Problem with the rough texture of plaster ceilings and walls in living room and dining room?

Question

The house was built in 1954, and the walls and ceiling are composed of early drywall (very small sheets) and a finish coat of plaster over the drywall. On the living room and connected dining room ceiling, someone put on a textured plaster coat, probably over the finish coat at a later date. The texture is terrible, with what I call stalagtites... numerous ridges 2" long and roughly 1" apart, hanging down up to 1/2".

I've tried to knock the ridges down with a scraper, with limited success. In one area, the texture plaster separated from the ceiling entirely, but in most places it's holding firm. The scraping has resulted in reducing the height of the ridges, but it still looks terrible. Sanding the entire ceiling seems like a ton of work and I'm dubious about results. I'm looking for suggestions on how to either smooth the ceiling to a "milder" texture or to remove the texture coat of plaster entirely.

I've also wondered about getting someone to put a smooth coat of plaster over the ceiling. although there would be issues on extending the coat into the kitchen.

Answer 1

Cover floor with a tarp and use a crowbar and start ripping it down believe it or not it is the easiest thing to do in this case if you do it yourself it will also be the cheapest. adding compound to your ceiling may cause it to get to heavy and fall. Good luck......

Answer 2

I know the ceiling you are talking about. They are stalacites. Back then there was no such thing as drywall. 2" wide strips of wood were nailed on the wall at a 45 degree angle to the upright and the rafters on the ceiling. This was the backing for the plaster mud the grey coat and the white coat that is applied next a couple of times and spread out smoothly. That was about it. Ceilings were done the same way....but you can image how much harder it is to make smooth as it wants to fall down. It was harder to make smooth over a larger area and really showed the bumps once ceiling lights became popular. So putting up "stipple" was a way to hide the imperfections. The stipple was done with a long bristle brush. This was a in style back then, especially in European homes. I had a friend just recently strip her ceiling of this stipple pattern, and it took her quite a while. After that the ceiling needed levelling. So how do you get it off. A scraper - putty knife like which can be slipped under the stipple layer(as it is done after the flat ceiling is done and dry,so basically you have 2 layers. It can't readily be sanded as the plaster is "plaster of paris" which is quite hard - harder than drywall mud. Remudding the ceiling(yeah we thought of it and saw that would be even a bigger problem. Don't remove the plaster completely if you can help it as the white plaster of paris finish is usually on a coat of grey cement. This job was very similiar to the job done on the outside stucco(in fact many stucco applicators once did this job before on the inside) They basically don't exist anymore. Have fun. I wouldn't do it.

Answer 3

Actually, it's called Knock-Down Plaster. There really isn't a good way to take it down or cover it up.The only way to get rid of it is to completely tear off the ceiling and walls and put up new drywall. You can sand the ceiling down, but it takes a lot of work and time and there really is no guarentee that it will look any better than it does now.

Answer 4

My mothers house has similar problem. Years of stuff on the drywall. Wall paper over paint and paint over wall paper. There is one solution remove the sheet rock and start over. Sometimes it is best with a clean slate. Also if you remove the drywall you can add insulation behind it. Which is likely lacking in a house built in the 1950s.

Answer 5

that textured coat sounds like what is referred to as "popcorn" by painters and designers and if it is as old as 1954, it is most likely highly toxic. everytime you scrape at it, small particulates of it fly into the air and into your heating ducts, and lungs, cycling it all over your house. Inhaling too much of this stuff is also VERY bad for you- a lot of that old plaster and paint contains carcinogenic elements like lead.
I would hire someone to deal with it professionally, or failing that, wear masks and cover the ducts in the room that you are working on to prevent it spreading into the rest of your house. it also does take forever to get rid of, so good luck scraping.

Answer 6

If the textured wall is peeling or plaster and textured joint compound are falling off, remove loose material with a scraper, sand and coat the surface with primer/sealer before skim coating. - See more at: http://www.proconstructionguide.com/how-to-remove-drywall-texture/