My daughter's bathroom has a textured ceiling and a big problem.
Recently the shower head went crazy and soaked the ceiling. Needless to say, the texture starting peeling off. Now, the question. How in the world do you repair something like this?

 

I assume you have popcorn, right? Scrape it off. It shouldn't be in a bathroom anyway.

 

Hello LADYNW8N and welcome aboard. Go with Coops' suggestion to scrape it off completely, there are several products on the market that claim to be a quick fix, just spray it on out of the can & tada!! Problem is it never matches the original pattern & it ends up looking like a quick cheap fix.

Post back if you need help with reapplying the textured ceiling.

 

use a spray bottle with water and spray a little off and scrape using a drywall plastic blade. it will be messy but will work. then after it is all scaped off. sand a little and repaint. I did this in my living room and looks great.

 

Be careful if your textured ceiling was installed before 1979 it might very well contain Asbestos.

 

The asbestos issue must be a left coast thing, never heard or seen asbestos in any sort of texture around the midwest where I'm from, been at this trade for going on 20 yrs now.

Maybe you could post a link to where I might look at some facts on this issue.

 

Asbestos was commonly added to popcorn texture prior to 1979. At least it was on the west coast. I simply cannot afford to have the popcorn ceiling removed from my house (1972) because it contains asbestos. Drywall contractors around here commonly want $8.00 per SqFt to remove these ceilings. They must also be licensed for asbestos removal. The link below to my ftp site is a .pdf document detailing popcorn removal with asbestos.

http://www.impulse.net/~dmaxwell/AsbestosPopcorn.pdf

 

I've never heard of any ceiling texture, manufactured for that purpose, containing asbestos.

 

The popcorn ceilings on the west coast, mostly in California, are typically made from an asbestos-containing material (These textures were outlawed in 1979). The popcorn ceilings in the Midwest and on the East coast typically do not contain asbestos. Some links that discuss popcorn ceilings with asbestos:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/know...8584-6,00.html

http://www.asktooltalk.com/home/gene...n-ceiling.html

http://www.scapca.org/asbestos_home.html

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2003news/2003-206.html

 

Kinda what I thought Rainbird, but very good info you've amassed there. Since this poster was in Alabama, I doubt it will be an issue.

 

Interesting rainbird. Do you have any links or information on who manufactured this product and exactly when?

 

Sorry I don't know. I am no expert on this subject by any means, I simply wanted to remove the popcorn ceiling in my house. A local building inspector alerted me to the possible asbestos problem. I had a sample tested ($25) and sure enough it contained asbestos. That fact eliminated this as a DIY project.

 

Sorry to hear that. What year was your house built. And if you don't mind, how much asbestos was discovered?

 

Built in 1972 - Asbestos 8%

 

Actually Rainbird, from what I read on your links, this definitely could be a DIY project with the proper precautions taken. I'd wet it up real good, wear approriate clothing, including mask & eye protection, scrape that popcorn off, sand, skim and paint. Only draw back I could see, this bein in Calif., what would you do with the debris, (the junk you scrape off) they'd never let that into a landfill out there I bet, probably arrest ya just for thinkin about it! Seriously from what I read on that first link, those guidelines are there for home owners who want to do this as DIY, as long as all workers are family members working as volunteers, it's a private deal.

 

Found out the 1970 fixer-upper I moved into recently in Colorado has asbestos in the popcorn celinings and vinyl floors (20%!). Needed to remodel the downstairs anyway, paid almost $10k for an abatement crew to rip out floors, soffits, and scrape ceilings in kitchen, family room and MBA before we started rebuilding.

Couldn't afford any more after that, so I scraped one of the bedrooms myself. The procedure is given in the link below, you build two complete containment walls of plastic sheeting, wet the heck out of the stuff, and scrape it off. It's a huge mess so before doing final wipedown and encapsulating the ceiling you have to fold up and dispose of the top plastic floor with all the hot sh*t on it. You're wearing two hazmat suits so you can peel off the dirty outer one at this point.

Anyway, sustained hard physical work in 2 suits, a full-face respirator, inside a hot wet enclosure is about the toughest job I've ever done. You can't remove the respirator to take a drink while you're in there. You can't leave the room until it's clean to avoid contaminating the rest of the house (the pros set up a decontamination shower at the doorway so they can go in and out). So it's a race to see how fast and far you can go before getting dehydrated.

I decided not to try the other rooms without one or two helpers, it's just too hard. So far no volunteers (the law prohibits paying anyone to help you remove asbestos unless they're a licensed contractor) so we still have popcorn in much of the house!

Anyone considering doing themselves is welcome to write me, I can offer advice.

best d-i-y abatement site:
http://www.pscleanair.org/asbestos/asbe-home-form.shtml

ladynw8n: definitely test your ceiling before you touch it. The test labs are listed in the phonebook, it's easy to do and I also paid just $25.