1331 homer street Archives - RemoveCeilingTexture.com

Ceiling texture removed by professional ceiling contractors at a Vancouver condo - Bedroom at 1331 Homer St. — Ceiling texture removed by professional ceiling contractors at a Vancouver condo – Bedroom at 1331 Homer St.

The Importance of Hiring Professional Ceiling Contractors

Professional ceiling contractors can make all the difference when it comes to having your ceiling texture removed. An inexperienced contractor who is not familiar with ceiling texture can cause delays in your project, and the end results can be less than ideal.

We were contacted by new homeowners on Homer Street in Vancouver. They had just purchased their first condo and while they were excited about this, they were not thrilled with the textured ceilings. One of the first things they planned for, before moving in, was ceiling texture removal. Unfortunately for them, they hired someone with very little experience with ceilings.

They were promised a three-day job by their contractor. By the end of the first day, the frustrated contractor had completed only one small room and told them there was no way he could finish the job for them. Needless to say, the homeowners were pretty frustrated too. When dealing with ceilings, especially concrete ceilings, it’s important to hire professional ceiling contractors. Some drywall contractors and general handymen may think that removing popcorn ceilings is no big deal, but they often find they are in over their heads, as was the case in this instance.

RemoveCeilingTexture.com was then contacted. The homeowners were a bit panicked by this time because they were anxious to move in. We had a look at the ceilings and assured them it would be no problem for us, as we’ve done many concrete ceilings. In fact, we had done a condo in the very same building. They were happy with this news and agreed for us to start the following week. We soon had the texture removed in their condo and resurfaced the ceilings to a flat, smooth surface.

Here are some before and after photos from this project:

Close-up view of corner after ceiling texture removal at a condo at 1331 Homer St., Vancouver

Smooth ceilings appear higher - Vancouver condo at 1331 Homer St. — Smooth ceilings appear higher – Vancouver condo at 1331 Homer St.

Riding the Waves

It’s especially important to hire professional ceiling contractors when dealing with the concrete ceilings of highrise buildings. The ceilings are sometimes wavy due to inconsistencies in the forms used when they pour the concrete. At RemoveCeilingTexture.com, we resurface the ceilings by hand and can adjust for these waves.

This “During and After” photo shows a ceiling that had the texture removed by someone inexperienced. We were later called in to fix the dips that were apparent. If we had been contacted from the start, the homeowner would not have had to pay twice for flat ceilings.

Once RCT filled in the waves, resurfaced the ceiling and painted it, it was perfect.

If you have popcorn ceilings that you’d like to have removed, contact the professionals at RemoveCeilingTexture.com. As experts in the ceiling industry, we get the job done right the first time. Call us at 604-420-7578 or contact us by email.

Contact the ceiling professionals at RemoveCeilingTexture.com today for a FREE quote on ceiling texture removal!

Not a DIY Project

Some people may tell you that scraping texture from ceilings is easy. They may also have a bridge for sale. It’s probably best not to buy it, despite the fantastic price.

This is what DIY texture removal and ceiling smoothing looks like. RemoveCeilingTexture was called in to fix the mess.

In actuality, scraping texture from ceilings is messy and difficult work. Once the texture is gone, it still won’t be paint ready. Popcorn texture is applied so that builders don’t have to finish the ceilings properly. This saves them time and money. So once you’ve scraped your ceilings, you’ll see all the imperfections. This applies to both drywall and concrete ceilings. If your ceilings are concrete, you may have to deal with waves and ridges caused by the concrete forms. The ceiling will need to be professionally finished if you want it to look decent.

Asbestos–The Fire Resistant Gift That Keeps On Giving

You also have to consider the fact that houses and apartments built before 1980 could have asbestos in the ceiling texture. Asbestos was used in all sorts of building materials, including some ceiling textures, because it is fire resistant. At the time, they thought it was a miracle product. They later learned that microscopic, airborne asbestos fibres are extremely dangerous to breathe in. The fibres get lodged in your lungs and can cause scarring and mesothelioma, a type of cancer. You definitely don’t want to be scraping texture from ceilings if there’s a chance it could have asbestos fibres. At RemoveCeilingTexture.com, we test the texture to make sure there’s no asbestos if the building was built prior to 1985. This is for our safety as well as yours.

Scraping Texture From Ceilings: A Friendship Saved

We were recently contacted by a homeowner in downtown Vancouver who had figured that scraping his ceiling texture would be a piece of cake. His condo was built in the late 1980s, so asbestos was not a concern. He started in the living room with a friend’s help. What would take one professional no time at all ended up taking them a combined time of over 20 hours, and that was for the living/dining room only! And even with all that work, the ceiling looked horrible once the texture was gone. On top of that, he had a major mess on his hands, as the scraped texture ended up covering every surface in the apartment.

The floor was a complete mess after the homeowner tried scraping texture from ceilings. RemoveCeilingTexture.com's process is not nearly this messy. — The floor was a complete mess after the homeowner tried scraping texture from ceilings. RemoveCeilingTexture.com’s process is not nearly this messy.

The homeowner soon realized that he was in over his head, quite literally. When you don’t have the tools and most importantly, the expertise, the project quickly turns into a nightmare. He decided there was no way he could ask his friend to continue this madness with him, if he valued his friendship. So he contacted us. We fixed the living and dining room ceilings that they had worked on and resurfaced the ceilings in the rest of the condo. We also repaired a section of ceiling where a wall had been removed. The ceiling transition between the two rooms is now seamless.

Wall removal left a large section of the ceiling to be repaired. We fixed this with no problem.

After deciding that scraping texture from ceilings himself was too difficult, the homeowner called us in to do the rest of the condo.

At RemoveCeilingTexture.com, our area of focus is quite specific: We take ceilings from lumpy and dated to smooth and modern. We have the tools and the expertise and so we were able to rescue his DIY attempt, save his sanity and quite possibly save a friendship.

World peace is next on our list.

The laundry room gets updated thanks to popcorn ceiling texture removal.

And Now You Know…The Rest of the Story

The truth is, scraping texture from ceilings is only the first step in the process of getting smooth ceilings. Once the texture has been removed, we apply layers of compound, by hawk and trowel, to ensure the finished ceiling is level and free of any blemishes. This takes an expert eye and years of experience. Since your ceilings will need to be professionally finished even if you scrape them yourself, why not save yourself the headache and mess and have a professional work on them from the start? Call us today at 604-420-7578 for a FREE QUOTE on ceiling texture removal, or contact us by email.

Did you try to scrape your ceilings yourself and now need them fixed? Contact us today for a FREE quote!