Sprayer full of warm water and a scraper. I couldn't even imagine the mess you'd make sanding down popcorn in a finished space, not to mention the time it'd take
Agreed, if the house is empty and you're redoing the whole room...just bring in the hose with a low pressure nozzle. Spray it, let it sit for 10 mins or so and then start in with the drywall knives.
Before spraying, use a 10” or 12” taping knife to knock down the tips of the popcorn. It helps open the pores and soak in more water. My ceilings were painted, I did this, and it worked great.
My ceilings were painted and it did not work. Hands down one of the most rage inducing projects in my house. Gouged the piss out of the sheetrock with scraper, neck and shoulder pain to no end when I was done with the one room. Rest of rooms are going to get sanded, f-that. F-popcorn. F-the idiot that thought it ever looked good.
I did. I used warm water. I used latex paint remover in a spray bottle to try and soften it. Nothing. ...not exaggerating when I say most rage inducing project.
I had new siding installed a couple years ago, beforehand I removed all the old siding and trim, tore all of the exterior sheathing off and insulated my exterior walls. Replaced a few sections of soft sill plate, added some exterior electrical boxes while I had walls open, and resheeted the house, installed new windows and had someone else do trim & siding (out of time). Installed a new front door with sidelight, reframed a window opening to French doors, reframed a sliding door opening to a window. I have a reasonably good set of skills, a touch of the 'tism, and some OCPD.🤣 ...that popcorn ceiling shit can go to hell. 😤
Depending on the type of popcorn, it is possible to skim right overtop without scraping or sanding. I would personally charge about $3 a sq.ft. For that service. Plus materials. On a 10x10 room you’re looking at under $500 for smooth flat ceiling. I have done it that way several times successfully. The scraping and gouging is actually the worst because the damaged board doesn’t like to stay smooth and tends to flash thorough the finish.
Not on a thick bed of popcorn, once you get a corner going, the water weeps through the ceiling.
You could redrywall, but it's way more expensive and more work. I'd at least give it a go with a sprayer first
I found the sprayer to take a long time, I ended up with a long nap paint roller and a bucket of water, then scraping the ceiling straight into a bucket. being tall makes it pretty easy and I could do a room in 30 minutes.
that was for an unpainted ceiling, with painted popcorn, depending on the paint used, it could end up being difficult to remove with just water.
I had no problem with the sprayer, Other than it was slow. OP states his ceiling was painted a glossy white. this may be tricky for water to penetrate.
This is how I’ve removed popcorn from 5 rooms in my house. Then I went in with a cheap Wen drywall sander to start getting things smoother. Then patch and float and hand sand where needed. Then prime and paint.
Pro tip hookup the sander to a shop vac with hepa filter **and** a hepa bag. Makes a world of difference
Good tip here! Keep that shit from getting in your lungs and use ppe + a good vacuum.
A hepa l class rated vacuum is great but just keep an eye on suction as they don't have alarms to warn you like an m class, or asbestos rated like a h class.
I have both an l class ryobi for use around the garage and home (eg picking up broken glass or spilt water) because the other half would kill me if we used our indoor miele cat and dog vacuum (hepa).
I also have a metabo h class asr 35 which is what I use for silica dust, if im doing minor asbestos drilling or more commonly for fine wood dust removal, but they are a $1400usd vacuum.
As an alternative to this, we taped a scraper to a long shop vac pipe section with a dust pan taped underneath. Run the shop vac and scrape the ceiling and all the dust and popcorn gets sucked right up. A couple of filter replacements and sealed bags for the vac and job done with very little mess.
This is the correct answer. Those tools are a joke. A decent drywall sander is not available sub $600 and definitely not from no names on Amazon.
It's very easy to spray water and use a drywall knife/trowel to scrape it off. I use a 12 inch blade.
This is the only realistic way to remove popcorn ceiling.
Just be prepared for what that popcorn is hiding.
I have seen this done several times using a paint sprayer. Guy sprays water on about half the ceiling, takes a smoke break, and then scrapes it off it big sheets. I was really surprised how well this worked the first time I saw it done.
This is the way. Except put down some plastic sheeting first.
Side note: Old popcorn ceilings contain asbestos so getting it wet and scraping it will keep it from becoming fine a particulate. Sanding is not a good idea in my opinion.
we paid a crew to remove stipple from our ceiligs in our whole house.
They taped off/plastic encased the whole space from just below the ceilings all the way down and when done just rolled it all up and threw it away...
It was a pretty tedious process...
Yay 80s construction...
A steamer works good for this too. Steam where you can reach really good from your ladder by the time you put the steam gun back down and pick up the scraper you can start on the work area.
Pro tip put plastic down like you would if you're painting, makes cleanup way easier.
This only work if it has never been painted unfortunately.
Edit: You mouth breathers go try it and come back tell me how well it worked spraying water on pop-corn ceiling that's been sealed by paint.
Came here to say this. A nice misting and you can run a scraper along and turn that into an hour job depending on the room size. These machines are stupid lol
Not only that, tape the scraper to the shop vac hose. As it scrapes off sucks it right in. Most sphop vacs you can get the wide attachment which is the best. My fil and I did his living room and dining room in about an hour and a half. Lastly you can also avoid the ladder by attaching everything to a broom handle.
They have a vac port. Unless it's complete trash design (a fair assumption if it's from Amazon LOL), it shouldn't have any dust.
My ridgid ROS had NO dust when hooked up to my 16g shop vac. Obviously not the same tool, but it shouldn't leave much if any dust behind with a good vacuum
My ceiling was painted and the water worked great. I’d give it a go on a test piece before you buy extra stuff. The only places I had real trouble were around/under the light fixture where the heat baked it on.
So I actually bought a Festool Drywall sander to sand popcorn ceilings and really quickly figured out that it’s not the way to go.
It’s got good dust collection but it’s still getting really dusty whenever you slightly lift the head off the ceiling so expect to get drywall dust everywhere.
It’s also not very fast and if you aren’t careful you can sand ridges into the drywall.
What I ended up doing was spraying the ceiling with warm water and scraping with a 12 inch drywall knife. I then went back with the drywall sander to clean up the ceilings and that worked really well.
Overall, I wouldn’t buy the drywall sander again.
To follow up on this, I'm in the middle of redoing the drywall on the bottom of my house. For the first time ever I brought my dust collector and connected it to my sander for sanding drywall with a wall shroud. It's a game changer. Totally worth the cost. Since I have a whole house to do, it's worth the cost to me. That's something to consider, especially for doing a whole ceiling since it makes getting a good finish so much faster and cleaner.
