I have popcorn ceilings in my family room and kitchen/dining and I would like to “panel” them. What do I use and how do I do this?
That’s a messy job, Sonja, but a very popular one! America has definitely lost its love for the popcorn ceiling! Some people may try to cover the old ceiling with ¼” drywall, but the uneven texture can easily cause a “wavy” look to the ceiling, so I would suggest removing the texture. Before you do anything, though, pick up a test kit from your local home center and test a sample of the ceiling texture for asbestos. If you find any, you shouldn’t do a thing to it. Instead, have a licensed mitigation team remove it for you. Hopefully, the test will be negative. If so, you’re ready to work…and I do mean work. Removing popcorn texture, while relatively simple, is very labor intensive. You need to cover EVERYTHING in plastic: furniture, flooring, walls, stray pets…leave nothing uncovered. Next, using hot water in a pump-up sprayer, saturate the ceiling in blocks of 4’ x 4’. After letting the water sit for a few minutes, using a 12” drywall blade, start scraping the mixture. It’s going to come down in sticky, disgusting globs. Now you know why the plastic should cover everything. Be careful not to gouge the ceiling with the corners of the drywall blade. Once all the texture has been scraped off, allow the ceiling to completely dry. Use a sandi
ng pole to knock down any remaining rough spots. Now you can apply paneling or moulding with no problem. If any areas of the old ceiling will still be seen, you’ll need to repair any seams, dimples or defects. Purchase a container of pre-mixed drywall joint compound to cover any seams or accidental gouges. You may need to skim more than one coat to fully cover any of these areas. After all the joint compound dries, a light sanding will be necessary. Finally, carefully remove all the plastic, clean up any mess that made it through the barrier and NOW you’re ready to panel!
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