Does anyone have suggestions on finishing crown moulding against a popcorn textured ceiling and making it look good?
Any advice will be helpful!
Does anyone have suggestions on finishing crown moulding against a popcorn textured ceiling and making it look good?
Any advice will be helpful!
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Replies
Popcorn never looks good, IMHO. Combining it with crown is like putting flames on a rolls royce - two different effects. Unless you're really attached to the popcorn for it's acoustic properties (or it's hiding some major crackage), I would scrape it off. You can do this really easily by laying down plastic, dampening the ceiling with a pump sprayer and just scraping it away with a taping blade. Keep it out of your mouth, though. I don't know what that stuff is....
I agree whole-heartedly on popcorn, but that's what's there and I am afraid removing it would result in the entire ceiling having to be re-finished. There were several areas where the popcorn did come off and
it looks like it was used to hide poor workmanship. This is part of a remodel on a condo and the owner is adament on the crown.
If you go the route of scraping off the popcorn, have it checked for asbestos first so you at least know what you are dealing with - If it's an older installation, it will have the stuff in it and the waste disposal folks will turn you away if you haven't followed the steps they want you to follow. If you go the under ground route, lots of water to hold down the dust and all of the safety stuff isn't a bad idea. Send the kids to Gramma's for the week.
Thanks, I don't think asbestos is a problem, the condo I'm working on was built in the 80's. That said...I don't really want to pull the stuff off anyway.
They still used plenty of asbestos in the 80's. Hell, they still use it today, albeit not in many building products, or many products at all, but there still are some.
> They still used plenty of asbestos in the 80's.
But for ceiling materials, it seems to have been gone by 1978. Here's a web site with a table of dates and applications:
http://www.whitelung.org/pubs/aith/materials.html
-- J.S.
I'm surprised to hear that it can be matched. In my finished basement (thankfully, the only floor that has the textured ceiling) there are more than a few spots where a bad attempt at a match has been made. Or maybe it was the worst first application in history. Either way I'd love to be rid of it. If I get on a step ladder and look along the ceiling I can see how not- flat it is, so I'm sure the texture was meant to hide the lack of craftsmanship. But on the bright side, all I have to hate upstairs are the nail pops and cracks...
:)
Can you tell if they tried to mask the patch or just sprayed texture all over? I masked the damaged areas then sprayed them and then sprayed another coat to feather out the patch. Came out pretty good!
I don't think they tried too hard on the patches. Or the initial application. Just a horrible job altogether. There's large sections of fine texture and large patches of course texture. At a glance you can see every seam. I guess my best bet (if I ever get the attic done) is to rip it all out and put fresh drywall up. If this stuff stays on the ceiling that long...
75972.22 in reply to 75972.21
I don't think they tried too hard on the patches. Or the initial application. Just a horrible job altogether. There's large sections of fine texture and large patches of course texture. At a glance you can see every seam. I guess my best bet (if I ever get the attic done) is to rip it all out and put fresh drywall up. If this stuff stays on the ceiling that long...
You do know that it will all come off slick with some water in a sprayer and a broad knife right ?
Tim
If you could scribe a line where the crown will go (accurately) and scrape just that off, it would be a beautiful thing.
If you can add a pc of flatstock to the top of the crown, apply it first to a straight and scraped line.
Or, if budget doesn't permit-Stick the crown up there, attempt to caulk the edge and call it a day.
These for paint grade, slight modification for stain grade.
best of luck.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Finally you were the one who answered the question instead of bad mouthing popcorn.
to all;
Now lets get some other things straight for those that always want to trash popcorn.
"Acoustical texture" is able to do things other textures cant and is king on cheap and cover ability. I dont include cracks on any texture. I suggest you use it by the proper name and be" professional" It makes you sound like one if nothing else . Saying popcorn makes me think you are showing a crack in the back end.
