Textured ceiling removal

[Brett Weaver]

I see a lot of topics about dealing with popcorn ceiling, but I have a slightly different case.  I've embedded an image.  It looks like it was "stamped".  To me it's not as bad to look at as popcorn, but my wife is adamant about removing it in favor of smooth ceiling (this happens to be a personal residence rehab, but I thought the would be helpful for reference).

Is this going to be as simple as scraping like popcorn, or do you think it will be more involved?  Seems to me if that's drywall paste textured that it will be difficult to impossible to scrape.   Are we looking at  new 'rock, or ?

[Brett Weaver]

I thought I would follow up and let you guys know how this ceiling turned out.  We got a referral of a drywall guy / contractor from another investor who was flipping a house near us.  That house had a similar ceiling and he had done a good job on it for her.

The guy came and looked at our ceiling and quoted $1.25/sq-ft for making the ceiling paint-ready. The technique that he proposed was to sand down the "stomped peaks" (but not completely flat) and skim coat the entire thing with drywall paste. 

We ended up letting this guy (actually his electrician) install recessed lights and he and drywall crew re-do ceiling.  He did a great job.  I almost hate to paint it!  He charged $60/fixture to install the lights including the fixture.  

I will add that this contractor is in his 60's.  That generation is used to making things work with minimal waste of materials.  I don't think this particular drywall skill is prevelant, but your mileage may vary.

The image is the ceiling at the stairway looking down. Same ceiling as the image in the first post.