They have paint specifically for ceilings which may cover a little better as it is a higher quality and is made to be a brighter white than the package color you got. But other than that you would be fine to use the 400 on ceilings.

Yes, avoid acrylic paint on your popcorn. Standard way of removing it is to thoroughly soak it with a garden sprayer and take it off with a putty knife. Should you choose to remove the texture one day, any acrylic coat you put on it will seal it against water penetration and make the removal much, much more difficult.

Be sure to thoroughly sand said spackle patches on the wall, and be sure to thoroughly clean them with TSP beforehand. But generally speaking, there should be no need to prime them.

Nows the time to scrape off those popcorn ceilings if you want them gone. Sounds like the edges are prepped for crown molding. You can spritz popcorn with water bottle wetting it thoroughly then scrape off with putty knife. It makes a bit of a mess, but is pretty easy. Just sand flat after, repair defects, prime then paint. The ceiling paint should be fine, but I would use primer on new surfaces with it. The emerald has primer in formulation and will go on fine on the painted walls. On new surfaces I'd still use primer with any paint. It promotes adhesion and blocks stains to give a much better finish. The prep work is always most important.

Seconded. DO NOT PAINT OVER POPCORN CEILING OP.

Popcorn ceiling is not hard to remove. It's just messy and time consuming. Popcorn ceiling that has been painted over is a whole different story because the paint is now acting as a layer of glue over top.

Easier to remove does not mean easy to remove. Any paint will make it much harder to remove in the future.

It needs to be said old popcorn ceilings can contain asbestos.

If you paint the popcorn ceiling whoever decides to remove the texture in the future is going to be cussing you out. Popcorn ceilings are easy to remove if they aren't painted.

Ouch. My parents painted over their popcorn ceilings multiple times. Assuming it has asbestos in it, getting rid of that is going to be expensive.

This is 90's construction so it should be asbestos-free.

I’m looking at a condo in a building from 1976. The entire place has popcorn ceilings. Should I assume the worst?

Only expensive if a removal company does it

> Seconded. DO NOT PAINT OVER POPCORN CEILING OP.

I must completely disagree. When I took possession of my home, the first tradesman in was the painter who sprayed all the ceilings with flat white enamel. Twenty four years later, they are still looking good.

The ceilings are sealed though. With a thin layer of paint as I have, I can tell by one area of inadvertent damage (oops) that a putty knife would take it off easily while dry as the paint offers a slight crust to give leverage.

EDIT: The paint was oil based.

I'm pretty sure cancer can end up costing a pretty penny.

You are fine with your plans assuming you are going to leave the popcorn for the next several years. I've used both products you mentioned for the same applications. 2 coats and you'll be good.

Also since I don't see it mentioned if you try and do anything but spray unpainted popcorn ceilings you will be scraping and removing them anyway.

Trying to brush or roll unpainted popcorn ceilings will start removing and or relocating the texture on the ceiling ruining it.

My point wasn't that it won't look good. My point was that if ever you decide you want a flat roof or some other texture, removing the popcorn becomes a real PIA after it's been painted. OP specifically made a comment about removing the popcorn later. If that's in the cards at all, they should not paint it.

I'm also guessing OP will be rolling and not spraying which will possibly have poorer results. Rolling an uneven surface can be tricky and may not work well.

Not necessarily. Asbestos was banned in the late 1980s for sale, but it still could've been used if a contractor had stock. So while your comment can be true, it is not entirely accurate.

Probably. Our place is mid 70s as well as there's asbestos in everything.

Hello, fellow American!

Exploitative healthcare system aside, were popcorn ceilings used in other parts of the world?

Dunno.

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> I'm also guessing OP will be rolling and not spraying which will possibly have poorer results. Rolling an uneven surface can be tricky and may not work well.

Having attempted to roll a ceiling, I'll vouch for that, and promise to never do it again.

Absolutely you should I think somewhere around 85 you can be less vigilant, but even then there was plenty of material left that could still be used either through loopholes or pure contractor bullshittery.

Should be but it's a gamble still

Okay, specifics time, I work as a paint specialist

ProMar 400 is a dead flat, so it's great for ceilings.

Less sheen means imperfections show leas, and since ceilings get hit by light at all sorts of angles, something like that is good.

You might come across "ceiling flat" at some point. It's the same as dead flat

"Premium" paints will have a slight side sheen, even when they say "flat"

Higher grade paints will say "matte" instead of flat, it's basically all the same, just the higher the grade of paint, the higher the sheen, usually. Higher grade satin will have a slight sheen difference to a lower grade satin. Always touch up with the same exact product if possible.

Emerald is expensive stuff, it's not bad but really expensive.

