So you’ve signed the contract and have a start date scheduled for your popcorn removal project. Now it is time to prepare for your project. Here is what comes next:
- What Is The Process To Remove Popcorn Ceiling Texture?
- Prepping Your House For Popcorn Removal
- Choose Your Texture, Paint Colors, and Sheen
- The First Day of the Project
- Make Sure We Have Access
- What Does SurePro do at the Start of a Project?
- What About The End of a Project?
1. What Is The Process To Remove Popcorn Ceiling Texture?
The popcorn texture removal process is as follows:
- Mask project area – Cover floors, belongings, etc with plastic and tape
- Scrape popcorn from ceilings – Remove the existing popcorn ceilings, sometimes using water. Ease of removal will also depend on the type and sheen of paint that is on the ceilings
- Float seams and divots – Float over any exposed joints and seams and smooth any divots from the removal process
- Sanding – Sand all the newly floated seams and divots once they are dry
- Skim Ceilings (smooth finish ONLY) – Skim a coat of drywall mud on the entire ceiling and sand after drying. A level 5 finish might require a second skim coat and additional sanding.
- Apply New Texture – Apply a new spray texture. Some textures might involve an extra step, such as the knockdown texture.
- Prime & Paint Ceilings – After texture is fully dry, a coat of primer will be applied, followed by the final coat of paint
- Cleanup – Remove all materials, collect project debris and remove tape and plastic. Project area will be swept and vacuumed. Sheetrock dust is very fine and pervasive, and may appear for a couple weeks after the project is complete. We highly recommend changing or cleaning your air filter after we are finished. Any opened leftover paint will be left with the customer.
2. Prepping Your House For Popcorn Removal
Each different project has its unique demands, but here are some basic items that the homeowner will need to do to prepare for an interior popcorn removal project:
- Remove as much as possible from the rooms – A vacant house is ideal for a popcorn removal project because of the dust and amount of mess created. For a house that is not vacant, at least do the following:
- Be Ready To Go Without Those Rooms – The rooms that are having the popcorn removed will essentially be unusable until the project is finished, in order for us to finish the project. If there are areas you need to access when we are not working, we will work with you to make them accessible at the end of the day.
- Remove Artwork, Photos, and Wall Hangings – Any items that are hanging on the walls needs to come down. This means artwork, photos, and wall hangings need to be removed. Please note the locations.
- Take Down the TV – Ideally, the TV would be removed. If this is not possible, we will wrap it in plastic to make sure it is protected during the project. As a general rule, we do not remove and re-install TV’s for customers.
- Move the Furniture – Remove smaller pieces of furniture and store them in another room or garage. In some cases, furniture may need to be moved as we go. The less items that are in the way, the better.
- We Can Help You – We are not professional movers. But we realize that many people sometimes just need a hand or two to move that dresser or other items. We can even move all the furniture during a project for a small fee. However, be aware that we prefer the customers to handle their own belongings. For this reason, we cannot be responsible for damage or scratches or other issues that may arise from handling personal items.
3. Verify Your Texture, Paint Colors and Sheen
Your quote should indicate what kind of ceiling texture will be going up after the popcorn has been removed. Please verify it is correct.
You can learn about different ceiling textures here.
Please also have your paint colors and sheens picked out before we begin. If you already know them, you can share them with us here.
If we are just doing a flat ceiling white paint, your proposal should indicate that.
4. The First Day of the Project
We will schedule a day with a time window for the start of your popcorn removal project which your project manager will coordinate with you. On the start day, your project manager will go over the summary of the project with you as well as walk through the details with our crew.
If you haven’t given us your paint color and sheen choices yet, you can give them to the project manager at this time. They can also answer any questions you might have about the overall project or any details that may need to be covered.
5. Make Sure We Have Access
We prefer that you are onsite to meet with us at the beginning of your project so we can go over the scope one last time before beginning and clear up any questions. However, sometimes we have clients who can’t be there or who are located out of town.
If you are comfortable with the scope of the work being done and have a pretty straightforward project, we can sometimes get started even if you can’t be there.
JUST MAKE SURE WE HAVE ACCESS TO THE PROPERTY
This is commonly done in a variety of ways:
- Realtor-style combo lockbox
- Hidden key
- Garage key code
- Door key code
- Family/friend onsite to grant access
We will make sure to lock up at the end of the day and put the key back where it needs to go.
6. What Does SurePro Do at the Start of the Project?
Your house is now our canvas! But we’re not quite ready to start yet. Here is what we do as part of any interior painting project:
- Plastic and Dropcloths – To protect the floors, fixtures, counters, furniture, and personal belongings and to collect the popcorn debris
- Taping & Masking – Masking and taping windows, trim and baseboards, and edges of surfaces is a required part of most projects.
- Clean Up – A clean jobsite is a happy jobsite! We will straighten up and broom-sweep daily, and will thoroughly clean our mess at the end of a project.
7. What About The End of a Popcorn Removal Project?
At then end of a project, we clean up the mess from the project, vacuuming loose debris and disposing of all project trash. All opened leftover paint cans are left with the customer for any future touch-ups or color-matching.
Now you are ready for your walk-through! During the walk-through, your project manager will walk through the scope of the work to make sure everything was completed. This is the time to point out any blemishes, missed spots, or other areas that need touch-ups. We will also take some final photos. These photos are sometimes used as examples of our work in our portfolio, however we never share your private info such as name or address or any other identifying info.
Touch-ups are required for nearly every project, and we want to give you the best result possible. We will return for one touch-up session to address all final issues and touch-ups. Walk-throughs need to be completed within three (3) days of initial completion of project, and any final touch-ups pointed out and addressed within ten (10) days of project completion.
Trust SurePro Painting for a job done right. Feel free to contact us with any questions, or click the button to schedule a free estimate!
