Now we’re talking to Glynn in Florida. What’s going on with your ceiling?
GLYNN: Well, I’m trying to remodel a house and it has a popcorn plaster ceiling.
LESLIE: (chuckling) Yeah, a lot of people don’t like those.
GLYNN: What I’d like to do is get some advice on how to make the ceiling level and have a smoother finish on it.
TOM: Well, removing popcorn ceiling is a pretty messy job but, generally, the way it’s done is you want to spray it down – and you have to get it pretty wet – and then you’re going to have to take a spackle knife and you’re going to have to very slowly but surely scrape that away. The problem is, Glynn, that when you do this, what you’re going to find is that even when you get all that popcorn away, it’s still going to be fairly uneven. So you’re not going to be able to get so much away that you could paint it flush and have it be, you know, perfectly smooth. So what you might want to do is use a textured paint after that but one that’s not quite as bumpy and lumpy as the popcorn was.
GLYNN: I was thinking about using quarter-inch gyp board over it after the popcorn is off? Would that work?
TOM: Mm-hmm. Well, that’s a good idea.
LESLIE: Or it doesn’t have to be textured at all if you’re going to go with the fresh gyp board, which would be a new drywall, really. You know, once you plaster over everything, you could have a nice, smooth surface and go with just a paint.
GLYNN: Well, that’s a good thought.
LESLIE: Doesn’t always have to be textured.
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