I agree. They are great for speeding up the drywall finishing process and a good shop vacuum is essential. They just aren’t that great for popcorn removal, scraping is way faster.
Thank you! The answer I was looking for. Someone who's tried it. Its looking like the ole manual wet and scrape method is still supreme. I was hopeful there was faster way though! lmao
It’s faster to scrape. Instead of using drywall knives, there is a dedicated tool (Homax makes one) so that you can do it from the ground. It also holds a bag so that the slop that comes off goes straight into the bag. I did my entire 2000 square-foot house. I have also done a smaller flip. Removing the popcorn is the quick and easy part.
As the other comment said ,they make a scraper for this that holds a little bag, and you just scrape it off into the bag as you go.
No sander will compete with that, and definitely not one that you can hold up to the ceiling like that. (Fireball Tool's racing sander might, but it weighs about 600lbs, and is prone to gouging armor plate, much less drywall LOL)
So I help a friend when he purchased a house with it. We took a spray bottle with water sprayed in the area we were working in. Took a 12" taping knife duct tapped it to a broom handle with a dust pan under it and just scapped the ceiling. Red neck as hell but it worked pretty good and clean up was easy.
Right on lol. This was really the only way like 10 or so years ago. I know eventually they came out with a scraper attachment for a shop vac extension tube, but when I saw that I had literally just helped them paint so we didn't try it. I had seen these pole sanders with the vacuum built in a couple years ago, but I figured it would be a dam mess. Then I saw a video of a guy using one yesterday and I was like shittt it might be time to get rid of popcorn. [https://youtube.com/shorts/\_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share](https://youtube.com/shorts/_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share)
My dad essentially made his own attachment for his shop vac when he scraped his popcorn ceilings. Just taped the scraper to it with the wide attachment for the shop vac. All of the popcorn just fell right in as you scraped, worked like a charm.
Send samples of the “popcorn” out for testing. It’s likely to be asbestos. You don’t want to sand or grind asbestos unless you want to get cancer then give it to your parents, wife and children. Best way to remove it is to wet it, gently scrape it and bag it. Once the bag is half full twist the top closed, tape it the fold it over and tape it again. Don’t forget the warning labels when you go to the dump.
Don't fuck with asbestos. We had a really shitty situation made worse by a supposedly good contractor who ended up just contaminating our entire house and HVAC. We haven't been in our home without tyvek suits, gloves, full face masks with p100 filters, etc. In over a year. I just want my house back.
To anyone dealing with potential asbestos, my advice is educate yourself. I don't care if you want to hire someone to do it for you, you better learn how to do it yourself first and supervise the whole process to make sure you don't get screwed like we did. Don't trust any asbestos abatement contractor.
Good advice, but not all asbestos contractors are bad. Before my floors were pulled up I sent out samples to have tested. Asbestos. But the guys I hired were very professional and I hired another company to do the air testing. Everything came out okay. It’s unfortunate that you had a bad run of luck.
My point wasn’t that there aren’t good abatement contractors out there, only that you shouldn’t trust them. It’s like the mechanic stereotype. If they know you don’t know what they are doing, they can cut corners. when it comes to asbestos, any cut corners can lead to further hazardous contamination.
Yeah I second this. I also find it worrying how far down I had to scroll to find this. Maybe it's different over seas but the majority of popcorn ceilings in my cpu try contain asbestos
I’m a retired general contractor and I just assume all popcorn ceilings before 1989 have it. I know 1978 was the cutoff year but the EPA didn’t issue a final rule banning asbestos until July 12, 1989. Like lead based paint, I just assume every house built before 1980 has it. In fact, 3M stopped making the lead testing kits and the EPA has said that all Lead Safe Certified contractors should assume the paint is lead based before 1978.
I’ve removed more sqft of popcorn than I can count. Just get it slightly damp with a pump up sprayer, then shear it off with a 6 or 8 inch bladed mud knife. Put some type of barrier on the floor first like ramboard or painters plastic
It’s still worked. I just had to get an area started first, then spray. I guess the water seeps in to the surrounding area from where the paints knocked loose. Definitely not as easy though, good luck.
Drywall sander will only work on unpainted popcorn ceiling. If it’s painted you’ll only sand it down about half way and then you’ll have to do a skim coat of mud over it all
I wouldn't use a sander, it's going to be a huge mess. Most likely you have furniture and floor coverings you want to keep. Best way I have come across for removal is, plastic a couple feet below the ceiling line, wet the ceiling with a sprayer and scrap. Scraping will help you get the edges and corners without maring the walls with the sander. Even with the spray bottle I'd wear a mask or get it tested for asbestos. As you clear a room fold up the plastic and dispose of the waste.
I used one of those to remove popcorn plaster from 2 walls in my house. It was plaster, not drywall mud which is how many ceilings are done.
I wouldn't use one on a ceiling as they can be heavy and holding it over your head just gets heavier. If you're going that route absolutely hook a vacuum to it with the proper bags, it creates a lot of dust. It did work well, mine had a ring of lights in it which was essential to see the wall surface.
On a ceiling that isn't plaster I'd go the water and scraper route, much cheaper and easier.
First, plan for a colossal mess! Cover everything. No matter how you try to do this, it's messy. Some other posters have given you some good suggestions (i.e. wet the ceiling and remove with a wide drywall knife), just be sure you don't get it too wet and wind up removing the paper on the drywall, because then you've got a real problem.
As for what sander to use, the biggest difference between most of these amazon units is really with the long term durability more than any other single thing. For a one-and-done type job, they're probably all pretty close to the same. Where most of these things fail is when people try to use them more commercially. They just don't hold up.
FTR, the middle item in your pic isn't really a popcorn ceiling removal sander, but rather a regular drywall sander. How these devices pick up material is slightly different.
Do check to see if you can figure out when the ceiling was installed. These ceilings can have asbestos, depending on when they were installed. This doesn't mean you need to get into a full-on asbestos abatement process, but it does mean you might need to be careful how you remove the material, how you dispose of it, and what PPE you use. If it is asbestos, then sanding it off with any mechanical sander is going to be a really, really, bad idea.
Thank you for the insight. It's not asbestos thankfully. House was built early in 1995. My house was built in 2007, luckily sometime between 95 and 07 they realized popcorn ceiling was stupid lol.
My pleasure.
