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

Question

My 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

This is going to sound nuts but read on -- take a hard look at your room(s) and consider if it would be feasible to place new drywall over the existing walls and ceiling. It isn't as crazy as it sounds...a length of angle steel can be used to knock off the 'spikes' on the existing walls and ceiling and strong screws could attach the drywall. A layer of adhesive can be used in addition to screws on the ceiling panels for extra piece of mind. The outlets and switches can be repositioned using a spacer especially designed for this (they are the thickness of the drywall and sell for about fifty cents apiece at Home Depot/Lowes), the window trim and crown mldgs. can be removed and resued and only a minimum of taping and plastering will be needed to smooth the seams. My dad and I rented a drywall 'lift' for $45.00 and hung about 600 sqft of ceiling in less than a day.
Just thinking outside of the box.....

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

Cowboy bill is the man and gets my vote, you can even get 1/4" tempered drywall in some areas of the country (US) I don't know about the island. If you haven't done drywall before, you may want to hire it done, here this is a two contractor operation often. One guy hangs it and another tapes and floats it, the issue about getting into the another room is handled with trim, you won't even notice the transition.

Some clown did my kitchen ceiling in an 80 year old house and the new ceiling is 1 1/2 lower on one side than the other, I wouldn't have known except when I installed the new cabinets, had to adjust the crown. Speaking of crown, if you put crown mldg. in the kitchen you don't have to tape it out onto the wall.

Answer 4

I had the same problem in my living room and adjacent dining room when I purchased my home (built in 1927). In the living room, I was fortunate because the "interior decorator" put the heavy stucco texture over drywall that was nailed and screwed directly to the plaster ceiling. I was able to pull down the drywall but I had probably 100 small holes to patch. In the dining room, the heavy stucco texture was applied directly to the plaster ceiling. My first method of removing the heavy stucco texture was to scrape it off using a very stiff 4" wide scraper/putty knife. However, this was very hard on my hands. I realized the heavy stucco texture was never painted, so I got it wet with a spray bottle of water, let it soften up some, and the stuff scraped right off. It was much easier on my hands and the ceiling, and I was able to get it done in much less time. Depending on the material that was used and whether or not it was ever painted, you may be able to soften it up with just water.

Answer 5

I remove acoustic ceiling coatings often. It is simple if you take the time to prepare.

Place plastic, paper or tarps to cover your floors. Get a good scraper, 6 to 12 inches wide and as light weight as you can find. Add a pole to it if it is too short. Fill a pump type, garden sprayer with ward water and spray the ceiling well. go back and spray again. when the acoustic coating no longer absorbs the water, you are ready to begin scraping. It will come off very easily. Do this in one room at a time.

You should also wear a respirator approved for asbestos dust, however, since the material is saturated be for scraping, there will be little or no dust created.

Answer 6

The technique for how to remove drywall texture depends on the material being removed and the condition of the wall. The most common technique for removing texture from painted drywall requires sanding off the high portions of the texture and filling it in with at least two thin layers of joint compound – called skim coating. Another technique for unpainted textured walls and ceilings, including popcorn ceilings, is spraying water on the surface to loosen the texture so you can scrape it off. - See more at: http://www.proconstructionguide.com/how-to-remove-drywall-texture/

Answer 7

I agree wit Cowboy, I've restored several homes and after learning the hard way I've found it easier in the end to just lay new 3/8" drywall over it. It is a lot easier than sanding and in the end you will have a brand new smooth finish you can do whatever you want with. lol

Answer 8

This is called Artex finish in the UK, You can scrape it off using a steamer but it is hard work and possibly dangerous as early Artex had some asbestos in it. The best solution is to flatten the points and get a plasterer in to skim it. Worth every penny.

DWD

Answer 9

do your self a favor it mite sound harsh.the fastest&easeyest way to deal with this is to rip the cieling down.from the time u plastic every thing off to 1/2'' dry wall up a diy'er could have done in a weekend with some help

Answer 10

I have had this problem...Quick fix...get a few gallons of texture paint and roll it on. This stuff is THICK and it will cover damn near anything. You will have to sand thi spaint once it cures, but its a lot better than trying to sand off all that crap...