If it's for a flip, stick with "pro grade" products

If it's for a client's home, I usually recommend anything "premium" or above, aka, "paint and primer"

For the record, paint + primer does NOT mean you can skip priming, as others are saying, you can remove the popcorn ceiling, but I would definitely get some decent primer before painting over the removed ceiling. Also pretty much anywhere you put new spackle, new texture, new drywall, etc. Basically, if it's been painted before, primer can help if you don't want to sand the gloss off. If it's a new surface, priming is a good first step. This applies to wood, masonry, drywall, and metal when wanting to apply paints. Some paints, like DTM, won't need a primer, but it never hurts. Any water stains, sharpie markers, or graffiti, you want to use an oil based primer to keep it from bleeding through to the top coat. If you ever paint redwood, or cedar, use a good quality stain blocking primer to keep the oils in the wood from seeping through to your paint coat.

Primer will help seal the surface, and help the paint stick better, and it's cheaper to do a coat of primer, than a coat of sacrificial paint. Primer also typically dries quicker.

95% of residential architectural coatings are going to be acrylic these days, at least in places on the west coast.

Acrylic/latex paint = water based paint = soap and water cleanup

Mineral spirits cleanup = oil based paint

True but cancer from one time exposure is highly unlikely and with proper ppe & mitigation safeguards, which both are easily obtained and used in a home remodel cancer risk is zero

Yes. And in cases of uncertainty, it is best to assume that there is asbestos. And in cases of asbestos, it is better to leave in place if the condition is good.

this is why I sealed over top of my asbestos popcorn with several layers of oil primer, and painted once cured. It was in good non-crumbling condition.

test it, why assume.

On July 12, 1989, EPA issued a final rule banning most asbestos-containing products.

I think OP is safe. Regardless I would still wear a mask when I scraped it off just because there is still particulate matter that can cause respiratory irritation. Keeping the ceiling as wet as possible without wetting too much to damage the drywall is important.

YES. Definitely have it checked for asbestos. Almost guarantee it will have it in it. Anything past 1990 is usually safe.

Canada, yup

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I tried painting over popcorn ceiling once. The damp from the paint made it flake in a bunch of areas. It looked awful and I ended up having to have it removed anyway. And it was harder because it was painted and water wouldn’t dampen it as well.

I always put a drip cloth down and get a weed sprayer so I can throughly coat it. The drywall will dry out with a fan in a night and a 14” blade will make short work of it. Messy but a lot cleaner than sanding( dont even try)

The sanding is meant after removal. You have to sand ceiling once all popcorn is gone. I would never recommend sanding down popcorn.

You're not gonna get cancer from removing one popcorn ceiling. Don't be absurd.

Because it's not necessary? If you are gonna make it your job to remove popcorn ceilings, that's one thing. If you are removing a single one, you're fine no matter how asbestosey it is.

Popcorn ceilings are outdated and are hard to clean. Remove!

No. No. I can’t even fathom your first paragraph. Let’s start again. Load up some photos cuz this makes ZERO sense.

Cancer risk is never zero.

It isn't something that's going to give you cancer over the weekend. Get a proper respirator and disposal gear and clear the house out. This stuff gets you from working with it over a career and without proper PPE.

There's probably gas coming from your basement or drains that will get you faster than fixing the ceiling.

Banning new production ot outright requiring the destruction of existing stock? They put that shit in everything so there's still a chance it snuck in.

I didn't say the cancer had to come from the ceiling cleaning. It's never zero though, it's just close to zero.

My house was built in 1976. I had my ceilings tested and they came back negative.

As someone who has removed painted popcorn ceilings - it is miserable.
If you plan on removing the popcorn ceilings at any time in the future, don't paint them!!!
Test for asbestos and just scrape them off.

The comments here that mention protect the room, spray down the popcorn, scrape it off, then let it dry, sand / patch as needed and theeeeeen prime are spot on.

TONS of work. I do a room every 6 months. That’s it!

This will sound nuts but spray a little water on the popcorn and then it should scrape right off it is messy but it was fast to get it down. I found a dust pan in one hand to scrape it into with the other hand using a cheap plastic scraper worked the best, but ours was never sealed and the kids in bunk beds would run fingers and toes and what all across the ceiling cause it was right there....popcorn had to go

So, just to be on the safe side, I should smoke filterless Camels while scraping the popcorn off?

I'm probably too late to this but I am a restoration specialist. I'm the guy that makes the natural disaster/fire look like it never happened. So here's what matters:

1. Popcorn ceiling absorbs moisture. Water mist will remove it and so will latex paint since latex paint is water based. If you put latex over popcorn the popcorn can start to fall off or make a bald spot etc. If you are not planning to remove the popcorn then what you want to do is prime it first with an oil based stain block primer (SW has a good one that I use).
2. The stainblock primer will stop any nicotine or grease spots etc from weeping back through. If you skip straight to latex, nicotine is oily and will bunch up and make orange blobs in your finished product. BUT, primers also absorb. If you only use primer the ceiling will yellow with age and pick up dirt faster. So you need both.
3. Cover the stainblock primer with the flat paint they already sold you (this is the right product for ceiling). Both primer and paint can be rolled on with a 15mm roller just fine, just do one coat front to back and another coat side to side of each product so that you dont have missed spots.
4. The popcorn ceiling will look great for many more years and can be washed with a cloth or repainted for maintenance...but it won't be easily removable with water anymore.
5. If you have bare patches of popcorn DO NOT buy the spray can popcorn from the local hardware. It will not look good I can almost guarantee it, just going to make a mess.
6. If you are kinda handy and want to give it a shot, spraying popcorn is actually kinda easy because if it doesn't look how you want you can scrape it off in 10s with a wide trowel and try again. Equipment is rentable. There are 3-4 main types of ceiling texture, take a picture of your ceiling then do down to the place that sells it and compare your ceiling to the samples. Once you have the correct texture then spraying it just becomes a game of getting the ratio of water content, nozzle size, and air pressure correct. So spray at a blank wall and start dry, spray high and low pressure. Then add water, spray at high and low pressure. Eventually it will look close enough, apply to ceiling.

