That's not popcorn it will not scrape off. Sand it down then skim the ceiling out

You want to coat over it and sand, same amount of mess but like 45% less work overall

Thanks for your response! Do you know what this kind of ceiling is called? I can’t find anything that looks like it and I need to see some DIY vids on it

I think it's close to brocade. I agree with others, sand flat and skim. You might primer after sanding to seal it a bit and skim over that.

Okay so I learned that this is called Stomp Ceiling, and it looks like it should actually straighten out pretty easily with a scraper. Not as deep as spray on ceilings, but that’s actually fine by me.

Thanks for responding tho!

Don’t scrape until you get it checked for asbestos. Mesothelioma isn’t pleasant.

Apparently it’s “stomp” which is a very fun name for an ugly ass design. Apparently (according to a few tutorials I’ve watched since I finally found the damn name for it!) you can either sand or scrape this stuff, depending on how easily it comes off with a scraper. Some people find the scraping easier, some prefer sanding. I’m gonna try both on a sample and see what seems easier/quicker and/or nicer finish for my ceilings, and will go with whichever I think might work best. Thanks for your help!

That pattern is from a texture mop/brush. I would call your ceiling a "swirled ceiling ". There's a few different types, knock down,swirl, skip trowel, popcorn , orange peel and... I forgot .
I would sand , skim ,sand, prime with a drywall primer then paint it. Or call a professional

Very true

Get it tested for asbestos first if it's possibly older than 2000. If it's older than 1980 then it's much more likely.

I have no helpful advice for you, but I wanted to let you know I am giving you an upvote for your use of the word "blorp"

First thing to consider if you want to remove this whether it was painted or not. It most likely was versus popcorn, which usually is not. Spray it with some water from a spray bottle and see if it softens and scrapes off easily. If yes, you are in luck, continue. If it was painted, scrape best you can, then skim coat.

If it's ceiling to the attic, i would do as recommended, sand it down, skim etc. Dealing with vapour barrier repair, insulation falling off, etc... no thank you

If it's elsewhere, i'd remove it entirely and start new. Especially if "paneling" esthetic finish of drywall is a trend that fits you, the job can be done so quick, no tape and mud. A bite more expensive, but so much less labour and (imo) beautiful result.

No input orher than your description using blorp, blorp, blorp put the correct image of your ceiling in my brain. Good job!

That is just sponge dipped in compound blorp'ped in random patterns. Should come off easy with a spray bottle of tap water, and a ceiling scraper on a pole. Not too much water, but enough to make mud loosen. A popular 1980's Midwestern surface.

It's just drywall mud.

You can scrape it some, but it won't all come off nice. You will still have to sand.

You don’t know that, and I’m currently acquainted with someone with mesothelioma, so I urge caution

That's just joint compound someone stamped on the ceiling and failed to knock it down like they're supposed to. Normally you stamp it, let it dry for a short time, then come back and knock it down with light pressure using a circular motion to blend the texture a bit and make it look good.

I had a room in my basement like this. I used my 10" mud knife to just scrape across it and flatten all the really pointy parts off so it was close to how texture is supposed to look. Then I used a wet rag to soften the edges, let it dry and then repainted it and it looked a lot better.

I am SO glad you posted this, I have the same texture in a bathroom, of all places! I thought it was called popcorn, because I hadn't found any other good matches when I searched it. I should still get it checked for asbestos, I guess, but good to know it's easier to get rid of than popcorn if it's not.

I have no advice whatsoever, just came by to say thank you for the use of the word "blorp" made my morning to say it outloud!

Yep! That’s the plan. Definitely doesn’t look painted, it’s porous as hell so here’s hoping.

What year was yours? If it’s post 89 it’s very unlikely. That said not a bad idea to check.

We had the same thing at our house. We ended up having new drywall put up over it. You can't scrape that stuff off, it is added on drywall mud not popcorn.

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I haven’t had good success scraping or sanding this stuff. When I remodeled my last kitchen, we just ripped down the whole sheets of drywall and put a new ones up.

It's a stipple or stomp ceiling. Achieved by dipping a sponge or brush into drywall mud and creating a repeating pattern all over the surface.

As others have said, wear proper ppe, and wet a test area and see if it softens to scrape most of it off. If not, rent a sander and dust extracter and sand it down. You'll likely have to sand either way to get a consistent paintable finish

Yep! Luckily my in laws actually own a great sander for this project, we built out a basement suite in their house with all new drywall and it was well up to the task, so if the scraper method doesn’t take, I’m in good shape. I just try to avoid sanding at all costs because I have asthma and even with PPE the dust gets to me.

It matters if it's been painted or not. If painted it will be that much more difficult. Try a couple test patches to try to determine if you can get it moist. I ended up scraping both painted and unpainted.

I watched a few YouTube vids ("that kilted guy" has some good ones) before scraping my house. You will also want to be prepared to re-mud and fix damage to the Sheetrock as you'll inevitably do. If you expose sheetrock paper, use the pro-99 stuff before trying to mud or paint over it or you'll be chasing bubbles in your mud.

Another option is to rent one of those porter cable sanders that connects to a shop vac. It won't totally eliminate the texture, but it might knock it back enough that it's virtually unnoticeable. In any case protect yourself from breathing any of that crap.

