Ripping down Wallpaper and Popcorn ceilings..grrrr

Girl, I am all about easy! LOL! We painted over the wall paper in our bathroom. It was just old and ugly and I think a huge mess to try to tear off. We primed it, textured it, and painted it and now it is wonderful!!! Good luck with this project. I love hgtv. My husband doesn't cause he says it makes me spend too much money. LOL. A woman has to have a nice house. LOL!!

Have a great day!

D. Mattern-Muck
The MOM Team
Raise your income and your rugrats at the same time!
www.formyrugrats.com
"The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6

You do need to be careful removing popcorn ceilings they can contain asbestos. It is the dust that is dangerous, if you breathe it into your lungs...wear a good mask, and tape the room from the rest of the house with plastic tarps. My DH is an architect and really warns people to take precautions with the stuff. {{{{hugs}}}}

hi there, we recently remodeled our home and both of these things were beasts! lowes has a tool that makes taking down popcorn very easey, and we did texture over some of our wallpaper, but we had to remove some as well. test your wall paper with a spray bottle. if the wallpaper gets bubbles in it then you need to take it down before you texture it, if it doesn't then it's ok to texture and paint. the deal is, if it bubbles your texture will end up in the floor, not on your walls.

If you decide to take down the wallpaper (which I would definatly suggest even if you are texturing) use a 1/2 downey-1/2water solution. Score the wall paper gently in LARGE strips (8in to a foot diaganal, all the way across each section of wall paper) Spray on the solution (a lot-get it very very wet) let it set for 10-15 min-don't let it dry. Then is will come off in huge strips. I have stripped many MANY layers and rooms of wall paper and have never spent more then 1hr doing it. A normal sized bathroom would probebly be more like 20min. My mother-in-law tried the Tiger and she was picking it off for months and months. A freind of mine used the commercial stuff and it even smells like Downey, only costs much more.
If you decide to keep the paper, you will need to seal it with an oil-based primer before you do anything with it. It is messy and stinky and you will have one heck of a time getting it off when you decide to or if it does start pealing. Taking it off is cheaper too.
The popcorn ceiling is just going to be a mess. a simpl sray of water and a metal putty knife will take it off. It is backbracking work and keep in mind, someone put it up there for a reason. You don't know what you will end up with. We did this to our bathroom and ended up coving it with bead bord anyway because the previous owner did it to cover a HORRIBLE patch job.
I have also heard rumors (I don't know if they are true) that some popcorn ceilings may contain asbestos. I did not know this when we did it and I was covered with it. They say that you should have a sample tested first. I guess a home inspector or contractor could tell you for sure. I would suggest covering it with bead board drywall or decorative ceiling tiles since you might end up doing that anyway.
Sorry, I'm passionat about DIY. I just moved into an apartment after restoring our 105yr old house back in Indiana. The most I can do here is hang photos. It is nice to have a break though. LOL.

I also did popcorn ceiling in my most of my house and a small time saver, put down platic on the floor it catches all the gunk and makes clean up easy. Also if you can have the kids some where eles the dust is bad and you don't want then around that. good luck

I'm not sure how much wallpaper you have but I took some down in my sons baby room and I used vinegar. It smells but it works. I cant remember if I used it with water and just like that. I think I did a search on the do it yourself website DIY

When we tried to take down some old wallpaper the removal solutions didn't work, sheet rock was actually removed with it so we rented a wallpaper steamer from Home Depot, taking it down was so easy. No advice on popcorn ceilings.

Good luck.