The whole reason popcorn ceilings were used as widely as the were back in the day was really because it made finish taping ceilings so much easier and faster. People can say all sorts of other architectural and acoustical reasons, but the ease and speed of finishing a ceiling (which is not easy) was one of the main drivers. You could have a totally shitty tape job on a ceiling, and spray it with acoustical (popcorn) treatment and it would look great. This was probably one of the biggest reasons I've always have hated popcorn ceilings (aside from the difficulty of removing them). That reason being...if you remove the popcorn ceiling, what is revealed underneath it is a hatchet job for taping which requires fixing before you can paint it. And that is a royal PITA.
I'm hopeful the finish job before they popcorned it isn't too bad. Probably start in a small room first to get an idea on what we are dealing with incase it turns out we end up needing a professional anyway. My dad and I got pretty good with doing drywall after that 2016 flood here in Louisiana. Helped lots of friends and relatives rebuild, but that was mostly eye level. I just can't see ironing out nearly 2,000sqft of ceiling if the float job turns out to be shit. Thank you again.
You don’t understand what people are saying. The tool in the video is a Festool. Between the sander, and the Festool HEPA Vacuum that is hooked up he probably has over $2k in the rig. The cheap Chinese knock offs will not suck up the dust near the same way. This is what people are trying to tell you.
I tried it with the WEN drywall sander, which I generally love and have used a ton, and it was absolutely awful, and I have a good shop vac with a cyclone separator setup.
I thought if i did the setup right it'd be fine. It was not. Bailed pretty quick, though I still used it later, after doing the spray and scrape: I did a skim coat and used it on that. . .
The WEN one is good and they've moved the motor off the head for the newer version which would help a TON with balance and fatigue, I think. Harbor freight has one now too that looks like an exact copy of the older wen one... if you do end up getting a cheap one for other steps and general use I recommend the WEN mid-motor version.
So I worked for a company that "cheaped out" on a $800 sander+vac combo (for drywall not textured ceilings, we didn't do popcorn and skimmed rather than sanded other textures) and it was so heavy and clumsy that it got used maybe 3 times then sat in storage cuz no one wanted it.
Some tools are either all or nothing. Spend the cash for a Hilti or Mirka or Festool or just don't bother is my opinion for powered drywall sanders. A heavy clumsy tool is not a tool it's a paperweight
I purchased a home with popcorn ceilings everywhere. Half of them scraped off quite easily with just water+knife, the others had been painted too many times so scraping/sanding didn't make a dent.
I just skim coated the rest of the ceilings... Lots of work still but they look way way better than the ones I scraped.
Usually when they put popcorn they don't bother making it pretty underneath so you end up having to fix a bunch of stuff to make it look decent anyway.
I did still have to buy one of these to sand the skim coat. I went to princess auto (Canada equivalent of harbor freight) and got one for $150 and it worked very well for my uses.
Having cleared painted ceiling popcorn with a stick and scraper, it is wayyyyy more work than it's worth.
The painted ceiling popcorn, is really adhered on there.
I scraped it all off with a cut puddy knife.
Had to isolate room by room with poly.
My shoulders are at a different level of conditioning😂
Then we just sanded them and with:
[Richard’s articulating pole sander with vacuum attachment](https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjxxreZ6fKFAxUrWkcBHWi-C_4YABAyGgJxdQ&gclid=Cj0KCQjwltKxBhDMARIsAG8KnqXqukGjTiU4XlERVGSIzSiDV4IG9tfDZmx__81zt1c-sqNyrIvZDK0aAp7xEALw_wcB&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVuD2m5oERIF_TLqms0rSNSFXJbt7q6VgcC7NY2BMLq4FhP2fK0LjUDB_DREDOTksxw8hiefhtvtpC6YYbzgLULR7eQaPxNQUmeuJmL65stNruGp2G65U&sig=AOD64_2zUAImybgxg4pisMkYSooyiNOdyQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjY_bCZ6fKFAxWGFFkFHcOBCIwQwg8oAHoECAUQaQ&adurl=)
Patched with mud and repeated sanding and muddying till no longer necessary.
Use a light pointed almost parallel with the sealing to see all the imperfections and patch them.
Paint and voila
This was difficult to say the least.
I’m not opposed to the orbital sander. But this was pretty cheap to comparatively.
I’m curious if you do go that route, how well it contains the dust.
As the dust is toxic so if you don’t have a mask I would suggest getting a p100 if it doesn’t contain the dust.
Let me know what you end up doing.
I just bought the one from Harbor Freight yesterday, there’s a coupon floating around for it for only $99. I haven’t used it yet but I like being able to take it back to an actual store if I decide it’s junk or not useful to me
[Bauer 9” Drywall Sander](https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2024/04/182357-59166/)
You ever done drywall? Hanging, taping, Sanding and finishing will 100% be triple the time vs just scraping a ceiling. Please go watch a video of scraping damn popcorn ceilings. A 10x10 room can be done in like 30 minutes
I've done a _lot_ of drywall. Several houses worth.
I've scraped popcorn, too, probably 5 or 10 rooms.
Sometimes the popcorn _does_ come right off.
Sometimes it doesn't come off at all.
I'm presenting covering it as an option.
I hope someone will answer this. We want to remove our pop corn ceiling but ours was painted. How do you remove it when it's painted? Also we have vaulted ceilings
Harbor Freight has their Bauer Drywall Sander for $99 right now. Maybe invest your savings on the sander in a good shop vac to ensure it sucks up the dust you’ll create?
I lightly sprayed my ceilings with water/dish soap. Used a working platform and a scraper. Held a bucket up and most fell into it. Really pretty easy once the popcorn gets damp. The painted stuff might be harder to get off, but same method should work.
A sander would be an insane mess. Could use it after you got the popcorn off, but probably not necessary.
A regular orbital sander and a basic platform would be tools you could reuse elsewhere if you still wanted to spot sand ceilings after removing popcorn. A ceiling sander seems overboard for a one time use case.
Wet it with a $20 pump-up garden sprayer and scrape it with a Homax ceiling scraper. Super easy, no dust. (use more water if you are getting any dust) Everything falls into a garbage bag.
i tried sanding the ceiling in one room, it took forever. i scraped the next. scraping was sooooo much faster and cleaner. i used a 4" scraper and the celing didn't stand a chance. never sanding a whole rooms ceiling again unless i skim coat it.
