Ceiling Help

thom

That's exactly as I described earlier. That's what a brocade looks like before it's knocked down. I'll bet it's regular drywall mud. Try to get moisture through the paint. If you can, it will melt.

Joewho

Tear it all out and drywall from scratch?

Find something to make deep perforations and use water?

slickshift

Anything short of re-rocking and you will be working for peanuts and cursing the day you said you'd do it for anything less

Now, that doesn't mean you can't bid it for re-rocking and try something else
But you must bid for worst case, and that's re-rocking

Bid for re-rock and spend the first 1/2 a day d***ing around with it...maybe it'll fall off and leave a nice level five pre-primed surface
Then guess what...you win...you make a nice profit on that one

When it doesn't fall off leaving a nice level five pre-primed surface after 3.5 hours, and you realize it'll take a week to maybe not even remove it all, and you'll be left with horrifying mess, spend the rest of day one riping it out, then put up the new rock on day two...now you are at the point where it might have taken all week to get trying to remove that stuff (as undoubtedly you not be left with a paintable surface once you do remove the texture, I'd guaranty a few coats of mud and then a skim coat) and you're only on day two

You say you can't afford to turn down work
Don't turn it down
But don't buy yourself a nightmare that you can't afford to fix
Bid it for re-rock
And honestly, I think that will be the (quickest, easiest, least expensive) answer anyway

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

Beaver

Me and my dad used to do a few of these ceilings evey year.Mind you this was 20 years ago.It was always the customers that a very nice home and well off.Its beyond me why they wanted it but they did.We used spantex,the same type of texture you do orange peel and knockdown with.We used a round sponge with holes in it,the deeper the holes the longer the icicles.It was a very messy job by time you were done one room you had mud running right down to your elbow.Anyways a customer called me a few years back and he wanted it removed.This was a 16x24 room.So I gave him the options about what would happen like mentioned in the earlier posts.I hung poly around the walls,masked it off,covered floors ect.Then I took my paint sprayer and sprayed water over the entire ceiling let it sit for a while and hit it again.It come off pretty good,I used a 4" floor scraper razor blade type.I had a few nicks to patch up after,but that was ok.Took 2 of us about 3 hours.to get it all off.If it was ever painted you would never get it off.I still have a customer that calls me to paint her ceiling like this,every 4 years just like clockwork.She still loves it. P.S I think I still have a sponge in the shed if any of you guys want to borrow it.

Miller

Thanks for the feedback Beaver, The problem is it was painted in 1991. So the question is what would you recommend to remove this mess?

daArch

Thermo Nuclear Device !!


Those stalactites look like they could be whacked-off with a hockey stick, or at least an iron rake. The stubbies should then have enough surface area exposed so that if it all is JC, water can be absorbed, albeit slowly. Spray and soak, spray and soak, spray and soak repeatedly until soft. Then scrape with whatever weapons are best.

Before re-doing my office, it had not as bad but just as butt ugly amateurish texture on walls and ceiling. At least two coats of paint on everythng:





I took a two handed exterior scraper and knocked it all down until enough area was exposed to absorb water. After many sprayings, the mess was scraped with whatever worked - usually a four inch mud blade.
Unfortunately under the texture on the ceiling was painted calcimine on punky plaster. I overlayed 3/8" rock and then decided to put an embossed wallpaper on that:




It was a LOT of work to scrape, soak, scrape, and repair the walls and ceiling, and all for FREE. My shoulders still hurt. But, I gots me a nice little office now:

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Tmrrptr

My God! That is awful!
Totally intense!

Are you Goth'ed out in California?

Take a pressure washer in there and clean that shat out!

..why would you ask?
r

Beaver

If its been painted I dont think you will get it off.Try a small area,wet it and let it sit for a while,wet it again.try scraping it.If it dont come you will have to rip the rock off and put new rock on.If its been painted with a latex primer it might come off.I would plan on re-rocking it though.When we used to do this we always asked the customer,are you sure you want to do this?
?? Because once you put it on its on for good.

OraarO

If you have worked with this customer before, would they trust you to do this as Time and Material?
Or, agree to a "Test" section - once you work a 3 x 3' section, you might have a good idea how to and how long to give an estimate.

Miller

No I have not worked with this Cust. before but She seems very nice and understanding. I bet she may be willing to go with Time and Materials. I am actually going back thur. night to test a area and test for lead since the house was built in 63. So that may be a option.