Serving Alamance & Guilford County, NC Call or text (336) 380-9459

Popcorn Ceiling Removal in Burlington, NC

Popcorn and knockdown texture taken off, ceilings skimmed smooth and repainted, across Alamance and Guilford County. Your furniture gets protected.

Quick answer

Popcorn ceiling removal in Burlington NC is not the scraping, it is the skimming afterwards. Anyone can take texture off. Making the flat ceiling underneath look like it was always flat is the actual job.

Popcorn ceiling removal in Burlington, NC. We scrape texture, skim the ceiling flat, repaint it and put the room back, across Alamance and Guilford County.

Scraping is the easy part

Texture comes off wet. That part is messy and unpleasant and genuinely not difficult, which is why so many people start it themselves on a Saturday.

What stops them is what is underneath. Under that texture is a ceiling that was never finished to be looked at. The tape joints were done to a standard that assumed texture would hide them, so there are ridges where the sheets meet, fastener dimples every sixteen inches, and a general waviness that the popcorn was specifically installed to disguise.

Scrape it and stop, and you have swapped a dated ceiling for an ugly one. The job is the skim coat that comes after: floating the joints out wide, filling the dimples, sanding it flat, and priming so the paint goes on even. That is where the time goes and that is what you are actually paying for.

Asbestos, and being straight with you about it

Texture sprayed before the early 1980s can contain asbestos. If your house is from that era, it gets tested before anyone scrapes anything. That is not us being cautious to sell you something. It is a genuine hazard and disturbing it without knowing is not a risk worth taking in your own home.

Testing is cheap and quick. If it comes back positive, removal is licensed abatement work and we will tell you that plainly and point you at it rather than take the job. If it comes back clear, we get on with it.

Protecting the room

Wet texture goes everywhere. Floors get covered and walls get masked before anything starts, and furniture either leaves the room or gets sealed in. We would rather spend an hour on containment than have you finding grey specks on a skirting board in March.

Dust from sanding is the second half of that problem and it is finer and travels further. Doorways get sealed and vents get covered so the rest of the house is not breathing it.

Knockdown, swirl and the other textures

Popcorn is the common one but not the only one. Knockdown, swirl and stipple all come off the same way and all need the same skim afterwards. Some heavily-textured ceilings are faster to cover with new board than to strip, and if yours is one of those we will say so, because it is the cheaper answer and it gets a better ceiling.

While the ceiling is open

This is the right moment for anything overhead. Recessed lights, a ceiling fan box, a bad-looking vent, an old fixture you have hated for a decade. All of it is easier before the ceiling gets finished and painted.

It is also the moment most people finally deal with the walls. A room with a fresh flat ceiling makes the trim look tired, so drywall repair and trim carpentry tends to ride along with this job. The finished tile kitchen in our recent work was exactly that: texture off, drywall repaired, painted, trimmed, floor down.

What it costs

Price is by square footage, ceiling height, and how bad the ceiling is under the texture. A single room is a different job to a whole house, and a whole house is meaningfully cheaper per square foot because the containment and setup only happen once. If you are considering doing more than one room, do them together.

Call (336) 380-9459 and tell us how many rooms and roughly what year the house is, or see the rest of what we do.

Questions we get asked

Does popcorn ceiling contain asbestos?

Texture sprayed before the early 1980s can. If your house is from that era it gets tested before anyone scrapes anything. Testing is cheap and fast. If it is positive, removal is licensed abatement work and we will tell you so rather than take the job.

Can I just paint over the popcorn instead?

You can, but painting texture usually makes it heavier and more obvious, and it makes future removal harder because the paint seals the texture against water. If you want it gone eventually, take it off now.

Why does the ceiling need skimming after scraping?

Because it was never finished to be seen. The tape joints, fastener dimples and waviness underneath were hidden by the texture on purpose. Skimming, sanding and priming is what turns a scraped ceiling into a flat one, and it is most of the labour.

How messy is it?

Wet scraping and sanding both make a mess, which is why containment happens first. Floors covered, walls masked, doorways and vents sealed, furniture out or wrapped. We would rather spend the hour up front than have you finding dust for months.

Is it cheaper to do the whole house at once?

Per square foot, yes, noticeably. Containment and setup are a fixed cost that happens once whether we do one room or six. If more than one room is on your list, do them together.

Related work we take on

Still looking up at popcorn?

Tell us how many rooms and roughly what year the house is. We will give you a number.

(336) 380-9459
Call or text (336) 380-9459