Steps on Doing a Popcorn Ceiling

Test your popcorn ceiling for asbestos if it was applied before 1986. Although asbestos was not put in the ceiling texture materials after 1978, Popular Mechanics advises that materials may have been stored for up to eight years before being used. Obtain the test results by scraping a sample of the popcorn ceiling material into a plastic bag and having an asbestos lab test it.

Stop now if your asbestos test results came back positive. For your health and your family's health, you should contact a certified asbestos abatement contractor to have the popcorn ceiling removed.

Move furniture and all other items out of the room.

Tape sheets of plastic to the walls and make sure they hang all the way down to the floor. Cover the floor with plastic or a drop cloth with waterproof backing.

Put on a pair of safety goggles and a mask that covers your nose and mouth. Even if there is no asbestos in the popcorn material, breathing the dust or getting it in your eyes can cause irritation.

Wet a section of the ceiling measuring no more than 10 square feet. Use a spray bottle or a garden sprayer for this. Let the water soak into the ceiling for a few minutes before proceeding. Although you can skip this step, it helps the popcorn come off more easily and reduces the amount of dust in the air.

Set up a stepladder under the area you have just wet.

Climb up the ladder and scrape the popcorn material off with a ceiling scraper or putty knife. Let it fall onto the floor cover or take a large bucket up with you and hold it under the area you are working on to make cleanup easier.

Repeat the wetting and scraping process in other areas of the ceiling until you have scraped off all the popcorn.