Popcorn ceiling removal in Houston.
Ray prices your popcorn ceiling on its square footage and the condition it's in, and for most homes he writes the estimate on the spot.
122 Google reviews, 5.0 average.
What popcorn ceiling removal in Houston includes.
Popcorn ceiling removal in Houston is the job of taking the sprayed-on acoustic ceiling texture off, repairing and smoothing the drywall underneath, and priming and painting it so the room ends up with a flat, finished ceiling.
Rise and Prime Painting offers professional popcorn ceiling removal services in Houston and North Houston: Tomball, Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe and Humble. Ray Gomez owns the company, he has over 20 years of experience in the trade, and he comes out to look at the ceiling himself before anything gets priced.
Taking the texture down is a small share of the labor. Containing the room takes longer, and so does repairing the drywall underneath, which was never finished to be seen. Walls in the same rooms can be priced on that visit too, as interior house painting in Houston.
- Priced on square footage and conditions
- EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
- Price fixed for the agreed scope
Text Ray a photo of the ceiling.
One photo of the whole ceiling and one up close of the texture show Ray whether it's vaulted or painted over, and both of those move the price.
Or request the free estimate onlineWhat a popcorn ceiling removal proposal can include.
Ray evaluates a popcorn ceiling "based on square footage and overall project conditions rather than just a flat per-room number." The proposal for your ceiling lists which ones apply.
Protection and containment
Plastic down, the room closed off, the dust kept in one place.
Popcorn texture comes down wet and heavy, and it lands on everything underneath it. Containment is the plastic on the floor and walls and the sealed-off doorways that prevent dust and wet texture from getting out of the room you're working on and into the rest of the house.
Popcorn ceiling removal
Softened, then scraped down to the drywall.
Unpainted texture softens with water and scrapes off with a wide blade, which keeps the paper face of the drywall in one piece. A ceiling that's been painted at some point won't take the water the same way, and that's one of the conditions that changes the job.
Surface repairs or skim work
What the texture was hiding gets fixed.
Under the popcorn you find tape seams, nail pops, old patches and cracks that were never finished flat, because nobody expected them to be seen. Skim coating spreads thin compound over the worst of it, or the whole ceiling, so it reads flat under light.
Sanding
Where a flat ceiling gets decided.
Compound is sanded between passes. Light from a window runs across a ceiling at a low angle and shows every ridge, so a ceiling that looks fine from a ladder can look rippled from the couch.
Priming
New compound and bare drywall sealed before color.
Fresh compound and bare paper soak up paint at different rates. Primer evens that out so the finish dries to one sheen, and you don't see the patches through the paint.
Painting
The ceiling color, and the walls if you want them.
The finish color goes on last. With the furniture already moved and the floors already covered, it's a sensible moment to repaint the walls too, or to add wallpaper removal in the same rooms.
Check the age of the ceiling before it comes down.
The year the house was built tells you most of the health and safety picture before removing popcorn ceilings: what's in the texture, and what's in the paint on top of it.
- The texture: sprayed on, and the first thing to come off
- Paint over the texture, on ceilings that were painted
- The seam between two boards, taped and covered in compound
- A fan or light fixture mounted on the ceiling
- The drywall underneath, which nobody sees until the texture is gone
A ceiling seen from the side, room below. Not to scale.
Asbestos in older texture
In homes built before the 1980s, popcorn texture may contain asbestos. You can't tell by looking, so an accredited lab should test it first. A positive result makes it a job for an asbestos professional.
Lead in the paint on top
Plenty of popcorn ceilings were painted at some point. In a house built before 1978 that paint may contain lead, and a company paid to disturb it has to be an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm. Rise and Prime is one.
Fans, fixtures and vents
Anything mounted on the ceiling sits in the way of the blade, and whatever stays up gets coated in wet texture. Mention ceiling fans and light fixtures when you book so they're on the proposal.
