Ceiling Painting & Popcorn Texture Removal
Stipple and popcorn texture removal, skim coating and ceiling repainting, with mandatory asbestos testing on anything pre-1990.
- Free walkthrough
- Fixed written quote
- 1,000+ homes painted
Ceilings are unforgiving. They are lit from below by every fixture in the room, which means raking light crosses them at exactly the angle that exposes roller lap marks, patch halos and any variation in flatness. A ceiling that was painted carelessly announces itself from the doorway.
Included
- Asbestos sampling and lab testing on any textured ceiling in a pre-1990 building, before work is scheduled
- Full containment, floors, walls, doorways, HVAC returns sealed
- Wet-scrape removal to control airborne dust
- Two to three skim coats over the scraped substrate to a uniform flat plane
- Sanding with vacuum assistance and inspection under raking light, not overhead light
Not included
- Removal of any texture that has tested positive for asbestos, this requires licensed abatement
- Removal of textured ceilings that have already been painted over, without a test scrape first
- Repair of the roof or plumbing source behind a water stain
How we deliver it
- 01
Age check and asbestos test
If the building predates about 1990, we take a sample and send it to a lab before anything else happens. No result, no scraping. This is not a formality we will waive on request.
- 02
Contain the room
Floors, walls, doorways and HVAC returns sealed. Popcorn removal makes an extraordinary amount of debris and containment is what keeps it out of the rest of the house.
- 03
Wet-scrape
Light misting softens the texture so it comes off in sheets rather than clouds. Dry scraping is faster and considerably dirtier.
- 04
Skim to flat
Two to three compound passes. A scraped ceiling is never flat underneath, that is what the texture was hiding in the first place.
Specification
- Asbestos protocol
- Mandatory lab testing on pre-1990 textured ceilings
- Removal method
- Wet-scrape behind full containment
- Skim coats
- 2–3 passes to a uniform flat plane
- Inspection
- Raking-light inspection before priming
- Primer
- Full-surface over bare compound; shellac over water stains
- Finish
- 2 coats dead-flat ceiling paint
- Typical duration
- 2–3 days per room including cure between skim coats
Questions
Full FAQDoes my popcorn ceiling contain asbestos?
If your home or building was constructed before roughly 1990, it might, and the only way to know is a lab test on a physical sample. Age alone is not proof either way, plenty of 1970s ceilings test clear and some later ones do not, because older stock remained in use after manufacturing changed. Testing costs a small fraction of the removal job and it is not a step we will skip on request. Scraping an untested pre-1990 ceiling puts fibres into the air of a home people live in.
What happens if the test comes back positive?
The work stops being a painting job and becomes an abatement job, which requires a licensed asbestos abatement contractor working under Ontario regulation, not us. We will hand you the lab report and point you to the right trade. The alternative many people choose is to leave the ceiling undisturbed and encapsulate it by painting over it carefully, which is legitimate and much cheaper, since intact asbestos-containing material that is not being disturbed is not releasing fibres.
Why do ceilings always have to be flat paint?
Because a ceiling is lit from below by every fixture in the room, and that light crosses the surface at a low angle that exposes everything. Any sheen reflects that raking light and turns minor variations in flatness into visible ripples. Flat paint scatters the light instead of reflecting it, which is why every professional ceiling in the world is flat.
Can you just paint the popcorn instead of removing it?
Yes, and if it tests positive for asbestos this is the recommended option. Textured ceilings are very absorbent, so they need a generous first coat, and they must be sprayed or rolled with a deep-nap roller very carefully, rolling aggressively over popcorn will pull the texture off in clumps. It is a real option and much cheaper than removal.
- Drywall & plasterCracks, holes, water damage and the seasonal settlement cracking that older Toronto homes produce every winter.→
- Interior paintingWhole-home and room-by-room interior repaints, quoted from a written finish specification rather than a verbal ballpark.→
- Condo & apartmentUnit repaints in Toronto condo towers, including the building paperwork that stops most painting jobs before they start.→
Get a fixed quote for ceilings & popcorn.
Free walkthrough, a fixed written quote, and no obligation to go ahead.
- 1,000+ homes painted
- Free walkthroughs
- Fixed written quotes
- Serving Toronto and the GTA