Greater Lansing
Popcorn ceiling removal
A popcorn ceiling dates a room faster than anything else in it, and taking one off is one of the few jobs where a day of work visibly changes the age of a house. Here is what the work involves, what decides the price, and why the skim coat afterwards matters more than the scrape.
What is actually wrong
A popcorn ceiling dates a room faster than anything else in it. It was sprayed on by the acre from the fifties to the early eighties because it hid imperfect joints and deadened sound, and it has been out of favor for forty years. It also collects dust, yellows unevenly, and cannot be cleaned or patched without the repair showing. Taking it off and flattening the ceiling is one of the few jobs where a single day of work visibly changes the age of a house.
The work itself is straightforward and genuinely messy: the texture is soaked, scraped off wet, and the ceiling underneath is skimmed, sanded and left ready for paint. The scrape is the part everyone pictures. The skim is the part that decides whether you are happy with it a month later.
One practical note before anyone starts, because it changes who can do the work. Ceiling texture sprayed before the mid-eighties can contain asbestos — it was a normal ingredient until the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned it in textured products in 1977, and existing stock stayed in use for several years after that. On an older house it is a sample and a lab result, and it is quick. Most come back clear and the job proceeds as described here. The ones that do not are covered further down this page.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- On a house built before about 1985 we test the texture before we scrape it, and if it comes back positive for asbestos we stop and tell you. Removing friable asbestos for somebody else in Michigan falls under the Asbestos Abatement Contractors Licensing Act (Act 135 of 1986) and needs an abatement contractor license — the exemption for licensed trades doing incidental work stops at 160 square feet, which one room’s ceiling passes without trying. You are also allowed to leave an intact one alone, and covering or sealing it is usually cheaper than taking it out.
- No structural ceiling work, no lowering or raising a ceiling, no new recessed lighting. Moving or adding circuits is licensed-electrician scope and is arranged separately.
- Priming and painting the finished ceiling is a separate line and is not assumed. Making good here means paint-ready.
- Where the texture will not release cleanly — usually because it has been painted — the honest answer is an overlay or a tear-out rather than a scrape, and you get told that rather than charged twice.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Mask and contain the room properly — floors, walls, openings and the furnace return. This is the messiest demolition that happens inside a finished house, and most of the cost of doing it badly is paid in somebody else’s carpet.
Wet-scrape the texture rather than dry-scraping it. Slower, far less dust through the house, and much kinder to the paper face of the board underneath.
Skim the ceiling after the scrape. Underneath the texture is unfinished board with joints that were never taped to a visible standard, plus whatever the scraper lifted on the way through. A scraped ceiling is not a finished ceiling until it has been skimmed, sanded and checked under a raking light.
Repair what the scrape reveals — nail pops, failed tape, old water staining, and the cracked joint that was hiding under the texture the whole time.
Leave it paint-ready at a Level 4 or Level 5 finish, and tell you which, because on a wide ceiling in side light the difference is visible and it is a different amount of work.
Re-texture instead, where that is what you want. Not every ceiling has to end up flat.
On a pre-1985 house, take a sample and get it tested before anything is scraped, and give you the result in writing.
This work sits inside General Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
Ceiling area, and then the shape of it. A plain rectangle is one price; the same square footage broken up by a stairwell, a vaulted section, soffits and recessed lights is a different job.
Height. A flat eight-foot ceiling is worked from a bench. A two-story entry or a cathedral ceiling is staging, and staging is time.
Whether the ceiling has been painted. Painted popcorn resists water, scrapes badly, and sometimes will not come off cleanly at all — which turns the job from a scrape into an overlay or a tear-out.
What the board underneath turns out to be. A ceiling skimmed over old plaster, or one where the texture is the only thing holding a failed joint together, is found at the scrape and not before.
Whether you want it flat or re-textured, and what finish level the flat one has to reach.
Occupied or empty. An empty room is the cheapest day of this work there is.
On an older house, whether the texture has been tested — the result decides which of two different jobs is being priced, so the number comes after it rather than before.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Find the build year, from the deed or county records. Anything after about 1990 is a straightforward scrape. Older than the mid-eighties means a sample goes off first, and that is worth knowing before you book time off work.