Good luck DIYers.

I haven't seen it posted yet but if you are keeping the popcorn, you'll want to spray the paint on instead of using a roller. Popcorn can easily be pulled off with a roller.

I dont think that is true. If you are mobilizing asbestos there are (maybe) laws about doing it. I think I have heard that if you find asbestos anywhere, you are required to use approved contractors to control and remove it. They use plastic doors and negative pressure enclosures to keep the fibers from contaminating the neighbors. The stuff kills people...eventually.

And bananas give you radiation too but that doesn't mean we go directly touching radiation because we can have bananas

Proooove it

Popcorn ceilings are very commonly asbestos containing and is considered high risk in my locale. It's very easy to become airborne when disturbed, and will stay airborne for days. If you are going to remove it, please educate yourself on local removal and disposal procedures.

With that being said, no city landfill is going to be checking what's inside your garbage bags, but please protect yourself and others as much as possible.

I am an Asbestos certified demolition tech.

Test the ceiling for asbestos if the house was built before 1980.

I use a pump-action sprayer tank to soak the popcorn before scraping it off.

You should probably apply knockdown joint compound texture to the ceiling, because under that popcorn you will find uneven joints--that's why popcorn was so popular with builders. If it's really bad, you may need to tape and smooth out the joints before applying texture.

When I ever inherit, I will. But judging by the year, I’m pretty sure there’s asbestos everywhere.

If you decide to remove the popcorn at any point, something to be aware of / consider:

Our friends who live in the home behind us removed theirs when they moved in, using the wet and scraping method others here mentioned. The unexpected issue they ran into, was once the popcorn texture was removed, they realized how bad the drywall seams and tape jobs were, and then had to deal with fixing that. I guess the builders did a subpar job taping and smoothing the seams knowing the popcorn would hide it anyway.

They also said the process was MISERABLE. The husband is a contractor and no stranger to that kind of work or laborious projects but said he’d never do it again. It’s the main reason we’ve decided to not mess with trying to remove the popcorn on our ceiling, lol. That might be uncommon, I don’t know, but we decided we didn’t want to take on that project, which sounds unpleasant already, and then find out we have same issue and a second project.

Can only do thin coats if it’s not already falling off

Well now, you're bringing back flashbacks of my late teens....damn I had sexy lungs back then

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Get rid of the popcorn ceiling. The ceiling paint you have will do the job. Don’t go with oil based paints because it’s a pain for anyone else that will paint the house. People are moving away from oil because of the fumes and chemicals. Not as environmentally friendly or some shit like that.

OP should still test it. When I was working doing gut jobs on old houses we found out a lot of popcorn ceilings from the mid to late 90s still contained asbestos. Just because the EPA mandated it doesn't mean people stopped using/buying old stock and using it anyways because it was cheaper/easier. Not worth the risk of future lung cancer IMO, especially when testing is relatively cheap/easy.

And some contractor could be sitting on old stock they want to use up. It makes sense to test well into the 90s.

Then you also need to be testing for lead. Asbestos can nail you after a long time. Lead can hit you much quicker.

Wait, is it actual popcorn or mud? I see a lot of people call things popcorn (ie the Styrofoam stuff) when its actually mud.

My house was built in the 90s and used mud for a popcorn-like effect. If that's the case, just skim coat it and move on. If you try to remove it, you'll end up damaging a bunch of the drywall and have to skim coat it anyway.

Thanks! I hadn’t thought of that!

No it's not that bad. I've done two house renos with bad painted popcorn with patches and we had a guy that troweled on drywall mud (2 or 3 coats) and sanded and painted. Smooth as silk. It's messy but not nearly as messy as scraping and turns out 100%. Too often people take the hard way when there really is an easier solution.

That’s awesome!! I will definitely keep that in mind!!!

Yep, I had this done before moving to my current place and am now finally getting around to repainting each room in turn. I got quotes for a few options, this skim coating over the popcorn, putting new drywall below it, and full scraping/removal and then skim coating. This was the cheapest option, though adding an extra layer of drywall wasn't much more - but it would have lowered the ceilings perceivably, whilst the skim coat is really only taking off maybe 10mm from the total height of the room - totally unnoticeable.