How does popcorn ceiling removal work?
The texture is wetted, scraped off, and then the bare ceiling underneath is skimmed, sanded, primed and painted. The scraping is the fast part. The finishing afterwards is most of the work, because the ceiling under the texture was only ever finished to the standard the texture was going to hide.
The test that comes first
Acoustic ceiling texture applied before the early 1980s can contain asbestos, and in some cases so can the joint compound underneath it. Scraping it dry sends it into the air of the whole house.
On a ceiling of that age the material gets tested before anything is disturbed. If it comes back positive, removal is regulated work with its own containment requirements and it is not a scrape and skim job. We will say so rather than working around it.
Preparing the room, and the scrape itself
Everything comes out or gets covered, floors included, because wet texture falls in sheets and dries hard wherever it lands. Fixtures and vents come down or get masked. The ceiling gets misted with water and left to soak so the texture releases instead of gouging the paper facing underneath.
Then it is scraped, and the debris is bagged as it comes off rather than at the end.
Scraping is not finishing
Underneath the texture you usually find a Level 2 or Level 3 finish, taped seams with a coat or two on them and nothing else, because the texture was doing the hiding. There are often gouges from the scraper as well.
So the ceiling gets skimmed, sometimes twice, sanded flat, and primed. A large flat ceiling in daylight is the least forgiving surface in a house, which is why this is where the real hours go.
What you end up with
A smooth ceiling, primed and painted, with the fixtures reset. Some people ask for a light knockdown instead of smooth, which is faster and hides more.
Ceilings are a good time to deal with anything else up there. If recessed lighting is going in or a fan is being moved, doing it while the ceiling is already open and being refinished saves a second round of patching.
The Work Behind This Answer
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