A pic would be great.

Do not tear it down if its the ceiling below the attic - you will end up with lots of insulation on your floor.

Cover it with another sheet of 1/2" DW and be done with it.

Wear a mask

Sounds to me like it might be a lathe and plaster application and not a sprayed 'popcorn' application? If it scraps off with a putty knife, easy job, scrape, touch-up mud, paint, etc. If it's lathe and plaster, take the car for a drive and forget about it!!!

Ceilings 'can' be the most expensive surfaces to finish, that is why they are done so cheap; they're a pain in the but! Changing from sprayed texture to paint grade can add alot of costs to the home construction, costs that typically are not recoverable, but personal taste. I have built a few homes with painted ceilings and crown mouldings, looks very nice, but uncommon.

My vote: forget about it. Paint them if you must?

Cheers ;)

Great point, probably true. I would not tackle this immediately anyway, but was thinking in the next year or so...

crappy cell phone pic, but you get the idea. It's mainly the first floor that drives me nuts. MBR has a higher ceiling and it's not as noticable...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1203714491.jpg

Dave absolutely nailed it. :D

looks like the spray application, should scrape off easily.
Keep in mind that your walls have about 3 coats of mud to prep for paint finish, the ceilings likely only have two and will require a finish coat prior to painting, in all likelyhood?

Cheers,

Really tough to tell, maybe a stomped or sponged ceiling? If that's the case, the texture is a mix of sheetrock mud and paint, should come off easily with some water and a putty knife.

Hard to tell with that pic but it looks to me like thinned down joint compound sprayed on the ceiling and rolled with a paint roller.

Adding a layer of drywall will be a lot of work.
Making it smooth will be a lot of work.

Try a closet or something small.
Sand or scrape off as much texture as you can.
Apply 2 skim coats.
Sand and paint
Let us know how it turns out.

I skim coated every surface of my house during a recent remodel. I try to get the walls and ceils as smooth as possible. Texture bugs me. Its a cheap way of finishing that is meant to hide imperfections and save cash.

Hard to tell what you have there. Might as well try water and scrape. Man that popcorn makes a mess, hopefully yours won't be as bad.

I may try a small section and see what happens. Hard to believe it will scrape off nicely, but maybe if sprayed with water as other suggested - worth a try. It is VERY hard to the touch - you could cut yourself on the sharp points, it's like cement. As for now, I'm about to walk downstairs to this, and forget all about it...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1203720946.jpg

A kegorator, you lucky SOB!

Yes, with TWO beers on tap. Wait, why am I still in the office? See you later...

Looks like a knocked down and painted acoustic to me.
Here is the deal. Cover with 1/4 drywall and tape and mud/ or float existing. Same amount of labor with either. Take your pick, shouldn't be to expensive either way.. I would go for the float myself.
Float it and keep 1/4" ceiling height.
Trust me, I do this for a living.
P.S. If you are talking about the bar ceiling, your F-ed, that's a drop ceiling.