak in for about 20 minutes, the stipple scraped off easily, using a wide drywall knife!  I was amazed at how well this worked, altho it was a tad messy.

But this leads me to my question.  I have another ceiling, where the stipple has been painted, so the water is not going to soak in.  How do I proceed with this one? Please don’t suggest sandblasting it!

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  1. Daisley | Mar 17, 2006 04:50am | #1

    Huh! Must have stumped even the experts.  Do I really have to go to the TOH website for the answer?  :):)  I wonder if Norm knows???

  2. User avater
    MarkH | Mar 17, 2006 05:13am | #2

    Try a big hoe. 

  3. User avater
    junkrobbins | Mar 17, 2006 05:17am | #3

    What about applying paint stripper with a paint roller over the ceiling to soften up the paint, then trying the "Vinegar Blaster"  (patent pending I'm sure) again?  Your scraping it all off right so how much messier could this be?

  4. User avater
    xxPaulCPxx | Mar 17, 2006 05:24am | #4

    Are we talking about the popcorn ceilings?

    Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA

    Also a CRX fanatic!

  5. User avater
    zak | Mar 17, 2006 07:52am | #5

    If you're talking about ceiling popcorn, why don't you just put down dropcloths and scrape it with a 6" drywall knife?  The stuff comes off without too much difficulty even when dry.  Try wetting it first, to see if any water will get through that paint. 

    zak

    1. zendo | Mar 17, 2006 04:32pm | #6

      Thats all you have to do is break the surface to let the water in.  Textured ceilings are easy to attack, so attack it. 

      You could draw any type of object across it, the hoe may actually be a good idea, (narrow blade onion hoe would be lightweight).  You could roll a flat surface object across it.  Third, you could use a wallpaper papertiger, but I would feel that that would be too slow.

      So break the surface, spray with solution, let sit and scrape with drywall blade.  Using solution will help keep this stuff out of your lungs, remember that years ago, asbestos was used in textured ceilings so be safe.  Working wet is a good safeguard, wearing a respirator even if you dont see matter in the air is also important.

      -zen

       

       

  6. User avater
    CapnMac | Mar 17, 2006 07:48pm | #7

    What zendo said.

    Check a wallpaper place, they make a rolling device with pins on it to perforate through wallpaper so it will come loose from the wall.  If the paint is thin enough, and your "stipple" is sand texture, not popcorn, the perforations will break the paint enough to get moisture behind the paint and let you at the texture.

    If it's popcorn (especially the "looks like cottage cheese" applyied popcorn), then all bets off.  Though tack-welding a hachsaw blade to a potato rake is not too terrible a way to attck the stuff.

    Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)

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