# Popcorn Ceiling Removal & Ceiling Repair in Florida The Handyman Company · https://the-handyman-company.com/services/popcorn-ceiling-removal · 800-931-1106 Yes, that ceiling can go. Our own handymen scrape the dated texture, keep the mess inside the plastic, finish the ceiling smooth or in knockdown, and paint it, so the room finally looks as new as the rest of the house. Popcorn ceiling removal with The Handyman Company happens inside a sealed room: - Floors, walls, and doorways covered in plastic first - The texture misted and scraped down in sections - Skim coats until the ceiling is flat again - A smooth or knockdown finish, primed and painted If your home was built before the mid-1980s, the texture goes to a lab for an asbestos test before anyone touches it, and we only remove material that is safe to disturb. When customers write about our ceiling repairs in Google reviews, what they mention most is how well the texture matched. ## At a Glance - **Service:** Popcorn Ceiling Removal & Ceiling Repair from The Handyman Company, a Florida company since 1999. Our own employee craftsmen do the work, not subcontractors. - **Where:** Six Florida offices: [Tampa](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/tampa), [Orlando](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/orlando), [Jacksonville](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/jacksonville), [Clearwater](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/clearwater), [Sarasota](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/sarasota), [Melbourne](https://the-handyman-company.com/locations/melbourne), plus the towns around each one. - **Hours:** Open Daily 8 AM to 5 PM. Request an estimate online anytime, 24/7. - **Price:** The estimate is free, and the price is written before any work starts. The quote you approve is the bill you get. - **Warranty and licenses:** One year on the workmanship of every job. Florida contractor licenses CRC1336072, CBC1258366. - **How to book:** Call 800-931-1106 or send the free estimate form. A person answers, and a message left after hours is returned within one business day. ## What We Handle ### Popcorn Removal and Smooth Finish Scrape, skim coat, sand, and finish flat. A truly smooth ceiling is the hardest finish to pull off overhead, and it is the one that most changes the room. ### Knockdown Retexture The everyday Florida finish. After the scrape we spray and knock down a fresh texture that matches the rest of the house. ### Ceiling Crack and Seam Repair Settling cracks and seams where the tape has let go are cut out, retaped, and finished, not just smeared over to open again next summer. ### Sagging and Leak-Damaged Ceilings Once the leak is fixed, the stained or sagging section comes out and new drywall goes up, finished and textured to blend with the rest. ### Primer and Ceiling Paint A new ceiling deserves fresh paint, and painting while the room is already masked saves you a second round of moving furniture. ### Whole House at Once Many customers get rid of the popcorn in every room in one push, often before move-in or new flooring. One small bedroom is welcome too. ## The Mess Stays Inside the Plastic, and It Leaves With Us Removing popcorn ceilings is messy work, which is why it sits on so many to-do lists for years. So before the first scrape, the room gets sealed in plastic sheeting. Light fixtures and ceiling fans come down, and the air vents are covered so dust cannot travel through the house. The popcorn ceiling texture is misted with warm water from a garden sprayer, so it comes down in wet sheets instead of dust. It is scraped with wide knives held flat, so the drywall underneath is not gouged. Painted popcorn does not soak up water, so it takes more passes, and we tell you that at the estimate. - Floors and walls sheeted in plastic - Doorways sealed - