Pop Corn Ceilings, deal breaker or not?

[Jack B.]

I have a four plex that is under contract but has pop corn ceilings. Asbestos...

Of course the concern is tenants and law suits. Would the required disclosures on the lease protect me? Is it worth moving forward? Seller has owned the complex for what appears to be decades.

[Jim K.]

@Jack B.

If the popcorn's painted, you're going to have some difficulty getting rid of it, but if you find the right guy, it can be done. You're in a big enough city to find the right guy.

A lot of these textured ceilings were put to keep the finishing on a ceiling to a minimum. Once you get the texture scraped off, you might find that you're going to need to do some surgery up there. Again, all this is going to be about finding the right guy who knows how to handle a 4-inch scraper on a roller pole. He'll be able to tell you how he intends to do it. If he just talks big and pretends there's no difference between scraping unpainted popcorn finish and painted popcorn finish, he's not the right guy.