Use it as one of the tools in your arsenal. If you get called on a rough ceiling to spray it and not finish it then by all means reccomend it ! It might help be your friend. We get called like firemen to good fires and bad ones . We walk in there and start bad mouthing the job we might find the door quicker that we were looking for it .
He never mentioned he wanted rid of it and its problably in every room in every unit , so to take it off in the crown molding part of one would be stupid .
Acoustical texture is already unavailable in some stores and even then they wont carry the fine med and coarse . I noticed Lowes only carries 5 or 10 lb bags for the price of the old 40lb. in fine texture which probably wont match anything . Theres probably a few million homes out there for us to work on that has acoustical texture "all " over the house . They dont want the whole house done they are living in . They want the living room fixed or the hallway.
Nother thing. Theres a high level skill to matching a ceiling texture in a spot . A diy cant do it to save their azz but you can if you are pretty good at it . They dont want the whole ceiling sprayed making it heaviar that the rest of the ceilings. They want one spot fixed and blended where it looks like it didnt happen. Theres a high charge to that if you can handle the job.
Anybody can blow mud texture and do a wipe down or splatter and it doesnt even have to match . The painting seems to blend it where its hard to separate it and even then who ever blew it the first time often exibits no skill at making it even. Nearly anything will pass . The point is , I can teach a diy on the phone to do it and he doesnt even need you to come out .
The more textures you can do efficiently the more tools are in your arnsenal for different applications.
Ive used the two inch painters flex knife planed down to scratch out the with of 1 3/4 crown or cove molding before setting .
A homade scribe with nothing other than a nail in the end of a 2x4 or 2x6 will scrible a line around the room gently . Follow it with a large paint scaper that hooks the texture as it drags it past the scribe line . All you need is the bumps off and not the main level of texture as you want to hold it as close to ceiling level as you can. Then on paint grade it caulks well. As Calvin mentioned stain grade has to fit against the ceiling . Ive also used a short block [ripped to width] and a putty knife together to exactly fit stain trim. Takes more time .
Tim
Well sum bits, I'm once again a proud man!
thanks Tim.
There are drywallers................
and then there are good drywallers.
Find the good and stick with them. They are worth $'s.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Thanks for the post. I personally don't care for the look of "acoustical texture", and calling it "popcorn" in an informal discussion forum was not intended as anything other that to call it by a common nomenclature. I didn't realize that not using "proper" terminology would offend, so please accept my apology.That being said, I would never trash anything about a customers residence. They may love whatever the particular item of discussion is and I am willing to work around it. The acoustical texture being a prime example. I just needed advice on how to get a finished look with the acoustical texture in place. By the way Lowes in Charlotte does carry the spray on repair (which actually calls the stuff "popcorn" on the can) in fine, medium and coarse. The medium worked great in covering places that needed to be repaired (and me too!) The crown will be painted and with the advise given, I think I can make it look quite nice!
I went this far , I might as well jump in. LOL.
By years of experience I can look at a ceiling and tell what it was sprayed with and I want the exact same thing . USG medium , Lonestar , GP, or what ever if it was sold around here . We have a home brew factory that always sold local and one taper used their stuff exclusively so I have to stock their brand in the warehouse too. I dont want a 5lb bag from Lowes that says medium and I dont reconize the name. Not to match a leak in the middle of a living room. I want it to look like it didnt happen.
No offense taken <G>.
Tim
Ill add this to it I guess.
Not too long ago I found a job that was done with GP fine texture . There was a repair close to the middle of the living room ceiling from a roof jack uncaulked.
I realize this thread didnt detail this extensvie of a repair but Im showing it as an example to the trouble I will actually go to and how serious I am about matching textures.