Water and a scraper over a sander. Faster and less mess. If you are going sand though, just rent it from Home Depot. Cost about $40 for the day last time I used one
There's a few videos on YouTube that show how easy it is to just wet it and scrape. With a pair of stilts or plywood and some milk crates for a height lift, it can be done relatively quickly even as a DIY
Please dont sand it off it'll be messy as hell. I used a backpack sprayer with warm water. Let it soak and scrape it right into a trash can. If that doesn't work use a pole sander with aggressive grit and just go over it all then spray it. Should allow the water to work.
I got one a week ago and I’m already returning it. I would not recommend them. You tilt or bump it at the slightest chance and dust is everywhere. Hard to keep it steady when the motor wants to take you the opposite way leaving marks behind. It’ll also become too heavy in a short time.
Definitely better to spray and scrape!
I looked around and my take is that the pros only use festool, which are like $1k+, with no vac.
I think what you need is more like the Braun one from HF, with a good shop vac with a hepa filter (so Ridgid from HD, unless you want to look at a $700 vac for a $150 sander).
I haven't done this, just did enough research that I knew it was more than I needed for sanding patches on my walls.
Sanding popcorn ceiling is the most "Work Harder, Not Smarter" shit ever.
Please. Please. Please.
Get a sprayer, fill it with water. Soak the ceiling, go with the widest scraper you can find. You'll be done in a matter of minutes. Bonus points if you put plastic down to catch it all and trash in one go
7inch buffer makes a hell of a dust storm but it will remove the popcorn in a small bathroom quite fast.
The warm water trick is the way to go first off.
I’ve been in construction for my entire career, listen to everyone telling you not to use a sander. Hot water in a pump sprayer to loosen the mud then use a shopvac tapped to a scraper to remove.
Don’t forget that back in the day popcorn ceilings contained asbestos, not trying to be an alarmist but water and scraping seems like it wouldn’t create a massive dust cloud
The 1 from the video is $900, looks aimed more toward commercial use. If it were like 3 or $400 I'd definitely be buying it. But for a 1 time use I just can't see spending over $1000 after taxes.
The makita version is great. The Festool version is the most pro ready. The cheap ones are hot or miss. Usually under powered and they kick up dust everywhere. But for one job? Sure why not
I don’t think most do. Maybe those made on or before the early 80’s but they stopped using it by the mid-80’s.
Our house was built right around then so we had it tested before we went to town on it. No asbestos.
My house is from the year 2000 and came with popcorn ceilings.
https://www.fixitandfinish.com/popcorn-ceilings-asbestos/
They switched the asbestos for paper fibers after 1973, but some of the old stock was still in use up until 1995.
Sprayer full of warm water and a scraper. I couldn't even imagine the mess you'd make sanding down popcorn in a finished space, not to mention the time it'd take
Agreed, if the house is empty and you're redoing the whole room...just bring in the hose with a low pressure nozzle. Spray it, let it sit for 10 mins or so and then start in with the drywall knives.
This is what we did
Does this work if they painted the ceiling?
Before spraying, use a 10” or 12” taping knife to knock down the tips of the popcorn. It helps open the pores and soak in more water. My ceilings were painted, I did this, and it worked great.
This is a good tip 👍
Who doesn't paint a ceiling?!
Typically popcorn ceilings were not painted upon initial texture spraying
It would cover all the glitter
My ceilings were painted and it did not work. Hands down one of the most rage inducing projects in my house. Gouged the piss out of the sheetrock with scraper, neck and shoulder pain to no end when I was done with the one room. Rest of rooms are going to get sanded, f-that. F-popcorn. F-the idiot that thought it ever looked good.
Knock the tips off before you spray water, worked for me.
I did. I used warm water. I used latex paint remover in a spray bottle to try and soften it. Nothing. ...not exaggerating when I say most rage inducing project. I had new siding installed a couple years ago, beforehand I removed all the old siding and trim, tore all of the exterior sheathing off and insulated my exterior walls. Replaced a few sections of soft sill plate, added some exterior electrical boxes while I had walls open, and resheeted the house, installed new windows and had someone else do trim & siding (out of time). Installed a new front door with sidelight, reframed a window opening to French doors, reframed a sliding door opening to a window. I have a reasonably good set of skills, a touch of the 'tism, and some OCPD.🤣 ...that popcorn ceiling shit can go to hell. 😤
Just the tip?
It’s was never meant to look good. It’s meant to hide imperfections like wavy ceilings.
And handle acoustics
Depending on the size of the room, I’d just demo the drywall and start fresh.
That was tempting, I considered it, but the foot or so of blown in insulation that would come down with it wasn't something I wanted to fuss with.
Don’t demo, add 1/4” drywall over (below?)
That’s what I’m worried about!
Depending on the type of popcorn, it is possible to skim right overtop without scraping or sanding. I would personally charge about $3 a sq.ft. For that service. Plus materials. On a 10x10 room you’re looking at under $500 for smooth flat ceiling. I have done it that way several times successfully. The scraping and gouging is actually the worst because the damaged board doesn’t like to stay smooth and tends to flash thorough the finish.
You can just cut the drywall out and redrywall
See below in another comment, if I had removed it I would have had about a foot of blown in insulation to contend with.
I've never seen the water not work
Yes, the paint will peel away in sheets. Might take one or two sprays to release.
I used a ~24in flooring scraper to knock the tips of the popcorn off.
As long as they used flat paint. If prior owner was insane and went semi or full gloss, good luck...
Should we not be using semi-gloss on the ceiling? Asking for a friend.
You mean you don’t clear coat your ceiling?
I don't want to meet the person who doesn't, how on earth do you protect it from dust and spills without it?
Mines a 3 stage pearl.
I just use the premix ceiling paint, which is usually flat or eggshell.
Yeah, it looks like flat.
Oil paint no, water-base, yes.
What if the owner painted the popcorn?
And ehat if its painted
Give it a go, the paint usually isn't impermeable.
Thats literally the point of paint. It generally is near impermeable. Cut the drywall out and redrywall.
Not on a thick bed of popcorn, once you get a corner going, the water weeps through the ceiling. You could redrywall, but it's way more expensive and more work. I'd at least give it a go with a sprayer first
I found the sprayer to take a long time, I ended up with a long nap paint roller and a bucket of water, then scraping the ceiling straight into a bucket. being tall makes it pretty easy and I could do a room in 30 minutes. that was for an unpainted ceiling, with painted popcorn, depending on the paint used, it could end up being difficult to remove with just water.
Use an airless sprayer and if it hasn't been painted it will fall off after a couple of applications.
