Why Replace Popcorn (Stucco) Ceiling With a Flat Ceiling During Home Renovation
Posted Thursday, March 16th, 2017 | 2,751 views
Recently we were doing a home renovation job for a home in Kitchener. While we were doing our work we decided we’d shoot a video to give you an example of how to replace a popcorn stucco ceiling with a flat ceiling, and why it’s better to do so.
Upgrading your ceiling with a flat ceiling is one of the best renovation jobs you can have done on the inside of your home. Why? There’s a slew of reasons but one major reason is because depending on the age of your home, there is a slight chance that your stucco ceiling has traces of asbestos in it. Another reason is because pop corn ceilings were popular mainly because they easily his imperfections in the ceiling.
With today’s standards in home building and renovations, one doesn’t want to hide an imperfection, but instead, one wants to make the area of the home perfect. Hiding imperfections during building and renovations may have been a thing in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but these days home owners looking for custom builders that can make their homes look flawless.
Another reason to replace popcorn ceilings in your home with flat ceilings is because flat ceilings are more versatile. With old stucco ceilings you’re quite limited and almost all modern day ceiling fixtures do not integrate as nicely as they do with finished flat ceilings. A finished ceiling ensures new fixtures integrate seamlessly and always looks in style and up to date.
How do you replace stucco with a flat ceiling?
Unless you have a background in renovations, carpentry and building, you probably need to hire a professional so the job is done right. If you do have a background then you can gain some tips from the video below. In either case you can watch the video and learn a few quick tips on how to properly create a flat ceiling in any room of your home.
In the video above, we had Mike who is one of our Master Plasters explain the process of renovating a popcorn ceiling with a flat ceiling.
When he started out he was already on his second coat. At this point it looked much better because right after removing the popcorn texture, the ceiling won’t look too good. It needs to be refinished at least a few times to get that smooth look going.
- first the popcorn texture needs to be scraped off
- secondly all imperfections need to be worked out so the ceiling appears perfectly straight and level
- make sure to trowel in a certain direction to ensure there are no bubbles or bulges (see video)
When need to be careful when scraping off the popcorn stucco because it is quite messy. It’s best to have all of your furniture and floors covered in plastic sheets because the dust will get everywhere. This is one of the reasons it’s better to hire a professional renovations company because they use special covering and equipment to ensure there’s a high level of dust control going on.
Usually two coats will take care of making sure everything is smooth, but sometimes a third coat is needed.
Once the the ceiling is complete we’ll post more pictures and a video so you can see the final product. Stay tuned.
