House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.

SarahPLiz · April 2012

We had some water damage in October to the ceiling and wall in our guest bath, hall and Sparky's room. We have yet to get it fixed due to scheduling difficulties. However, I have Fridays off during the summer and I'm thinking that I can fix it myself. We are trying to sell sometime this year. Here's my question, though. WHat do you think about popcorn ceilings?

The current ceiling is popcorn, and I'd have to scrape, prime and then retexture and paint basically the whole hall and bathroom. I hate popcorn, so I'm thinking that I may not want to retexture them, and go ahead and scrape as much as I can from the other rooms as well. Its 1000 sqft so it wouldn't be totally unmanageable, but I think DH will think I'm crazy for wanting to do it.

If you care about stuff like that, would you give more value to a house without popcorn ceilings? Would it matter to you? How much more would you be willing to pay vs. a house with them?

Urchin9 · April 2012

Getting rid of popcorn ceilings will add value to your home. I don't think there are many people who go for that kinda thing anymore. I know around here a popcorn ceiling will turn a lot of people off.

Make sure you get into the water damage and really fix it up as well, don't just paint over it...or you'll have mold issues if you don't already.

[Deleted User] · April 2012

I don't mind popcorn ceilings. But then, I grew up with it at my mom's so I guess I'm just used to them. I never knew they were so hated until I started watching House Hunters.

SarahPLiz · April 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_househome-renoo-people-i-need-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:b5be820f-c02b-4a12-96a7-74295a1df567Post:aa46d264-0cb4-4317-8c6c-b5a052b0950c">Re: House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.</a>:
[QUOTE]Getting rid of popcorn ceilings will add value to your home. I don't think there are many people who go for that kinda thing anymore. I know around here a popcorn ceiling will turn a lot of people off. Make sure you get into the water damage and really fix it up as well, don't just paint over it...or you'll have mold issues if you don't already.
Posted by Urchin9[/QUOTE]
There is no mold. We checked already. Its just staining. And the wall in the bathroom needs to be retaped and repainted.

reils · April 2012

I wouldn't go through all that work in hopes of increasing property value because I really don't think that it will.

How bad is the water damage? Is it just stained or has the drywall bubbled out or caved at all?

pirategal03 · April 2012

I hear they're not bad to scrape, just messy, but it wasn't really something we wanted to do. I also think it dates a house. So while I wouldn't say "oh I'd pay $X more for a house without popcorn ceilings" I'd pay more for a house that didn't seem dated, or that seemed nicely updated. Removing the popcorn will help with that.

brandichamberlain · April 2012

Since you're going to have to do the work to fix it anyway, it would be worth your time to scrape it all off, IMO. A friend recently did this to her entire house and it only took them 2-3 days.

LetsHikeToday · April 2012

I'm with Sesh- I had no idea popcorn was bad until I started watching HH. I don't own my home but for what it's worth, the ceilings are the last thing on my mind. I just looked up to see what we have here: popcorn.

reils · April 2012

Sorry I was a little slow with my first post. If your ceiling is just stained I would try spraying it with a bleach and water solution first to see if that will get rid of the stain instead of scraping the ceilings because that will be really messy.

ErinG93 · April 2012

Yeah, exactly what Pirate said. I am house vain and can't stand popcorn ceilings. Too bad we're renting right now or I'd scrape our popcorn ceilings.

SarahPLiz · April 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_househome-renoo-people-i-need-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:b5be820f-c02b-4a12-96a7-74295a1df567Post:7974d1e1-27d3-4558-8aec-d7359677b512">Re: House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.</a>:
[QUOTE]I wouldn't go through all that work in hopes of increasing property value because I really don't think that it will. How bad is the water damage? Is it just stained or has the drywall bubbled out or caved at all?
Posted by reils[/QUOTE]