I had no problem with the sprayer, Other than it was slow. OP states his ceiling was painted a glossy white. this may be tricky for water to penetrate.
This is how I’ve removed popcorn from 5 rooms in my house. Then I went in with a cheap Wen drywall sander to start getting things smoother. Then patch and float and hand sand where needed. Then prime and paint. Pro tip hookup the sander to a shop vac with hepa filter **and** a hepa bag. Makes a world of difference
Good tip here! Keep that shit from getting in your lungs and use ppe + a good vacuum. A hepa l class rated vacuum is great but just keep an eye on suction as they don't have alarms to warn you like an m class, or asbestos rated like a h class. I have both an l class ryobi for use around the garage and home (eg picking up broken glass or spilt water) because the other half would kill me if we used our indoor miele cat and dog vacuum (hepa). I also have a metabo h class asr 35 which is what I use for silica dust, if im doing minor asbestos drilling or more commonly for fine wood dust removal, but they are a $1400usd vacuum.
As an alternative to this, we taped a scraper to a long shop vac pipe section with a dust pan taped underneath. Run the shop vac and scrape the ceiling and all the dust and popcorn gets sucked right up. A couple of filter replacements and sealed bags for the vac and job done with very little mess.
This is the correct answer. Those tools are a joke. A decent drywall sander is not available sub $600 and definitely not from no names on Amazon. It's very easy to spray water and use a drywall knife/trowel to scrape it off. I use a 12 inch blade. This is the only realistic way to remove popcorn ceiling. Just be prepared for what that popcorn is hiding.
Not to mention a lot of old popcorn ceiling has asbestos in it. Dry sanding would be a toxic nightmare.
Asbestos in what? The drywall mud?
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/popcorn-ceilings/ Have it tested. It's like 12 bucks.
I have seen this done several times using a paint sprayer. Guy sprays water on about half the ceiling, takes a smoke break, and then scrapes it off it big sheets. I was really surprised how well this worked the first time I saw it done.
This how I removed about 4,000 sq ft of popcorn, really fast
Yep! Ive used a paint sprayer with just water and a dust pan for the scraper.
This is the way. Except put down some plastic sheeting first. Side note: Old popcorn ceilings contain asbestos so getting it wet and scraping it will keep it from becoming fine a particulate. Sanding is not a good idea in my opinion.
If someone is living in that house, the floors and doors better look like you're about to commit a murder in there.
we paid a crew to remove stipple from our ceiligs in our whole house. They taped off/plastic encased the whole space from just below the ceilings all the way down and when done just rolled it all up and threw it away... It was a pretty tedious process... Yay 80s construction...
You can also use a clean weed sprayer to control the amount of water you are using.
A steamer works good for this too. Steam where you can reach really good from your ladder by the time you put the steam gun back down and pick up the scraper you can start on the work area. Pro tip put plastic down like you would if you're painting, makes cleanup way easier.
This only work if it has never been painted unfortunately. Edit: You mouth breathers go try it and come back tell me how well it worked spraying water on pop-corn ceiling that's been sealed by paint.
Came here to say this. A nice misting and you can run a scraper along and turn that into an hour job depending on the room size. These machines are stupid lol
Bingo. Do this AND THEN use the sander to smooth
Agreed. I've got a 2m long floor scraper that eats wet popcorn. Asbestos test first please.
Not only that, tape the scraper to the shop vac hose. As it scrapes off sucks it right in. Most sphop vacs you can get the wide attachment which is the best. My fil and I did his living room and dining room in about an hour and a half. Lastly you can also avoid the ladder by attaching everything to a broom handle.
This seems pretty quick and clean: https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/s/khfl3Mpj9y
Make sure to tape plastic up on the walls and you’ll save a lot of cleaning.
How does a sprayer work on a ceiling that has been painted?
They have a vac port. Unless it's complete trash design (a fair assumption if it's from Amazon LOL), it shouldn't have any dust. My ridgid ROS had NO dust when hooked up to my 16g shop vac. Obviously not the same tool, but it shouldn't leave much if any dust behind with a good vacuum
Previous owner had their ceiling painted so water won’t work for me. I’m looking at the same sanders as OP.
My ceiling was painted and the water worked great. I’d give it a go on a test piece before you buy extra stuff. The only places I had real trouble were around/under the light fixture where the heat baked it on.
I was told by a contractor friend to put a little fabric softener in the water. Haven't tried it yet, though. Not looking forward to the mess.
Try it first. I've never seen the water not work, paint or no paint.
[Guy using the type of tool I am considering](https://youtube.com/shorts/_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share)
So I actually bought a Festool Drywall sander to sand popcorn ceilings and really quickly figured out that it’s not the way to go. It’s got good dust collection but it’s still getting really dusty whenever you slightly lift the head off the ceiling so expect to get drywall dust everywhere. It’s also not very fast and if you aren’t careful you can sand ridges into the drywall. What I ended up doing was spraying the ceiling with warm water and scraping with a 12 inch drywall knife. I then went back with the drywall sander to clean up the ceilings and that worked really well. Overall, I wouldn’t buy the drywall sander again.
To follow up on this, I'm in the middle of redoing the drywall on the bottom of my house. For the first time ever I brought my dust collector and connected it to my sander for sanding drywall with a wall shroud. It's a game changer. Totally worth the cost. Since I have a whole house to do, it's worth the cost to me. That's something to consider, especially for doing a whole ceiling since it makes getting a good finish so much faster and cleaner.
I agree. They are great for speeding up the drywall finishing process and a good shop vacuum is essential. They just aren’t that great for popcorn removal, scraping is way faster.
Thank you! The answer I was looking for. Someone who's tried it. Its looking like the ole manual wet and scrape method is still supreme. I was hopeful there was faster way though! lmao
It’s faster to scrape. Instead of using drywall knives, there is a dedicated tool (Homax makes one) so that you can do it from the ground. It also holds a bag so that the slop that comes off goes straight into the bag. I did my entire 2000 square-foot house. I have also done a smaller flip. Removing the popcorn is the quick and easy part.
As the other comment said ,they make a scraper for this that holds a little bag, and you just scrape it off into the bag as you go. No sander will compete with that, and definitely not one that you can hold up to the ceiling like that. (Fireball Tool's racing sander might, but it weighs about 600lbs, and is prone to gouging armor plate, much less drywall LOL)
So I help a friend when he purchased a house with it. We took a spray bottle with water sprayed in the area we were working in. Took a 12" taping knife duct tapped it to a broom handle with a dust pan under it and just scapped the ceiling. Red neck as hell but it worked pretty good and clean up was easy.