I went to the warehouse that holds such things and I was out . I got the phone book out and the cell phone and called my area and came up empty. If I didnt find it I would change three rooms . Big deal over a repair . I found it in a town of Russellville in a location 30 miles away. I drove there and asked how many bags was in stock and they told me 22 bags but it might be in bad shape as they had had it a long . I wass told people dont use it anymore . NO SHID , I knew that but there are repairs . The stock looked worse than described with dirty , dusty , bags and several were torn and taped with duct tape and some werent even taped. I took it all and was proud to get it . Thats how bad it is out there matching it these days . Im sure in a short time it wont even be sold in 40 lb bags and Ill be forced to buy 5 or 10 lb bags made from who knows where and the trade will be lost forever. IMO. I probably used a half gallon of the stuff on the job which might have been 3 lbs , but it looked like it didnt happen after I sprayed the ceiling white as it was a pretty old ceiling .
Tim
I saw an application once where the popcorn was only removed 4 inches from the top edge of the crown molding around the entire room. A four inch drywall knife was used to remove the corn in a consistant distance. The end result was a nice tuxedo effect. It beats removing all of the corn.
That's a good idea! I take a shot and see how it works. Thanks for the input. If I can scrape it just outside where the crown will set, I should be able to get a bead of caulk without it looking like crap.
You dont mention if the crown in paint grade or stain grade?
If paint grade then I'd just install the crown and caulk to the popcorn ceiling(sorry Tim, I've always called it that and I'm as professional as the next).
If its stain grade and you want to do as good a job as possible then take the advice of those that recomend taking off just the amount of popcorn that the crown will need to fit tight to the ceiling.
Doug
"If paint grade then I'd just install the crown and caulk to the popcorn ceiling(sorry Tim, I've always called it that and I'm as professional as the next)."
No offense intended if you want to use the term.
But accoutical texture is what the bag says it is and there is vermiculite and sterofoam . The first being cork.
The home owner reads the bags sometimes and they do find you knew what you were talking about when you used such words .
This is a funny but there is the same difference to me as a surgeon telling me hes going to cut a gash about 4 inches long to rebuild my knee as apposed to a slight incision.
It was meant as a suggestion.
Always saying to strip the stuff and go smooth or spray mud on the ceiling instead and get rid of the nasty popcorn offends the trade it self. Im a call guy on such jobs as matching and blending acoustical texture, so that lightly offends me when its said with out merit as I gave in example . Ive made a lot of money off the stuff but Im no more proud of it than the rest . Its still the application of choice on a repair when the whole house has been done with it and they are willing to spend a 100 bucks or so. Selling the job is #1 and giving them what they wanted in the first place is important to me . Which wasnt your point at all.
Tim
Tim
I wasnt offended, sometimes I think you take stuff to literal! :) I just throw those comments in when I post to see if others are reading them.
I only use the term because its pretty much excepted as that. We call a circular saw a Skill Saw, Kleenex is used for a tissue, Sazzall for a reciprocating saw.......... I know those are brand names but..........
I dont have a problem with the stuff, got it in the house I currantly live in. Givin the choice I'd prefer nice smooth walls and ceilings but when you buy second hand.......
Like the OP'er, I'd never make shid of someone elses likes or dislikes. Bigger things to worry about!
Doug
Edited 7/12/2006 12:02 am ET by DougU
First, I'd pre-finish the crown before installation.
To make it look good after installation, I'd rip a thin piece of stock so it's slightly wider than the distance from the wall to the edge of the installed crown where it intersects the ceiling.
Install the thin stock against the ceiling, then attach the crown to it. The thin stock will shim the crown, keeping part of the crown profile from being obscured by the textured ceiling.
You can add interest, or a shadow line, by profiling the exposed edge of the shim stock.
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
I've put crown on popcorn ceilings numerous times. install it best you can, then caulk.. if need be, lot's of caulk (i recomend dap dynaflex 230)... paint it. it will look just fine.
If your going to use stain or something of that sort to finish the crown, finish it before you put it up, live the the gaps and cracks.
white pianted will give you the best results
Edited 7/15/2006 1:01 am ET by drbgwood