We recently bought a house where the previous owners had semi-removed their popcorn ceilings. This weekend, we figured we scrape the remainder of what's left (asbestos negative) and paint and move on with our lives.

As we started scraping, we realized there was originally a lace texture on the ceiling under the popcorn. We tried to scrape as much as we could off. Then we started to paint a coat of printer + paint and it immediately began flaking. We tried to sand it but no matter how much we sand, there are still remnants of the previous popcorn ceiling in between the original drywall texture.

Is there any kind of primer we can put over this to paint and move on with our lives? Or are we going to have to call a drywall person?

Side note: In a bedroom where they also tried to remove the popcorn ceilings, they painted over those and it had begun peeling. I thought we would peel back what we could and then fix it. Once we started peeling, almost the entire ceiling paint is coming off in large sections, so we want to avoid that at all costs.

Thanks everyone!

Corn pop was a bad dude

Kilz

Brave souls attempting that. The house we bought a few years back had popcorn and we hired the removal, re-texture and paint out. Over 3500 sq ft of ceiling(garage included plus some 9 and 12 ft ceilings and 2 skylights) was too much to try to tackle. It was worth every penny and totally took the 80s out of the house.

I removed a popcorn ceiling in a flip house a few year ago. We put plastic all over the floors & used a sprayer to wet the popcorn down. Came off like a champ & when we were done rolled it up in the plastic & tossed it.

Pretty easy process, but we didn't have the additional layer that you do. Kilz would be my solution as well. Get a small can & test an area first

I was hoping it would be as easy as that, Apache. We are removing the carpet too, so we didn't even cover, just started scraping because it's all getting hauled out when we're done painting.

We actually got bids for the two rooms we are stuck on and both vendors have bid around $2k to prep, skim coat, and texture (no paint) on the two rooms.

I'll give the Kilz a shot and report back for any other poor soul who might be in the same boat later.

I would not use KILZ it is water base and you will see bleed through. If you want to do it right, use zinsser bin shellac base primer. You will thank me later. I have painted too many years to use any KILZ product.

What was your ceiling originally painted with?

What are you trying to paint over with?

Could be your adhesion issue is a problem with paint compatibility. Oil vs. Latex. maybe?

Or possibly still moisture in the old texture?

I wonder if using a paint sprayer instead of a paint brush or roller would make a difference.