Popcorn ceiling removal and skim coat in Delray Beach

In short: Rick Solutions removes popcorn ceilings in Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Boynton Beach in four steps: scrape and haul away the texture, skim coat the whole ceiling, sand it smooth, then prime and paint. Rooms are sealed in plastic to contain dust, and ceilings installed before the early 1980s should be tested for asbestos first.

• Popcorn scraped and hauled away
• Skim coat applied over the full ceiling
• Sanded smooth, primed and painted
• Rooms sealed off so dust stays in one place

Why this is the biggest upgrade in an older condo

Palm Beach County is full of buildings from the 1970s and 80s, and almost all of them went up with textured ceilings. Nothing else you can do to a unit changes how it reads as much as taking that ceiling flat. Rooms look taller, light spreads instead of catching on the texture, and the whole place stops looking like it is stuck in the decade it was built.

Scrape, skim, sand, paint

Removal is only the first step, and it is the step people underestimate. Under the popcorn is a rough surface with seams and joint compound showing. That is what the skim coat is for — a thin layer of compound over the entire ceiling that fills everything level. Then it gets sanded, primed and painted. Skip the skim coat and you end up with a flat ceiling that still looks patched.

Dust, and how we keep it contained

Scraping a ceiling makes a mess. We seal the room off in plastic, cover floors, and pull the debris out as we go rather than at the end. Most people stay in the home during the work. For a full-apartment ceiling job, some prefer to be out for a couple of days — we will tell you honestly which one your project is.

A note on ceilings from before 1980

Textured ceilings installed before the early 1980s can contain asbestos. If your building is from that era, the safe move is to have the material tested before anyone scrapes it. Rick will tell you when that applies and what your options are rather than starting work on a ceiling that should be tested first.