cost to remove textured wall and popcorn ceiling from a condo

[BigMass]

cost to remove textured wall and popcorn ceiling?

was looking at this listing and the entire condo is sprayed with this shit. Looks horrendous. How much, roughly, would it cost to remove all this junk from the walls and ceiling? If you look at the listing pictures you can see it's all over. About a 750sqft condo. I know nothing about handyman crap so I'm looking for a ballpark figure. $100, $1000, $10,000 etc. Would help me a lot in figuring out if I'm interested in the unit or not. Thanks for any ideas.

http://www.sanostante.com/905-735-12-ave-sw/
http://www.sanostante.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/905-735-12-Ave-SW-13.jpg

[Tik-Tok]

If it has asbestos in it, you're looking at big bucks (thousands), it would be cheaper to drywall over the existing walls.

If it doesn't, still a lot of manpower to remove it all, and then fix whatever scrapes happened during removal. If it were me and I had the time, I would do it myself as it isn't difficult just time consuming.

[ExtraSlow]

Be warned, one of the reasons builders/renovators do this is to hide uneven drywall. So once that stuff is scraped off, the drywall underneath likely won't be the same quality as drywall that was "smooth finished" to start with.
you may have some major mudding to do to get it to look proper.

No idea on cost, but I'd assume it would be very labor-intensive. Thousands for sure.

[englishbob]

If its original from 78 then it could all contain asbestos in which case I'd walk away.
The cost of removal and replacement would be in the 10's of thousands.

[ianmcc]

Originally posted by englishbob
If its original from 78 then it could all contain asbestos in which case I'd walk away.
The cost of removal and replacement would be in the 10's of thousands.

Reason enough to lowball a sub-$200K offer?

[collectskulls]

to just skim coat over it and make smooth for paint finish about $1.70 per sq ft of wall and ceiling area...

[englishbob]

I don't think there's a voluntary disclosure for asbestos anymore which used to be the issue for resale but like a post said earlier the cheapest way would be to skim it or drywall over the top with 1/8th board and paint it.

[cam_wmh]

$573 condo fee, on a $225k condo.

LOLPASS

[JfuckinC]

Originally posted by collectskulls
to just skim coat over it and make smooth for paint finish about $1.70 per sq ft of wall and ceiling area...

best plan.

[revelations]

Originally posted by collectskulls
to just skim coat over it and make smooth for paint finish about $1.70 per sq ft of wall and ceiling area...

:werd: removal costs would be awful (even wi/o asbestos)

Slap some 1/4" drywall (20$ / 4x8 sheet) over it and get it done.

Probably at least 10k in parts and labour ?? :dunno:

[revelations]

Originally posted by cam_wmh
$573 condo fee, on a $225k condo.

LOLPASS

750sqft & ALL utilities .... not too bad.

[90_Shelby]

I just did this in my house to eliminate the popcorn stipple. Cheapest and most effective way to fix it is to drywall right over it with 1/2" drywall.

I asked the drywall guy about doing it with 1/4" and he said it would be too wavy and not look good. Scraping and or skim coating will have worse results than the 1/4" drywall option and likely cost more in labor.

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by revelations


750sqft & ALL utilities .... not too bad.

My condo is a bit bigger, all utilities and almost 1/2 that monthly fee.
Actually, that condo fee is more than my mortgage payment LOL.

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by cam_wmh


My condo is a bit bigger, all utilities and almost 1/2 that monthly fee.
Actually, that condo fee is more than my mortgage payment LOL.

Well hopefully your condo board also isn't retarded and not contributing to their reserve fund because low condo fees are not all they are cracked up to be at times.

[revelations]

Originally posted by cam_wmh


My condo is a bit bigger, all utilities and almost 1/2 that monthly fee.
Actually, that condo fee is more than my mortgage payment LOL.



Originally posted by mazdavirgin


Well hopefully your condo board also isn't retarded and not contributing to their reserve fund because low condo fees are not all they are cracked up to be at times.


:werd:

How new is the condo? Many keep the fees low for the first few years, and then the bills come in and the rates jump.

Also, this condo is DT - rates there are generally higher.

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by 90_Shelby
I just did this in my house to eliminate the popcorn stipple. Cheapest and most effective way to fix it is to drywall right over it with 1/2" drywall.

I asked the drywall guy about doing it with 1/4" and he said it would be too wavy and not look good. Scraping and or skim coating will have worse results than the 1/4" drywall option and likely cost more in labor.

I call BS on your drywall guy. He didn't want to sand the whole thing and wanted to charge you more for a bigger job. I've skim coated over knock-down textured walls before. The real trick is getting the thickness of the mud correct to prevent fisheyes and cracking in the deeper areas. Nothing a half-assed drywaller can't handle though.

The only problem is that it turns into a fair bit of sanding. Depending on the size of the room it might be cheaper to go with 1/4" drywall. I have no idea why he would say 1/4" was worse than 1/2" for this application. There's no way it makes any difference to the finish.