The drywall underneath
Nobody sees it until the texture is off. If removal turns up damage outside the agreed scope, that's handled as a change order. The price for what's on the proposal stays where it was.
He properly patched the damaged areas, smoothed everything out, and blended the repairs seamlessly into the existing ceiling.
Joel Morales, Google review
The order the ceiling work goes in.
The removal process starts with containment, and nothing is primed until the ceiling has been sanded flat.
Ray looks at the ceiling
He measures it and checks whether it's been painted. For most homes the written estimate comes on the spot, and the price is fixed for that scope.
The room is protected
Floors and anything staying in the room go under plastic, and whatever containment your proposal calls for goes up before work begins.
The texture comes off
The texture is softened with water and scraped off with a wide blade, down to bare drywall.
Repairs, skim and sanding
Seams, cracks and old patches are fixed, the surface is skimmed where it needs it, and the whole ceiling is sanded flat.
Primed, painted, walked
Primer, then the finish color. Then you walk the room with us and the punch list is handled before the job is closed out.
Rooms covered, ceilings finished.
Recent interior jobs: furniture wrapped, floors covered and a ceiling rolled out, the setup that comes before any finish goes on.
Take it from the people who've hired us.
Popcorn ceiling removal questions.
How much does popcorn ceiling removal cost in Houston?
Popcorn ceiling removal in Houston is priced on the square footage of the ceiling and the overall conditions of the project, so Rise and Prime doesn't publish a flat price per room. A painted-over texture, a vaulted ceiling or a lot of drywall repair underneath all move the number. Most professional projects begin around $1,000, which is the residential project minimum, and Ray writes the actual price once he's seen the ceiling.
Do popcorn ceilings contain asbestos?
Popcorn ceilings applied before the 1980s may contain asbestos, and the only way to know is to have a sample tested by an accredited lab before anyone disturbs the texture. Scraping puts whatever is in it into the air of the room. If you know when your house was built, mention it when you book, and get the test done first if the ceiling could be that old.
What is the quickest way to remove a popcorn ceiling?
The quickest way to remove an unpainted popcorn ceiling is to mist it with water, let it soak in and scrape it off with a wide blade, after it's been tested if the house is old enough to need that. Painted texture won't take water, which makes popcorn removal slower and harder on the drywall. Scraping is also only the first part: the repairs, skim coat, sanding and primer that follow decide whether the ceiling ends up flat.
Is it worth removing a popcorn ceiling?
Removing a popcorn ceiling is worth it when the texture is stained, cracked or flaking, when the room is being repainted anyway, or when the house is going on the market and the ceilings date it. It's harder to justify on a sound ceiling in a room you're happy with. We won't put a figure on what it adds to the value of your home, because that depends on the market and the rest of the house.
Can popcorn ceilings be smoothed?
Yes, a popcorn ceiling can be smoothed by removing the texture, repairing and skim coating the drywall underneath, then priming and painting it. Skim work is what turns a scraped ceiling into a flat one, because scraping leaves seams, nail pops and gouges that show once paint goes on. Hanging new drywall over the old ceiling is the other route, and it's a bigger job.
Do you serve my area?
Rise and Prime offers popcorn ceiling removal across Houston and the north side: Tomball, Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe and Humble. Ray comes out to look at the ceiling himself anywhere in that area, and the estimate is free.
Book a visit to see the ceiling.
Which rooms, roughly how big, and the year the house was built if you know it, and Ray will come out and measure it himself.
- 122 Google reviews, 5.0 average
- EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
- Fully insured
Get the ceiling priced.
Tell us the rooms, roughly how big they are and when the house was built. Ray will measure it and write a price for that ceiling, with the scope listed.
The painting cost calculator gives a ballpark for painting the walls, and it lists popcorn ceiling removal as work that's priced after Ray has seen it. The ceiling visit is booked like any other free painting estimate in Houston.
Get my free estimateor call Ray on (443) 743-8052