In a nutshell, the ceiling in my two car garage has old popcorn sprayed on it. The tape that has covered the joints of the drywall board is starting to fall off due to 28yrs. of garage door opener vibration, humidity and such.

I want to scrape off the popcorn, tighten up a couple of areas that have dips, retape the joints, and apply a new surface to make it look presentable again.

What alternatives do I have other then having it resprayed with popcorn(which tends to hide imperfections better) or just painting it??

Thanks in advance.

 

Uhhh... test for asbestos before doing anything to the ceiling?

 

You can still texture it , just with something less aggressive than popcorn. Use a light texture like hat is on the walls on many new homes.

 

Find a rental store and rent a texture gun. You can spray texture on it that doesnt have to be the popcorn style. You can go with a orange peal look to a splatter look or a knock down.

 

If it's 28 years old it should asbestos-free. Asbestos in surfacing products for decorative purposes (i.e. popcorn ceiling) were banned in 1978.

 

Don't you think that time limit is a little too close for comfort?

I'd be concerned if OP bought the house from a former owner or if his home was new in a development that started in or before 1978. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if the popcorn material was applied from left-over stock with asbestos, either.

 

Possible, but doubtful. Doesn't hurt to spend the $15 to get it tested but I rarely come across plasters or surface coatings of any type, other than the occasional joint compound, (which isn't considered a decorative coating and therefore the use of asbestos isn't banned) that were installed after 1980 which contain asbestos. Asbestos, and other nasty shit, is my job.

 

what about no texture?

 

Then again...I've never lived in a place that had a finished garage...so unfinished sheetrock is luxury for me. lol

 

I would get one of those tools from Home Depot to take off the popcorn look. Scrap it away and go with a clean look.

 

We don't do texture around here much at all; seems to be a regional thing.

It's a garage -- just do a halfway decent job mudding and taping and then paint it.

 

I think textured walls/ceilings is definitely a Florida thing.

 

no texture, just leave it flat and paint it white. if you don't want to scrape it off maybe you should look into putting up new 1/4 in drywall over the top.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback.

The parental units purchased the house in June 1981. Popcorn was the 'style' back then and it was applied throughout the house on all the ceiling surfaces. I will hopefully upgrade the current garage door opener to a modern belt system. This old Sears unit is a noisy chain drive (probably 15yrs old) and vibrates to much for my likeing.

Once I get the old popcorn scraped off and everything cleaned up, it will be easier to make a final determination on how to proceed. There are some areas of ceiling drywall that appear wavy and may have sagged from age and moisture, thus needing replacement/reinforcement. We'll see.

Thanks again.

 

Hope they didnt paint the popcorn, otherwise its gonna be a paint and a half to get off!!!

I recommend a knockdown surface, easy to spray and smooth out. If you want to go all out, tear down the old surface and apply greenboard (moisture resistant drywall) as FL is a humid area. But that is if you intend on keeping the house longer. Worth the investment, since you are thinking about changing the garage door opener; seems as though you want to keep the house.

 

Do what we call 'california stucco'. Also called a knockdown stucco.

Basically you popcorn spray the ceiling then run a drywall knife across it just enough to level off the peaks. It gives you more cleanable and paintable surface than standard popcorn.

 

If you're going to go that far might as well demo the existing drywall and start over.