Adventures In DIY

Library Popcorn Ceiling Removal – Preparation

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Warning: There is a chance that popcorn ceilings can contain asbestos. If there is any doubt you should use a asbestos services professional to test for it.

This is the first of three posts on the removal of the popcorn ceiling in the library, what used to be a formal dinning room (who needs them).

Other posts for the process:

• Library Popcorn Ceiling Removal – Scraping and Removal
• Library Popcorn Ceiling Removal – Spraying Texture

I easily spent an hour and a half doing the preparation for the scraping and re-texturing of the ceiling.

Preparation Tools and Supplies:

• 200 x 12 foot roll of 1 mil painter’s plastic
• staple gun
• duct tape
• painter’s tape

The ceilings had the heavy popcorn texture that was popular in the 70s and 80s.

Original Popcorn Ceiling

First was the removal of all furniture from the room and taking the register vent cover off. The new hanging light had not been installed yet. I duct taped the mount opening to help prevent moisture and texture from getting into it.

Duct Taped Ceiling Mount

If your not lucky enough to have this, then using a combination of masking tape and a big trash bag does a good job of protecting a hanging light. Make sure to tape off anything you don’t want to be textured.

Next was to plastic off the area where I would be walking to and from the room I was working in. Painter’s tape was used to secure the plastic to the floor. I know from past experience that there will be a big mess in any entry / exit areas.

Plastic In Entry to Library

When I was laying down the plastic for the floors I secured it with duct and painter’s tape up the wall at least a foot to make sure no water got under the plastic. Two 12 foot wide sheets of the 1 mil plastic were necessary to cover the entire floor. Duct tape was used on the seams.

Plastic On Floor

Duct Tape Seam

For the walls, I walked the room’s perimeter unrolling plastic from the roll as I went. Starting from where my entry / exit for the room was, I stapled the plastic to top edge of the wall.

Stapling Plastic To The Wall

Even with rolling out extra plastic I came up a little short. I made sure to add at least 2 feet on either side of the opening.

Plastic on Wall is a Little Short

Used an Overlapping Piece to Fix Lack Of Coverage

Next up is the actual removal of the texture.

Digg It!!