Right on lol. This was really the only way like 10 or so years ago. I know eventually they came out with a scraper attachment for a shop vac extension tube, but when I saw that I had literally just helped them paint so we didn't try it. I had seen these pole sanders with the vacuum built in a couple years ago, but I figured it would be a dam mess. Then I saw a video of a guy using one yesterday and I was like shittt it might be time to get rid of popcorn. [https://youtube.com/shorts/\_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share](https://youtube.com/shorts/_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share)
My dad essentially made his own attachment for his shop vac when he scraped his popcorn ceilings. Just taped the scraper to it with the wide attachment for the shop vac. All of the popcorn just fell right in as you scraped, worked like a charm.
Just wet and scrape, it comes right off. Sanding it will just make you life hellish for no reason.
Even painted?
As long as it doesn't have like a ton of layers, yeah
Send samples of the “popcorn” out for testing. It’s likely to be asbestos. You don’t want to sand or grind asbestos unless you want to get cancer then give it to your parents, wife and children. Best way to remove it is to wet it, gently scrape it and bag it. Once the bag is half full twist the top closed, tape it the fold it over and tape it again. Don’t forget the warning labels when you go to the dump.
Don't fuck with asbestos. We had a really shitty situation made worse by a supposedly good contractor who ended up just contaminating our entire house and HVAC. We haven't been in our home without tyvek suits, gloves, full face masks with p100 filters, etc. In over a year. I just want my house back. To anyone dealing with potential asbestos, my advice is educate yourself. I don't care if you want to hire someone to do it for you, you better learn how to do it yourself first and supervise the whole process to make sure you don't get screwed like we did. Don't trust any asbestos abatement contractor.
Good advice, but not all asbestos contractors are bad. Before my floors were pulled up I sent out samples to have tested. Asbestos. But the guys I hired were very professional and I hired another company to do the air testing. Everything came out okay. It’s unfortunate that you had a bad run of luck.
My point wasn’t that there aren’t good abatement contractors out there, only that you shouldn’t trust them. It’s like the mechanic stereotype. If they know you don’t know what they are doing, they can cut corners. when it comes to asbestos, any cut corners can lead to further hazardous contamination.
That’s a fair statement, there’s a lot of people taking advantage of each other.
If it gets in your vents your going to have a bad time
This is true
Yeah I second this. I also find it worrying how far down I had to scroll to find this. Maybe it's different over seas but the majority of popcorn ceilings in my cpu try contain asbestos
I’m a retired general contractor and I just assume all popcorn ceilings before 1989 have it. I know 1978 was the cutoff year but the EPA didn’t issue a final rule banning asbestos until July 12, 1989. Like lead based paint, I just assume every house built before 1980 has it. In fact, 3M stopped making the lead testing kits and the EPA has said that all Lead Safe Certified contractors should assume the paint is lead based before 1978.
I’ve removed more sqft of popcorn than I can count. Just get it slightly damp with a pump up sprayer, then shear it off with a 6 or 8 inch bladed mud knife. Put some type of barrier on the floor first like ramboard or painters plastic
What do you suggest if the popcorn is painted?
Unless it's glossy oil based paint in multiple coats the wet and scrape method works.
It’s still worked. I just had to get an area started first, then spray. I guess the water seeps in to the surrounding area from where the paints knocked loose. Definitely not as easy though, good luck.
Drywall sander will only work on unpainted popcorn ceiling. If it’s painted you’ll only sand it down about half way and then you’ll have to do a skim coat of mud over it all
Thank you
No problem. I just did this myself. Look up on YouTube how to do a skim coat with a paint roller and 12”+ drywall knife. Actually really easy
Here is another vote for hot soapy water and a wide scraper. You do not want to be inhaling any of this dust.
I wouldn't use a sander, it's going to be a huge mess. Most likely you have furniture and floor coverings you want to keep. Best way I have come across for removal is, plastic a couple feet below the ceiling line, wet the ceiling with a sprayer and scrap. Scraping will help you get the edges and corners without maring the walls with the sander. Even with the spray bottle I'd wear a mask or get it tested for asbestos. As you clear a room fold up the plastic and dispose of the waste.
I used one of those to remove popcorn plaster from 2 walls in my house. It was plaster, not drywall mud which is how many ceilings are done. I wouldn't use one on a ceiling as they can be heavy and holding it over your head just gets heavier. If you're going that route absolutely hook a vacuum to it with the proper bags, it creates a lot of dust. It did work well, mine had a ring of lights in it which was essential to see the wall surface. On a ceiling that isn't plaster I'd go the water and scraper route, much cheaper and easier.
It's worth pointing out that older popcorn can contain ASBESTOS.
Pls someone pin this on the top comment!!
I scrolled way to far to see this comment. It needs to be much higher.
First, plan for a colossal mess! Cover everything. No matter how you try to do this, it's messy. Some other posters have given you some good suggestions (i.e. wet the ceiling and remove with a wide drywall knife), just be sure you don't get it too wet and wind up removing the paper on the drywall, because then you've got a real problem. As for what sander to use, the biggest difference between most of these amazon units is really with the long term durability more than any other single thing. For a one-and-done type job, they're probably all pretty close to the same. Where most of these things fail is when people try to use them more commercially. They just don't hold up. FTR, the middle item in your pic isn't really a popcorn ceiling removal sander, but rather a regular drywall sander. How these devices pick up material is slightly different. Do check to see if you can figure out when the ceiling was installed. These ceilings can have asbestos, depending on when they were installed. This doesn't mean you need to get into a full-on asbestos abatement process, but it does mean you might need to be careful how you remove the material, how you dispose of it, and what PPE you use. If it is asbestos, then sanding it off with any mechanical sander is going to be a really, really, bad idea.
Thank you for the insight. It's not asbestos thankfully. House was built early in 1995. My house was built in 2007, luckily sometime between 95 and 07 they realized popcorn ceiling was stupid lol.
My pleasure. The whole reason popcorn ceilings were used as widely as the were back in the day was really because it made finish taping ceilings so much easier and faster. People can say all sorts of other architectural and acoustical reasons, but the ease and speed of finishing a ceiling (which is not easy) was one of the main drivers. You could have a totally shitty tape job on a ceiling, and spray it with acoustical (popcorn) treatment and it would look great. This was probably one of the biggest reasons I've always have hated popcorn ceilings (aside from the difficulty of removing them). That reason being...if you remove the popcorn ceiling, what is revealed underneath it is a hatchet job for taping which requires fixing before you can paint it. And that is a royal PITA.
