Ok, let’s be completely clear about this—removing popcorn ceiling is not the most fun you’ll be having in your home this year. That pesky thing called gravity takes dust and debris and sends it everywhere. But wait a minute! Gables & Grove has a specific process for minimizing all of that. We call it the Gables & Grove Popcorn Removal Process, and here’s how it goes:
- We don’t just throw down some drop cloths and hope for the best. First, rolls of construction paper go down on your floors. Perfect protection from corner to corner, edge to edge.
- Then we completely cover that paper with a thin layer of Painters Plastic.
- Next come the misting sprayers to dampen the popcorn. Too little mist and you’ll create dust. Too much mist and you’ll have soggy drywall ceilings, and that’s a no-no.
- Now we scrape. Starting in the far corner we take wide drywall knives and manually scrape the popcorn from the ceiling, taking care to not damage the drywall above.
- All the large debris is down and now on top of that plastic we put down. We get out big contractor trash bags, ball the plastic up, and export that debris from your home direct to our work vehicles—not your trash cans!
- A new layer of Painters Plastic is put down over your paper-covered floor.
Let’s take a break right there and talk about how your ceiling goes from popcorn-free to truly smooth. The following describes how we did it for many years, and how every one of our competitors continues to do it:
- Go up with a first coat of compound, and let it dry overnight
- Come back the next day and sand that coat as smooth as possible (dust!)
- Apply a second coat of compound, and let it dry overnight
- Come back the next day, and sand that coat as smooth as possible (dust, dust!)
- An expert finisher (the guys and gals who do compound work) can achieve a pretty smooth finish with two coats. But, you guessed it, usually a third coat of compound is applied, and left to dry overnight
- The next day is sanded down nice and smooth (dust, dust, dust!)
- And one coat of primer is applied. The primer will reveal all kinds of ugly knife marks and imperfections in the finishing process that have to be touched up…with more compound…and more sanding (dus…ok you, know what I was going to say!)
- Touch-up priming, and now we’re finally ready for two coats of ceiling paint
Do you see the pain that can come from that process? Let’s list out some problems:
- That took at least 4 days
- It caused dust storms like Oklahoma had in the 1920s
- Then you had up to ½” of compound hanging over your head
- It took a lot of work to get a smooth finish, and it was never actually perfect
- The compound+primer substrate dried a gray-white, which even after two coats of ceiling paint gave a “dull” feeling to your new ceiling
Ok, let’s go back to the Gables & Grove Popcorn Removal Process to see how we do it nowadays. At #6, we left off with fresh plastic on the floor…
- Our skilled finishers apply one very thin coat of compound to the ceiling. The purpose of this skim coat is to cover any drastic elevation changes, pits, holes, deep gauges, etc. It’s so thin that it dries within two hours. We lightly sand that skim coat, and prime the ceiling. Why lightly, why not sand it like the other guys? We don’t need it to be perfect, because coming up next…
- We hang Systexx, the fiberglass drywall covering that becomes a permanent part of the ceiling and dries to a breathable, perfectly smooth, rock-hard crystal-white finish within 4 hours.
- Then we paint—two coats of your new color on this perfect, strong, crystal-white surface.
- You’re done.
Notice a few things?
- Barely a murmur about dust, or dust storms
- Your walls are perfectly smooth at the rate of 300 sqft/hour, which means your work is done in ⅓-¼ of the time!
- Perfectly. Smooth.
- We’ve minimized the amount of stinky compound that is being applied
- You’re going to get the true value of your color because we’re going over a crystal-white surface, not that dull-gray.
So, to answer to the question, “Is removing popcorn ceiling a messy, dusty process?, is “it’s up to you!”