Nancy wants to know: “I have a problem in a couple rooms of the house. On the ceiling I have the old popcorn texture. It is very dirty in some areas and is actually flaking off in some others. I have seen other homes that do not have this popcorn stuff they have a different type of ceiling. Can I change mine?”

The quick answer is yes. You can remove the popcorn and go with a different type of texture. It can be difficult and very messy, though.

Popcorn texture, sometimes call cottage cheese texture or acoustical texture, is used quite regularly throughout the U.S. The texture comes from polystyrene or Styrofoam bits of varying sizes mixed in to a sticky liquid base. The product is purchased dry and mixed with water, and is available in various textures. The amount of water used in the mix is critical to a good job. Too little water and the product will not spray smoothly. Too much and it will tend to show small cracks as it dries, plus its hiding ability and adhesion will decrease.

The product is applied to large areas with a compressor-powered gun called a hopper. One or multiple coats can be applied, though too thick a single coat is not advisable.

The flaking is typically caused from improper installation, lack of priming prior to installation, or some type of moisture problem.  Priming before texturing seals the surface so that the appearance of the finish is uniform and so that no water solubles in either the drywall or the drywall compound soak into and stain the finish. An added benefit is that the priming will also seal in any residual dust from the joint finishing, insuring there will be no areas that will spontaneously loosen in the future. This is a particular problem in bathrooms, and open-air patios where the less than ideal adhesion can cause the texture to literally come off in sheets!

In your situation. Once it begins to flake you can either patch the small area or remove the popcorn completely. If you decide to patch, understand that it is very difficult to get the new texture to match exactly. They do have small cans of popcorn patch that you can purchase at most home improvement stores. This is the easiest repair, but it definitely doesn’t look the best.

Before you decide to remove all of the popcorn and start over, a word of caution.  The application of sprayed-on asbestos-containing coatings was banned in 1978, but a lot of popcorn ceilings installed as late as 1986 contain asbestos in the mixture. It’s possible that your ceiling contains an asbestos level of 3 to 8 percent. I cannot stress enough how important it is to treat your ceiling as though it contains asbestos. Don’t get the notion you can scrape the popcorn off the ceiling today without doing your homework. Learn about asbestos and consider the consequences before you begin. You can scrape a small section off of the ceiling, place it in a sealed plastic bag, and have it tested by an EPA certified testing lab. It is important to wait for the results before beginning any removal project.

Once you have determined that your popcorn doesn’t contain asbestos, now the real work begins. Although this is a relatively simple process, it does involve a lot of preparation work to protect the walls and the floors from the mess. The first step is to move the furniture from the room. Remove any light fixtures from the ceiling. Be sure the electricity is off before messing with the fixtures.

You will need to cover the walls and floor with several layers of heavy duty plastic. You will be using water to remove the acoustic ceiling so be sure to cover everything real well. It would also be a good idea to roll out a layer of rosin paper. This paper will absorb some of the water that falls from the ceiling and will prevent the floor from getting slippery. It will also reduce the possibility of tracking debris into other parts of the house and make clean up easier.

Use a simple an air-pressured pump garden sprayer (weed or fertilizer type) or just a hand spray bottle and fill it with warm water. Work in an area about four to five feet square. It's better to make several passes and then let the ceiling soak up the water. The acoustic material can absorb a lot of water and the trick is to wet it thoroughly but not over wet it. Too much water can damage the paper surface of the wallboard underneath.

Use a broad-handled 6- or 8-inch-wide taping knife (blade) or joint knife to scrape the moist material from the ceiling, but first file down the sharp corners to help prevent them from gouging the ceiling, which would require repair work later on. The water will do most of the hard work and the popcorn ceiling should nearly fall off by itself. If you run into spots that required hard scraping, simply stop, apply a little more water, wait for it to soak in a bit and then try again.

If you think it’s messy by spraying water on it to remove it, you should see how messy it is trying to do it dry. If you do not wet the popcorn before trying to remove it, it will be a chalky white powder airborne mess.

Once the old texture is removed, you are going to have to do repairs to get the ceiling ready for the new texture. One of the reasons that popcorn is used is that you do not have to get the drywall as smooth before installing it as you do with other types of textures. Therefore you are probably going to want to float out seams and imperfections with new drywall tape, as needed, and joint compound.  When the ceiling is nice and smooth it is time to apply the new knockdown texture.

The basics of a knockdown finish involve sheetrock joint compound sprayed in dollops over the surface of the wall, allowed to set briefly, and then lightly troweled to “knock down” the tops of the dollops, forming a rough, earthy, uneven finished surface.

First step is to thin the compound with water to the consistency of thick pancake batter. You don't want the compound too thick, or the nozzle will not operate correctly. It needs to be thin enough to leave the nozzle easily and spread evenly over the wall. Your best bet is to test the spray pattern on scrap material or a closet wall until you've adjusted the mud mix to the consistency you want. Different nozzles and adjustable tips also enable you to use a variety of spray techniques. Adjusting the air pressure may also help fine-tune the spray.

For large ceiling areas it is best to rent a drywall spray rig and a small compressor to apply the compound. The spray device consists of a large plastic hopper and a trigger-activated nozzle. Ready-mixed spray materials are available in dry form but are recommended only for small jobs and repairs. You can find all of these items at most home improvement stores, along with joint compound and a semi-flexible metal trowel, 18 to 24 inches wide. If you're not a master with a trowel, then use one with rounded corners, or round off the corners yourself to prevent damaging the drywall surface.

Spray the compound on the ceiling in even strokes to cover the surface in a fairly consistent amount of splatter. The largest “blobs” of mud used in the application are about the size of dimes or pennies.

After the compound sets for 15 to 30 minutes the sprayed mud will become tacky. Drying time depends on air temperature, humidity, mix consistency, etc. When the mud is tacky, but not dry, hold the trowel at an extremely shallow, flat angle and work it in strokes across the ceiling over the dollops of compound. The object is not to smear or displace the dollops, but to remove the peaks. The motion of the trowel pulls the mud achieving the rough, textured finish.

Once the entire wall has been troweled, the texturing phase is complete. Any small missed spots or repairs can be treated by simply dipping a paint brush into the thinned compound and “flicking” the mud onto the wall, simulating splatter from the spray gun. Just allow the patch to cure and trowel as usual.

Allow the compound to dry completely – at least 24 hours. Opening windows or using a box fan will assist the drying process. Once the mud is dry, simply prime and paint the textured surface the way you would new drywall. The resulting knockdown finish is a cost-efficient method to give new or old walls a handsome appearance that adds character to any room.

Now that you have a knockdown texture the only popcorn you will have should be covered in butter while you are watching movies in your newly renovated room.