Oh yeah, drywall dust is the worst! I've found those vacuums that attach to the sanders are very effective. Good luck!

That is the plan, do a test patch with a scraper and a sander.

Definitely hasn’t been painted, I was able to chip a piece off and you can tell the surface is the exact same as the interior, I’m REALLY hoping it sloughs off with spray and scrape, I have a lot of health complications that get exacerbated by using a sander so I’d need to hire someone if that happens

And yeah I don’t need a perfect flat, if I can get it something like this, I’ll be completely happy with it, cuz that will look nice with a coat of paint over

I hadn’t realized how bad it is for your hair! I only shampoo every few days to stay healthy, but that stuff just soaked up all the oil in my hair like dry shampoo and ruined years of work lol

Stiple.

plastic bag over a sponge or float would create the effect.

Liberally spray with water, scrape, sand to level, apply skim coat (watered down drywall compound to the consistency of yogurt), sand, apply skim coat to any problem areas, sand, paint

I have done this all over my house to great success. No reason to think it wouldn’t work for you.

It's how it is done. You take drywall mud, and you mix it with water. Take a mop looking device and put it into the bucket, then put it onto the ceiling. Then pull down.
Another way is to use a sponge. Another way is to use a tile grout float. It was a fairly common texture technique.

EVERY ROOM in our 1994 constructed house was treated this way (AKA stippling, and yes, even inside the closets). We had some renovations done two years ago, and found it was cheaper to drywall over than to scrape or sand it off. Sanding creates a huge mess, and is labor intensive. And scraping not only creates a mess, but you can accidentally gouge the drywall, even when the scraper edges are rounded off. So add those repair costs into the scraping labor, and the price and time increase. Two drywall professionals installed 1/4" gypsum board, mudded, and sanded the areas we had done in less than two days.

That is plan A for sure! I’m still getting moved in and settled, but figured I’d lay the groundwork for long term projects

I call it “mop head” cause that’s kinda how you make it

Right on. Shoot me a message if you have any specific questions once you get around to it.

This type of texture is what can be called "stomping". It's just a large and flat brush that's dipped in watered down drywall mud and "stomped" against the ceiling. If it's painted, getting it off will be a bit of a pain, but all you need to do is take a scraper and scrape off the mounds before sanding the rest down. It's the same process whether it's painted or not, but painted texture is much harder to sand off as paint is designed to withstand that sort of thing.

Re: the asbestos comments… Can you just screw new drywall over top of it so you don't have to deal with it at all?

I mean it was built in 93 and I think the ceilings actually even newer than that. They’re already low ceilings, I done want to lose anymore space. I’ll probably get a sample tested but I don’t have concerns about asbestos at all tbh

Found out it’s apparently called “stomp” because the brush is “stomped” on the ceiling.

The builders NEVER paint this type of ceiling, it’s a feature of why they do it, because it’s white and covers all the seams. Would only be painted if a former owner did it.

Old drywaller here. To remove texture ceiling we used to trowel drywall compound over it,

wait for it to soften, an hour more or less. Then scrap the resulting goop off the ceiling with a 5 or 6 inch trowel.

Neat, thank you for that! Is there a reason you do that as opposed to water or wallpaper remover?

That’s what I’m thinking, I think all the paint advisories are more applied to other textured ceiling types, I can’t imagine how many coats it would take to work over this stuff that has the shape of upset whipped cream! So hopefully it should be pretty easy!

I've always known it as slap texture.

From experience, it takes at least 3 coats of ceiling paint to properly cover this texture. You will NOT get full coverage after 2 coats, and after dry color match is nearly impossible, so poor coating will always be visible.

This will not scrape off! The high spots have to be knocked down with a floor scraper and the entire surface has to be skim coated and sanded several times, and it’s a shit-ton of work…Source: just did redid this exact ceiling in a 3000 sq ft house. It was weeks of waking up with drywall dust in every orifice of my house and body…also pretty sure some of this stuff is asbestos mixed in, so don your PPE as if your life depends on it, because it probably does.

The other option that was considered was laminating 1/4 drywall with spacing shims, and then tape and texture and paint everything, but when I added up the cost of material and time, I went with the skim coats option. It was 3 weeks of my life, I don’t care to think about; TBH.

I actually have no firm info - from the colors used to tile and the look of the rest of the bathroom (and because I know the family living here at the time did a lot of updating), I would say mid-80s. It does look later than the popcorn era, and later than asbestos, but as you said, still wouldn't hurt to check it.

Artex- unless you installed it, you don’t know what it is without testing

Yeah my grandpas place has this ceiling everywhere in his house. He had black mold in the bathroom and this ceiling tore up all the sponges I had to remove the black mold. It sucks.

Have you ever done this style of texture. I bet not. Have you even done any drywall work at all.

Guess what used to be a common additive to drywall mud...

The drywall mud is typically where asbestos is found. If the construction falls in the years when asbestos was used, might as well get it tested.

Why are you so invested in arguing against a simple test in a reasonable situation that can prevent catastrophic lung damage? I never said you were wrong. We can both be right. Those are ways to do the job. There are other common ways to do the same job, and unless you installed it, you don’t know for sure. Risking asbestosis/mesothelioma for want of convenience is not reasonable, in my opinion. Good night..