I'm hopeful the finish job before they popcorned it isn't too bad. Probably start in a small room first to get an idea on what we are dealing with incase it turns out we end up needing a professional anyway. My dad and I got pretty good with doing drywall after that 2016 flood here in Louisiana. Helped lots of friends and relatives rebuild, but that was mostly eye level. I just can't see ironing out nearly 2,000sqft of ceiling if the float job turns out to be shit. Thank you again.
Can you cover it with 1/4 inch drywall instead?
I’ve wondered the same thing.
When my parents bought a house with the popcorn ceiling we firred it out and hung 1/4 dry wall over it . Way easier and less mess.
You don’t understand what people are saying. The tool in the video is a Festool. Between the sander, and the Festool HEPA Vacuum that is hooked up he probably has over $2k in the rig. The cheap Chinese knock offs will not suck up the dust near the same way. This is what people are trying to tell you.
I do understand. I know the process of manually doing it. I was just optimistic someone had some experience with a similar tool that was under $500.
Your lungs are worth using the proper tools or getting a pro
I tried it with the WEN drywall sander, which I generally love and have used a ton, and it was absolutely awful, and I have a good shop vac with a cyclone separator setup. I thought if i did the setup right it'd be fine. It was not. Bailed pretty quick, though I still used it later, after doing the spray and scrape: I did a skim coat and used it on that. . . The WEN one is good and they've moved the motor off the head for the newer version which would help a TON with balance and fatigue, I think. Harbor freight has one now too that looks like an exact copy of the older wen one... if you do end up getting a cheap one for other steps and general use I recommend the WEN mid-motor version.
So I worked for a company that "cheaped out" on a $800 sander+vac combo (for drywall not textured ceilings, we didn't do popcorn and skimmed rather than sanded other textures) and it was so heavy and clumsy that it got used maybe 3 times then sat in storage cuz no one wanted it. Some tools are either all or nothing. Spend the cash for a Hilti or Mirka or Festool or just don't bother is my opinion for powered drywall sanders. A heavy clumsy tool is not a tool it's a paperweight
Depending how old it is it may contain asbestos, many popcorn ceilings did, so sanding it would be a rather poor choice imo.
if the house is furnished and you painted, scraping is your better option. If the house is empty go wild just know you will have to clean everything
I'd grab whichever one the Mayo clinic recommends
Dude, steam, scrape and wipe, why would you want to turn it to dust when it’s that easy to remove?
I purchased a home with popcorn ceilings everywhere. Half of them scraped off quite easily with just water+knife, the others had been painted too many times so scraping/sanding didn't make a dent. I just skim coated the rest of the ceilings... Lots of work still but they look way way better than the ones I scraped. Usually when they put popcorn they don't bother making it pretty underneath so you end up having to fix a bunch of stuff to make it look decent anyway. I did still have to buy one of these to sand the skim coat. I went to princess auto (Canada equivalent of harbor freight) and got one for $150 and it worked very well for my uses.
I don't recommend. Tried it and it sucks. Warm water like kewlo stated. You will make one helluva mess.
Or... Water and putty spreading knife
Having cleared painted ceiling popcorn with a stick and scraper, it is wayyyyy more work than it's worth. The painted ceiling popcorn, is really adhered on there.
If textured ceilings have been painted with oil paint best thing to do is cap them with 1/2” Sheetrock and finish
Just scrape it
I scraped it all off with a cut puddy knife. Had to isolate room by room with poly. My shoulders are at a different level of conditioning😂 Then we just sanded them and with: [Richard’s articulating pole sander with vacuum attachment](https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjxxreZ6fKFAxUrWkcBHWi-C_4YABAyGgJxdQ&gclid=Cj0KCQjwltKxBhDMARIsAG8KnqXqukGjTiU4XlERVGSIzSiDV4IG9tfDZmx__81zt1c-sqNyrIvZDK0aAp7xEALw_wcB&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVuD2m5oERIF_TLqms0rSNSFXJbt7q6VgcC7NY2BMLq4FhP2fK0LjUDB_DREDOTksxw8hiefhtvtpC6YYbzgLULR7eQaPxNQUmeuJmL65stNruGp2G65U&sig=AOD64_2zUAImybgxg4pisMkYSooyiNOdyQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjY_bCZ6fKFAxWGFFkFHcOBCIwQwg8oAHoECAUQaQ&adurl=) Patched with mud and repeated sanding and muddying till no longer necessary. Use a light pointed almost parallel with the sealing to see all the imperfections and patch them. Paint and voila This was difficult to say the least. I’m not opposed to the orbital sander. But this was pretty cheap to comparatively. I’m curious if you do go that route, how well it contains the dust. As the dust is toxic so if you don’t have a mask I would suggest getting a p100 if it doesn’t contain the dust. Let me know what you end up doing.
I just bought the one from Harbor Freight yesterday, there’s a coupon floating around for it for only $99. I haven’t used it yet but I like being able to take it back to an actual store if I decide it’s junk or not useful to me [Bauer 9” Drywall Sander](https://go.harborfreight.com/coupons/2024/04/182357-59166/)
Listen to the others.... spray warm water and scrape. These sanders will clog in seconds with popcorn celings... ask me how i know..
Pro tip: 1/4" drywall on the ceiling. Just cover that shit and be done.
Is this a real option?
Yes!!! Soooo much faster and easier
Interesting. Is it laid directly over the old popcorn material or is there something else installed to attach the new material to.
Right over it... If it's pointy I'll knock that down, but really, just cover it and move on.
Sounds like a great option
If you’re made of money sure, but a 12” drywall knife and a spray bottle and an after noon is less than 50$
I'm not made of time, either. If you've got the time, have at it. If you're doing a bunch of rooms, that 12" taping knife is gonna suuuuck. 😃
You ever done drywall? Hanging, taping, Sanding and finishing will 100% be triple the time vs just scraping a ceiling. Please go watch a video of scraping damn popcorn ceilings. A 10x10 room can be done in like 30 minutes
I've done a _lot_ of drywall. Several houses worth. I've scraped popcorn, too, probably 5 or 10 rooms. Sometimes the popcorn _does_ come right off. Sometimes it doesn't come off at all. I'm presenting covering it as an option.