[BigMass]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm thinking the amount of work on this is too much. If you look at the pictures in the link you can see that every square inch of this place is sprayed like a warzone. The ceiling is the least of the issue, it's the walls and every nook and cranny. The walls are concrete and they framed it up and put a drywall layer that flops around when you push on it. Very cheap and it could be hiding a cracks in the concrete walls, moisture and other issues. Bulging re-bar cracking the concrete on the balcony, and wet spots on the concrete ceiling which indicates a current or former leak somewhere on the roof that could be almost impossible to track down. When I went to see this place it looked like one of those condos that you buy for 200k then one year later you dole out another 100k to pay for some sort of massive special assessment. Condo fees are high yet there was no work done in the hallways since this place was built. Very run down. There is a new elevator which is probably where a lot of money went. Also, every condo fee usually includes all utilities except for electricity, which in a 700sqft place you're looking at $40 max. So that alone doesn't justify these fees unless they're also throwing in a full Shaw 100mbs broadband package plus TV. Great location, great layout, way too much work for the unit and uncertainty for the building IMO. I've looked at lowrises from the 1960s that looked better maintained than this place.

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by revelations






:werd:

How new is the condo? Many keep the fees low for the first few years, and then the bills come in and the rates jump.

Also, this condo is DT - rates there are generally higher.
Agreed fellas.

The building itself is about 35 years, then in the late 90's, they stripped it, & modernized it. Robust financials, with capital projects planned out 50 years.

[JustinMCS]

omg knock down EVERYWHERE.

[C_Dave45]

Originally posted by UndrgroundRider


I call BS on your drywall guy. He didn't want to sand the whole thing and wanted to charge you more for a bigger job. I've skim coated over knock-down textured walls before. The real trick is getting the thickness of the mud correct to prevent fisheyes and cracking in the deeper areas. Nothing a half-assed drywaller can't handle though.

The only problem is that it turns into a fair bit of sanding. Depending on the size of the room it might be cheaper to go with 1/4" drywall. I have no idea why he would say 1/4" was worse than 1/2" for this application. There's no way it makes any difference to the finish.

Been in the biz for 30 years. Using 1/2 overtop of ugly, beat down, bad texturing, etc, etc, is way cheaper and easier than 1/4" and mudding taping. Way more time consuming, plus the material (1/4") is more expensive than 1/2".

In every reno I've ever been involved in, this is the way it's been done.

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by C_Dave45


Been in the biz for 30 years. Using 1/2 overtop of ugly, beat down, bad texturing, etc, etc, is way cheaper and easier than 1/4" and mudding taping. Way more time consuming, plus the material (1/4") is more expensive than 1/2".

In every reno I've ever been involved in, this is the way it's been done.

Doesn't make sense. It's actually more work to add a layer of drywall, several coats of mud (level 4 is 4 coats), and then fix all of the door jambs, window frames and electrical boxes to be flush to the new drywall. If you were going to do all that work why not just demo the old drywall in the first place?

For the op's problem a quick skim coat and sand is the fastest, cheapest option. And for the record, when we ran into this problem it was a taper of 25 years who suggested the skim coat. He's a full time taper, not a jack of all trades contractor. Total labour to skim coat and sand a whole floor of our offices was 6 hours. That barely puts a dent in the cost of materials if we had reboarded the whole place.

[C_Dave45]

^ I didn't even look at the pic in the OP. Thought he was talking about just a popcorn ceiling.
you're right, that room could be skimmed.
Reading > me

[mr2mike]

I'd reboard the ceiling. This doesn't look like a typical popcorn ceiling. Some of the joint lines in other pics on the ceiling perforate down into the room. I think if you started scraping, you'd realize how deep the plastering goes and it would be a mess.

How many boards are you realistically looking at? $200-$300 worth of it?
If you're getting someone to skim the walls, they can for sure handle taping/mudding the ceiling.
Throw on some green glue http://www.greengluecompany.com/
and help the noise of your neighbours upstairs too.

[speedog]

That ceiling looks just like the one in the 1 bedroom suite that my mother-in-law rents and it's concrete - does that make things more difficult in any way with respect to reboarding as some are suggesting?

[BigMass]

nobody above as it's top floor and it's a concrete ceiling. The walls are concrete too but they framed it up and put dry wall over it. Tear it down and who knows what you'll find. Cracks in the concrete etc. Could be bad. The construction is of pre-fabricated concrete sections, similar to Rocky Mountain Court. Good location and some of the units looked renovated but the building itself didn't look well maintained when I went to see it. Like I said, I went on the balcony and noticed cracked concrete on the sides and bulging rebar that's rusting up due to exposure. That can't be good lol

[Mitsu3000gt]

Those condo fees are really high IMO, even if they include power. Mine are barely that much with power on a much larger 2bdrm place downtown as well, and our reserve fund is fine.