As a part of our kitchen renovation, we wanted to get the popcorn ceiling removed from the living room and dining room area that are adjacent to the kitchen. The events that followed will go down in history.

Removing Popcorn Ceiling Yourself

As we were doing the kitchen renovation ourselves, we started researching how to remove popcorn ceiling yourself. We knew it was a messy job, but with the correct tools and knowledge, we figured we could do it. The first link me wife clicked on when researching said, if your house was built in the 70’s, there is a good chance your popcorn ceiling could contain asbestos. Not what we wanted to here, but we didn’t want to take any chances.

Checking for Asbestos

We started calling restoration companies and booked one to come take some samples to be tested. They took samples from the living room, hallway, front entrance, and the TV room in the basement, everywhere that had popcorn ceilings. A few days later they called back and said all of the samples came back positive for asbestos. Before we could do any further work on the kitchen, we needed to get it removed.

Removing the Popcorn Ceilings containing Asbestos

We booked the company to come back to remove the popcorn ceilings containing the asbestos. We needed to leave the house for a few days, so we sent our pets to my wife’s parents, and arranged to stay at my parents for a few days. They basically had to put plastic up throughout the house to keep the asbestos contained and wear basically HASMAT suits to keep themselves safe. They had to dispose of the asbestos carefully and ensure the air was safe before we could go back in our home. After the few days were up, we got the all clear that we could go back home. I texted my son that he could go home after school. Then I got the call.

The Ceilings are Gone!

What happens next has been fully taken care of so I am not going to name any names, but the events that followed were shocking to us. When my son got home from school, he came in the house to discover that all of the ceilings had been removed, not just the popcorn. The hallway, living room, dining room, front entry, and tv room were all down to bare joists with the insulation showing. In one part of the hallway, the insulation had fallen out and you could see the underside of the roof. My son called me right away and I left work to see what was going on.

The Contract

After I got home to see the “damage”, I called the restoration company to have them come over right away to discuss the obvious problem. We also found a pile of debris in the middle of the floor in the dining room that hadn’t been cleaned up. When the owner and the foreman arrived, the owner said the only way to guarantee that all of the asbestos is 100% removed is to remove the drywall as well. I showed him the contract we signed which said they would remove the “asbestos containing material”. We took this to be the popcorn only, as it didn’t mention the drywall at all. We also showed the owner the pile of debris, which he was quite shocked to see. He took the foreman aside to chat.

The Resolution

The owner called us over, and acknowledged that the wording in the contract was not clear, and he was upset with his crew for leaving the debris on the floor. He made us a very gracious offer. He said he would get his crew back right away to clean up the debris, and he would either get his drywall person to come install the ceilings, or he would give us money towards hiring our own drywaller. We elected to have his person come fix the ceilings, as we didn’t know of anyone who could do the work, and we just wanted to get it fixed.

Kicked out of our house again…

So about a week later, the drywall crew showed up and we were out of our house again for almost a week. I felt sorry for the drywall person, as the helpers he had didn’t seem to have any drywalling experience, and it showed in some of the work. The next day, there were wo different helpers and the work wasn’t much better. I was going to say something, but after the 3rd day, the mudding was done and the work looked much better. In the end, after almost a week, all of the ceilings were replaced, mudded and sanded. We were where we thought we would be after the popcorn was removed, with nice smooth ceilings, ready to be painted.

Lessons Learned

In the end, we were very lucky with how things turned out. Asbestos isn’t something to mess around with, so it did need to be removed. From talking to other people, they agreed that the only way to ensure 100% removal of asbestos is to remove they drywall ceilings, but also that the contract we signed did not specify that clearly. The lesson learned is to ask plenty of questions of the people you hire to do work on your house to ensure you know exactly what you are paying for and what you will be getting.