One of the ugly chores hanging over my head is stripping the popcorn stucco off the ceiling. I had planned on leaving it in place and just having the builder add fresh drywall over it but because there is a chance that the popcorn might contain asbestos, that opens up a can of worms. I have been struggling with what do about this and as i just couldn’t face more work on the chimney in the basement, i figured that this is the weekend it gets sorted out.
I did a bunch of reading online and made a plan. I don’t want to dry scrape or sand because that would create insane amounts of, what i have to assume is hazardous dust. I tried just soaking it but because it is painted, that did nothing. I did some research and tracked down a product that is designed to solve that. It is a gel based paint stripper basically. You paint it on, cover it with plastic and let it sit for 4 to 12 hours and as long as it doesn’t dry out, it does a fantastic job.
Being a bit of a hippy i started by cutting apart plastic bags from our recycling but the sections were too small. Too many edges to dry out. I then had the bright idea to use trimmings from the vapour barrier i put over the chimney hole. Turns out that is too heavy and they kept falling off. I finally caved and went and bought cling film because we only had about 2 feet on the end of a roll. We just don’t use the stuff.
It took a while to work out the technique and the optimal length of cling film so that it didn’t just twist and stick to itself when i was trying to stick it to the ceiling. I managed to reuse the pieces so i don’t feel too bad about it. I now have enough cling film to last the rest of my life because i thought i would have to use new pieces every time.
The trick i found was to do about 16 to 20 square feet at a time My shoulder gets sore (i’ll tell you about the accident some time) so i can’t work with my arms over my head for a long time so was pretty much my limit with applying the gel, covering it, then scraping it 4 hours later. I tested my technique Thursday and Friday and so really went to town on Saturday. It wasn’t all bad except for dripping paint stripper on myself and working with potentially hazardous materials. I found that the longer you let it sit, the easier it came off and it peeled nicely in long strips. I actually woke up early Sunday hearing chunks of it just falling off the ceiling. Once it was done i had to do some touch up where it dried and didn’t peel off, or where i didn’t wait quite long enough. Then i washed the ceiling with TSP and then mopped it. I was done before the ceiling was but i have the kitchen functional for the week. I should be able to clean up after work this week.
We also got 3d renderings from the architect so we can see what the house will look like. This was super cool and our only concern at this point is the size of the basement patio. And maybe a couple of small additional windows on the west basement wall.
I want to point out that testing for asbestos in your ceiling is recommended and is easy if you plan ahead. A testing kit from a local lab is only $8 + shipping and when you send it in, the test fee is only $95. I didn't test because i am a cheap idiot and didn't plan ahead (Not like this is a surprise either, we have been working on the reno now for 6 months). Because i didn't test i just assumed that it was toxic. I wore a mask and used a product that turns the material into a gooey paste. I am disposing of it with the used drywall from the basement in hazmat bags.
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