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How to Remove Stubborn Stipple Texture

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As the best painter Sandy Springs has to offer, GreenWave Solutions gets involved in all kinds of cool and challenging projects.  One service that we have had many recent requests for is ceiling smoothing.  This includes both popcorn texture and stipple texture.

As a construction professional, I loathe both of these finishing systems because I know builders use them.  Textured drywall finishes are used to hide shoddy drywall finishes.  Drywall has 6 different levels of finish and here is a brief description of each:

  • Level 0:  Boards simply hung with no tape or mud.
  • Level 1:  Drywall and hung and taped, but the tape isn’t covered with joint compound.  Boards may have unfinished tool damage.
  • Level 2:  Boards hung, tape embedded in joint compound and screw holes are mudded.
  • Level 3:  Boards hung, tape and fastener heads embedded in joint compound, excess joint compound wiped clean.
  • Level 4:  Same as level 3, with two coats of drywall compound on fastener heads, tapes and other imperfections.  Then sand joint compound.
  • Level 5:  Same as level 4 plus a skim coat of joint compound on all drywall and full sanding.

Here is a great detailed explanation of drywall finishing

 

For ceilings and walls with a textured finish, such stipple, popcorn, knockdown or orange peel, you stop at level 3.  You can stop at level 3 because the texture is applied to cover the incomplete drywall finishing.

Typically, popcorn and stipple texture come off from ceilings quite easily.  However, when you run into a stubborn batch of texture, it is going to be a long project.  We ran into this on a project just a few weeks ago.

GreenWave Solutions was contracted to do stipple texture removal on a Alpharetta interior painting project.  After we finished covering walls and floors, the crew began removing the stipple texture.  They did the normal process of applying warm water onto the texture and scraping it off.

It wasn’t coming off without taking the drywall with it.

When I came to the house to check everything out, the first thing that noticed was that the ceilings were badly mangled with paper torn from the gypsum boards.  I told my operations manager, “Dude, Luis and the guys are going to have a long with this.”

After finding the guys through the maze of plastic sheeting, I was greeted with “This stuff doesn’t want to come off, man.”

My project manager, Luis, is as good of a PM there is and an excellent problem solver.  Had already Googled “how to take down ceiling texture” because this was worse than anything we had encountered in our 8 years working together.  He learned that by adding fabric softener to the water, it helps soften the texture compound.

It helped, but not enough.  After 2 days of fighting with this texture, Luis had enough and brought in the heavy artillery.  He went to Sunbelt and rented a commercial drywall sander with a vacuum attachment.  These Porter Cable drywall sanders is what I used to sell to huge drywall outfits to finish hotels and casinos in my days at Sherwin Williams.  My clients used these machines during the construction of places like Atlantis in Bahamas, The Wynn in Vegas, The W and Terminus in Atlanta.

We were using this on a 2500 square foot house.

A month ago, I would have told you using a commercial drywall sander for stipple texture removal was overkill.  Now, I have a new trick up my sleeve.  For less than $100/day, I can outfit my guys with a machine that does 4 hours of work in 20 minutes.

Once we got the ceilings smooth, we painted them and had another happy client.

Although this story has a happy ending, it isn’t all rosy sunshine.  There is no easy short cut to removing textures from walls and ceilings.  It is hard and labor intensive.  You have to have a strong neck to look up at a ceiling and work from a ladder above you head for 5+ days.

If popcorn ceiling texture removal and stipple texture ceiling smoothing doesn’t sound like something fun that you want to do during your free time, call the pros at GreenWave Solutions to do it.

I promise it will be worth money.

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GreenWave Solutions is the best painter Sandy Springs has to offer.  GreenWave Solutions offers painting in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Decatur, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Brookhaven, Duluth, Grant Park, Inman Park, Buckhead,Milton, Midtown, and more!

We also offer residential and commercial drywall contracting, wood flooring, and many other home improvement and remodeling services.

Ceiling texture removal, Atlanta Painting Company, House Painters, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Roswell, Marietta, Milton, Decatur

How to Smooth a Popcorn Ceiling

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Today’s Article is going to tackle one of the more tedious projects with which homeowners face:  Removing popcorn or stipple texture from a ceiling.

This is not a difficult process. It is, however, extremely messy, labor intensive, and tedious. It also requires good finishing skills for professional results. I am going to make this a step by step explanation.Gather all of your materials and supplies:

1. Gather your materials and supplies.

  • spray bottle with water
  • scrapers
  • plastic and construction paper
  • sand paper and poles
  • trash bags
  • dust masks
  • eye protection
  • paint brushes
  • drywall compound
  • finishing knives
  • paint

2.  Prepare the area.

This is going to be a dusty, messy process so proper preparation is imperative.  Move all the furniture out of the room or into the center of the room.  If the furniture stays in the room, cover it with plastic and tape the plastic.  Cover all floors with plastic or construction paper.  Also, cover A/C intakes or turn of the HVAC altogether.  The drywall dust is so fine it will go into the ventilation and get spread throughout the building.

3. Start removing the texture.

Both stipple and popcorn texture are water based products.  The easiest way to remove them from your ceiling is by spraying them with warm water and letting the water seep into the texture.  After a few minutes, the texture should be soft enough to be scraped off.  How easily the texture comes off depends on many variable and can’t be accurately determined until you start scraping.  Continue removing the texture as described about until it is all gone.  You are done for the day.  Let the ceiling dry and get some rest because your neck and shoulders are probably sore.

4.  Refinish the ceiling.

This takes some skill.  There is no doubt that the ceiling looks like it needs help.  Get your drywall compound and finishing knives ready.  I recommend buying a 5 gallon pail of joint compound or the bag mix so that you can make as much as you need.  Now that you have your finishing tools ready start refinishing the ceiling.  Remember that the less compound you use, the less sanding and dust you will have to deal with in step 5.  After you have finished applying drywall compound on the ceiling, take lunch and give the compound time to dry.  Dry time depends on temperature, humidity, and the type of compound you used.  I recommend 45 minute compound.

5.  Sanding and touch up.

Now comes the really messy part.  Put on your dust mask and eye protection.  Sand the entire ceiling until it is smooth.  If there are areas that don’t look right, touch them up with more compound and re-sand it after it dries.  Once you have the ceiling smooth, dust it with a damp rag or paint brush to get the loose dust off of it before step 6.

6.  Prime and paint.

You’re almost done!  I know that step 6 says, “Prime and paint”, but you may not have to prime.  If you are using flat paint, which I recommend on ceilings, then you can paint directly on the finished ceiling.  If there are water stains, then they do need to be primed using an alkyd or shellac primer/sealer.  After the paint dries, do a walk through and address any areas that need to be touched up.  If everything looks good, then proceed to the last step.

7.  Clean up.

This should be a welcome step by now.  Clean up all of the plastic and paper, put the furniture back and enjoy your nice smooth ceiling.  Hooray!

If you just got through smoothing a textured ceiling you are probably thinking, “I am never going to do that again.  Next time I am going to hire a professional.”

That’s when you call GreenWave Solutions.  We are Metro Atlanta’s best painting company.  We serve Atlanta, Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Chamblee, Cumming, Duluth, Dunwoody, Doraville, Grant Park, Inman Park, Milton, John’s Creek, Sandy Springs and more.  Call us for the best interior painters in Alpharetta!

Simply put, GreenWave Solutions has the best painters in Atlanta.

By: Daniel Macris, President of GreenWave Solutions, the best house painters in Atlanta.

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