Textured walls and popcorn ceiling

[Ann Mclean]

This is my first rehab project.  The whole house has textured walls and ceilings which look like popcorn ceilings. House was built in the 70s.  The neighborhood is really quiet and nice.  A nearby house in the neighborhood that was nicely remodeled is selling for 285K.  I got the house for 200K.  House had termites and we had to open half of the sheet rock during treatment.  My question is this, to remove the textured walls, contractors want to remove all the sheet rock which is adding 12,000K to the Rehab budget. Is spending all that money just to remove the popcorn.. ie rough texture worth it?. My strategy is to rehab and rent out but I have to refinance to get out of hard money loans. We are doing new floors, new bathrooms, new kitchens and possibly new windows in some areas of the house.  Any advice will be greatly appreciated. The property is in Houston TX

[Billy Daniel]

Popcorn ceilings are actually pretty easy to remove, although it is time consuming.  Just spray with a mist of water and use a paint scraper and it'll come right off.  I tape a shop vac onto the paint scraper to catch most of the debris before it falls.

Textured walls are different.  Since you've had major sheetrock work done, it might be necessary to remove the rest of the walls and go back with new.  Some drywallers can match texture, so dont be afraid to go that route.  Textured walls don't add near the aging look that popcorn ceilings do, so I wouldn't do a complete tear out if I didnt absolutely have to.