<div>In the bathroom, where most of the damage occured, the drywall is just bubbled out a bit, but the ceiling is flaking and there are big pieces hanging off. In the hall, its just staining. Basically a pipe blew in our upstairs neighbor's place and it rained in our house for about 6 hours before we got home, and it was 2 more hours until he got home and called a plumber. Ah, the joys of living in a condo. </div><div>
</div><div>We also have to get all the wood floors replaced, and insurance gave us money for it long ago, but we'd have to move out to get it done so that is waiting until we actually find a new place and move out. We don't have anywhere to put all our furniture while they work on each room, and it all has to be replaced so it matches, even though there are just a few boards that are damaged. </div><div>
</div><div>If we do decide to get rid of all the popcorn, DH will probably insist that I hire someone. I like to save money though. And our tax appraisal dropped about $15K, this year, so i'm thinking we will probably be losing money on this house anyway. </div>

LesPaul · April 2012

I really dislike popcorn ceilings. As PPs said, it makes the place look dated. My brother removed the popcorn from his house. It was a little tedious and messy, but not that hard.

Also, KILZ paint works great on water-stained areas to keep the stain from bleeding through the new paint.

SarahPLiz · April 2012

We are SO renting our next place. I'm tired of owning.

LP11509 · April 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_househome-renoo-people-i-need-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:b5be820f-c02b-4a12-96a7-74295a1df567Post:627452ce-e156-455a-ad26-6725ac12634c">Re: House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.</a>:
[QUOTE]I hear they're not bad to scrape, just messy, but it wasn't really something we wanted to do. I also think it dates a house. So while I wouldn't say "oh I'd pay $X more for a house without popcorn ceilings" I'd pay more for a house that didn't seem dated, or that seemed nicely updated. Removing the popcorn will help with that.
Posted by pirategal03[/QUOTE]

<div>Ditto. We are starting the process of house hunting now and honestly, popcorn ceilings would be a big turn off for me if we saw a house with it. We haven't yet, though. </div><div>
</div><div>But I will admit that I am (probably overly) picky, so there's that. </div>

SarahPLiz · April 2012

We want it to present well so people will pay what we ask. It was totally renovated when we bought it, and it showed really well, but now we are realizing that they did a crap job of repainting stuff. Paint is peeling off of every door, cabinet door and closet door, so I already know I'll have some sanding and repainting to do. I could just paint over like they did, but I want to do it right. I don't want it to look like there are 27 coats of paint on the cabinet doors, you know?

reils · April 2012

I think it would help your condo sell faster. If I was looking at two places and one had popcorn ceilings and the other didn't I would choose the one without. I still don't think it will increase your property value or selling price though.

Personally, I would try to fix it without scraping it all off first but that is mostly because I wouldn't want to live with the mess and dust.

Loopyseven · April 2012

I pretty much agree with everything Reils has said. I didn't even notice what kind of ceilings were in our house in Cleveland when we bought it, or this apartment when we rented it. I don't think it will do anything for your proprety value or what people will offer, but if a buyer cares about it, it may be the difference between them making an offer or not. I don't think anyone's going to go "let's offer $5,000 off the asking price cause there's popcorn ceilings". They're going to say, "The bathroom is awesome, but there's popcorn ceilings, and this other one has a smaller bathroom but the ceilings are flat.".

We had a SMALL amount of water damage in our living room due to a roof issue and the ceilng was textured (not popcorn, more like splatter) and we bought some spray on stuff at Home Depot and played with it a little. Once we painted over it, you couldn't even tell where we'd fixed. After 5 years, I couldn't even see it anymore, I just know the general area it was in. So, you don't have to be too particular about blending it texture wise. As long as you get it close and then paint the whole ceiling, it will blend right in.

Bkseller13 · April 2012

Get THIS tool, some grocery bags and a spraybottle of water. You spray the ceiling with the water bottle, wait a few minutes then scrape. The scraping falls (80%) into the grocery bags. Then, all you really need is a heavy napped roller, it'll give you some texture look without heavy texture. Les is right, KILZ is the bombdiggety! You can use it as a primer, or I guess you can now get it with colors. (Can you tell I've done this?) If you scrape too hard and take paper off of the drywall, you can smooth it out with some spackle, just put it on real smooth and sand it flat.

House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.

Re: House/Home Renoo People. I need advice.

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