- Photograph the ceiling, the room from a corner, and anything mounted in it. Height, lights, soffits and how broken-up the shape is are what decide the price, and all of it is visible in two photographs.
- Decide what you want underneath. Flat and paint-ready is the usual answer, but a fresh texture is cheaper than a Level 5 skim and some rooms suit it better.
- Clear the room if you can. An empty room is quicker, cleaner and cheaper than one worked around furniture.
- Do not scrape a patch to see how it comes off. On an older ceiling it tells you nothing useful and makes a mess of the one thing a lab would have answered properly.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
What does popcorn ceiling removal involve?
The room is masked and contained — floors, walls, openings and the furnace return — then the texture is soaked and scraped off wet rather than dry, which keeps the dust down and protects the paper face of the board underneath. After the scrape the ceiling is skimmed, sanded and checked under a raking light, because what is above the texture is unfinished drywall with joints that were never meant to be seen. It comes back to you flat and paint-ready, or re-textured if that is what you want.
Why does the ceiling need skimming after the scrape?
Because the drywall underneath was never finished. Popcorn was sprayed in the first place to hide joints that were not taped to a visible standard, and the scrape adds its own gouges and raised paper on top of that. A ceiling that has been scraped and painted without being skimmed looks fine at night and poor at four in the afternoon, when side light across a wide flat plane shows every joint and every divot. The skim, the sand and the raking-light check are most of the skill in this job and most of the reason two quotes for it can be very far apart.
What does popcorn ceiling removal cost?
There is no rate card for it. The number is set by ceiling area and how broken-up the shape is, the height and whether staging is needed, whether the texture has been painted, what the board underneath turns out to be, and whether you want it flat at Level 4 or Level 5 or re-textured. We come out, look at it, and put a fixed price in writing. Coming out to do that is not charged for.
How long does it take and can we stay in the house?
It is a scrape day, then skim coats that have to dry fully between passes, then sanding — so a single room is several visits rather than one long one, and the drying is not something that can be hurried. You can usually stay in the house; you cannot usually use that room, and sanding dust travels, which is why containment and sealing the return matter. The room comes back to you paint-ready and swept, not painted.
Do I need to worry about asbestos in a popcorn ceiling?
On a newer house, no. On an older one it is worth five minutes and a lab fee rather than a guess. Asbestos was a normal ingredient in spray-applied ceiling texture until the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned it in textured products in 1977, and because existing stock was exempt from the ban it stayed in use for a few years after. The practical line is the mid-eighties: newer than that and it is a straightforward scrape, older and we take a sample and get it tested before anything is touched. Most come back clear.
What happens if the texture does test positive?
We stop and tell you, and you have three options rather than one. Leaving an intact ceiling alone is legal and is often the sensible answer, since the material is only a problem once it is disturbed. Sealing it or covering it with new board gets you the flat ceiling without taking it out, and both are usually cheaper. Actual removal is licensed abatement work under Michigan’s Act 135 of 1986 — the exemption for licensed trades doing incidental work caps at 160 square feet, which one ceiling is already past — so it goes to a licensed abatement contractor and we will say so rather than take it on.
Can I scrape it myself?
On a newer ceiling, yes. It is wet, heavy, filthy work, and the part that beats most people is the skim coat afterwards rather than the scrape itself — getting a wide flat ceiling to look right in side light takes more coats and more sanding than it looks like it should. On an older house, get the texture tested before you start.
Do you work in Lansing, Haslett, East Lansing, Okemos and Holt?
Yes — Greater Lansing and the surrounding towns, which is where almost all of this company’s work is. It is also where the demand is: a large share of the housing stock around Lansing, East Lansing and Okemos went up between the 1950s and the early 1980s, which is precisely when textured ceilings were standard.
Book your popcorn ceiling removal
Send us the room — two photographs and the build year is enough to start. Somebody comes out, measures it, and you get a fixed price in writing before anything is touched. Coming out to look is free, there is no trip charge, and there is no call-out minimum.