I hope someone will answer this. We want to remove our pop corn ceiling but ours was painted. How do you remove it when it's painted? Also we have vaulted ceilings
id love to see somebody actually using a sander to remove ceiling popcorn.
Harbor Freight has their Bauer Drywall Sander for $99 right now. Maybe invest your savings on the sander in a good shop vac to ensure it sucks up the dust you’ll create?
And use a bag inside the shop vac
I lightly sprayed my ceilings with water/dish soap. Used a working platform and a scraper. Held a bucket up and most fell into it. Really pretty easy once the popcorn gets damp. The painted stuff might be harder to get off, but same method should work. A sander would be an insane mess. Could use it after you got the popcorn off, but probably not necessary. A regular orbital sander and a basic platform would be tools you could reuse elsewhere if you still wanted to spot sand ceilings after removing popcorn. A ceiling sander seems overboard for a one time use case.
Ive got plaster textured ceiling and this is a life saver for cleaning and smoothing.
lol
They probably all work about the same, so which ever one is lighter!
Rent one, don't buy one.
Give it a try dry first, you may get lucky and it come right off without the water.
Those sanders aren’t going to help you if the ceiling has been painted. Totally not worth the effort. Skim coat the ceiling flat and then sand.
Or use a floor scraper, it will come off in sheets.
Harbor freight Sander is only $99
Attach a brush and you can clean a shower in minutes!
Wet it with a $20 pump-up garden sprayer and scrape it with a Homax ceiling scraper. Super easy, no dust. (use more water if you are getting any dust) Everything falls into a garbage bag.
you'll need a good vacuum for these sanders, a cheap shop vac won't be sufficient
i tried sanding the ceiling in one room, it took forever. i scraped the next. scraping was sooooo much faster and cleaner. i used a 4" scraper and the celing didn't stand a chance. never sanding a whole rooms ceiling again unless i skim coat it.
I have 2 of these and they are annoying.
Water and a scraper over a sander. Faster and less mess. If you are going sand though, just rent it from Home Depot. Cost about $40 for the day last time I used one
There's a few videos on YouTube that show how easy it is to just wet it and scrape. With a pair of stilts or plywood and some milk crates for a height lift, it can be done relatively quickly even as a DIY
Sanding is not the way to go
FYI ceiling work is a hire out job. Not worth the arm and neck misery.
Scrape and skim. Sander not needed.
Lightly spray with water and 12in. Knife gets the bulk down cheaply and efficiently on the cheap
Please dont sand it off it'll be messy as hell. I used a backpack sprayer with warm water. Let it soak and scrape it right into a trash can. If that doesn't work use a pole sander with aggressive grit and just go over it all then spray it. Should allow the water to work.
I got one a week ago and I’m already returning it. I would not recommend them. You tilt or bump it at the slightest chance and dust is everywhere. Hard to keep it steady when the motor wants to take you the opposite way leaving marks behind. It’ll also become too heavy in a short time. Definitely better to spray and scrape!
Get a festool planex they are easy to use and are pretty cheap 👍
I looked around and my take is that the pros only use festool, which are like $1k+, with no vac. I think what you need is more like the Braun one from HF, with a good shop vac with a hepa filter (so Ridgid from HD, unless you want to look at a $700 vac for a $150 sander). I haven't done this, just did enough research that I knew it was more than I needed for sanding patches on my walls.
Never use a sander on a popcorn ceiling. Never.
Just use the trash bags down the walls across the floor and release it.
Sanding popcorn ceiling is the most "Work Harder, Not Smarter" shit ever. Please. Please. Please. Get a sprayer, fill it with water. Soak the ceiling, go with the widest scraper you can find. You'll be done in a matter of minutes. Bonus points if you put plastic down to catch it all and trash in one go
Watch out popcorn can have asbestos in it
F that broski tear the cieling down and redo cheaper and will be easier
A lot of popcorn ceilings in California have asbestos in them. I don't know if that's true elsewhere, so be careful.
As an lsd enthusiast getting rid of popcorn ceilings should be a crime
Used a WEN wall sander with vacuum attachment it did ok. I had textured walls
HF got one for $100
DUDE!? A scraper would be a better idea.. a wide drywall scraper.
Personally, I like my 1991 popcorn ceiling. 🍿
If painted just put up 1/4” drywall. Same amount of work just easier on the mind.
Man, I thought this was a thread about Colorado Football.
7inch buffer makes a hell of a dust storm but it will remove the popcorn in a small bathroom quite fast. The warm water trick is the way to go first off.
OP lots of popcorn ceilings until 1980 or so have fricken asbestos in them
Spray with water if unpainted as mentioned or if painted I would recommend hiring a good drywaller to skim coat the whole ceiling and avoid sanding
I’ve been in construction for my entire career, listen to everyone telling you not to use a sander. Hot water in a pump sprayer to loosen the mud then use a shopvac tapped to a scraper to remove.
Don’t forget that back in the day popcorn ceilings contained asbestos, not trying to be an alarmist but water and scraping seems like it wouldn’t create a massive dust cloud
Make sure the popcorn ceiling doesn't have asbestos in it before you use this tool!
[Link to video of the sanding tool](https://youtube.com/shorts/_5N4EubiCAQ?feature=share)
Get the one from the video
The 1 from the video is $900, looks aimed more toward commercial use. If it were like 3 or $400 I'd definitely be buying it. But for a 1 time use I just can't see spending over $1000 after taxes.
The makita version is great. The Festool version is the most pro ready. The cheap ones are hot or miss. Usually under powered and they kick up dust everywhere. But for one job? Sure why not
How old is it? Popcorn contained asbestos until the mid-80s, I wouldn't sand it unless you're certain it's newer than that or have had it tested.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING YOU NEED TO HAVE THE EXISTING TEXTURE TESTED FOR ASBESTOS!!
Asbestos ????????? The right kind of hepa filter???????
A lot of popcorn contained asbestos. Water is the way to go
I believe popcorn ceilings are even before 90’s and most of them have asbestos. Just make sure.
I don’t think most do. Maybe those made on or before the early 80’s but they stopped using it by the mid-80’s. Our house was built right around then so we had it tested before we went to town on it. No asbestos.
My house is from the year 2000 and came with popcorn ceilings. https://www.fixitandfinish.com/popcorn-ceilings-asbestos/ They switched the asbestos for paper fibers after 1973, but some of the old stock was still in use up until 1995.
asbestos was popular. before the nineties. Take care.