How to Remove a Vaulted Popcorn Ceiling

Prepare the room. Remove all furniture and draperies. Cover windows and fireplaces. Place drop cloths on the floors to protect them from the falling debris from your ceiling. Cover electrical outlets with plastic or use outlet covers. Turn off the air and power going to the room where you are removing the popcorn ceiling.

Use painter’s tape to tape around the edges of your vaulted ceiling. This will protect the adjacent walls and dryboard. Add plastic covering to each wall.

Add warm water to a pump-up sprayer. Sprayers are available in the garden center of home improvement stores. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of dishwashing soap for each gallon of water in the sprayer.

Place a tall ladder near one of the corners of the room. Mount the ladder with the sprayer in hand. Spray a 4-foot section of the popcorn ceiling. Saturate the ceiling, but don’t drench it. Otherwise, you could damage the underlying dryboard. Let set for 20 minutes.

Scrape away the ceiling texture with a floor scraper. Use gentle scrapes to avoid damaging the actual ceiling. Repeat the saturation and scraping method if some of the texture remains after the initial scraping. Use a putty knife to remove any stubborn texture.

Continue working in 4-foot sections until you have scraped off all the popcorn texture.

Inspect your ceiling for any damaged areas. Add drywall tape to any seams that came undone. Add joint compound to cover any holes or cracks. Let dry. Smooth any raised areas with a long-handled sanding mesh pad.