Tips and Tricks for Scraping Popcorn Ceilings

If you’ve been following along with our Retro Ranch Reno, you know that we’ve been tackling some pretty big projects. Probably my least favorite of them all was scraping the popcorn ceilings. You can’t tell in this picture, but along with the thick popcorn, the ceilings were covered in glitter! After surviving this project, I wanted to share my tips and tricks for scraping popcorn ceilings.

A good friend of mine gave me her expert tip, which was to use a paint sprayer filled with water for soaking the ceilings. I LOVE my Graco 360 paint sprayer, and never even considered all of it’s uses when it comes to spraying water! *contains affiliate link* This was SO much better than using a spray bottle and exhausting your trigger finger. I actually learned that it worked the best if I sprayed the entire room heavily, and then about 15 minutes later came back and re-sprayed each section right before scraping it.

I used a this knife for scraping which worked pretty well. I wish I would have taken it a bit easier though, because I managed to really hurt my collarbone scraping so much. If I were to do it all over again I’d probably spray a third time so that I wouldn’t have to use as much force.

It’s hard to see, but this picture shows how thick the popcorn was that was coming down.

Yes, all three bedrooms, hallway, and the living room were covered in popcorn. The whole house instantly felt lighter as the texture came down.

This was SUCH a messy project. I am SO thankful that we are living in the basement and haven’t moved into the main level yet because it would have been a TOTAL disaster. My only advice on this is if you are already moved in and decide to scrape ceilings CLEAR OUT each room first, or you will be finding pieces of popcorn in your stuff forever.

After getting EVERYTHING scraped, and the rest of the wallpaper removed, I went ahead and sprayed knockdown texture everywhere. I didn’t get any pictures of this part of the progress because spraying texture alone was hard enough! I did tape off all of the windows and closets while I sprayed.

After spraying and knocking down everything, I used my faithful sprayer to prime it ALL. I even primed the windows and closet trim. I love how much fresher and brighter it all looks. Here is the before in this bedroom:

Here it is now:

Here is the before in the master:

Here’s the master now:

Here is the before in the girl room:

Here is the girl room now:Now that everything is primed I still have to paint the ceilings and walls. Then I’ll be removing carpet and be ready to lay flooring!

**5/29/16 edit** Many popcorn ceilings contain asbestos which needs to be abated by a professional. Before scraping your popcorn ceilings please test the material for asbestos.