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- 1960's home with popcorn ceiling in 3 bedrooms. I had the popcorn material tested for asbestos - 2% Chrysotile. After much reading and consideration I decided to remove the popcorn material myself. I followed the instructions at pscleanair.org to a T. A couple days following the removal I had a TEM Asbestos Air test performed and no asbestos was detected. Sweet! Given the number of popcorn ceiling threads on these forums I thought I would post a few of the things I learned that may help someone in the future.
- The work is difficult from a physical and mental perspective. It took me about 3 hours to wet, scrape, clean and paint each bedroom with all of the gear on and it's like working in a sauna. I was very anxious for the first 15 minutes of each room due to breathing difficulty and thoughts of something unforeseen happening. I was drenched in sweat and extremely thirsty after finishing each room.
- It took me another 3-4 hours for each room prepping and putting up plastic. I completed one room each day.
- I splurged on a nice full face respirator. I felt like (not tested) the mask sealed well against my face and there was no fogging. I think fogging would have been a bad problem if I had purchased a half mask and used goggles.
- The floors get very wet and I had some water leak through a taped floor seam on the first bedroom. Double tape the floor seams.
- I had a corner of the wall plastic come down momentarily in the second bedroom. Double taping the wall corner seams is also a good idea. These minor breaches were one of the reasons I decided to do the post abatement air quality test.
- Leave plenty of clean, dry towels at your exit point. Your body and everything else will be soaking wet.
- I tried my best to stir up asbestos dust during the post abatement air quality test. I was sweeping and had the mini-splits cranked up. I read about people using leaf blowers for this testing but I didn't go to that extreme.
- Speaking of mini-splits, they were very difficult to cover with plastic. The intake of the mini-split is about 3" from the ceiling making the wall seam impossible to tape without disturbing the popcorn. I had to make some custom frames and pre-tape the plastic to the frames before finally sealing the frames to the walls with duct tape. I wondered what the pros would have done in this situation.
- I spent around $800 bucks doing this myself. $350 air test, $165 for the bags and disposal, $130 for respirator, and couple hundred more in plastic and duct tape. Probably saved myself a couple thousand? I only talked to one contractor on the phone and he was not confidence inspiring.
Summary - removing popcorn ceilings properly with the right PPE is a pain in the butt. It can be done successfully to save some bucks if one has enough time and patience.
I forgot to mention the drywall which fortunately looked taped and mudded properly. However, the drywall was holding some super rancid smoke odors. I had to prime the ceilings a second time with Zinsser BIM primer which got rid of the odor.
For the life of me I just cannot understand going through removing pop-corn ceilings. I say paint it and forget it.
The popcorn was looking dirty and dingy and we didn't like the aesthetics. My kids also disturbed the popcorn from time to time throwing toys and balls around. They pay no attention to me when I say don't throw stuff against the ceiling it's not good for your health.
Yes, I certainly underestimated the time and difficulty despite all of my research. Not sure what I would do differently given what I know now. It will be worth it I think when the project is complete.
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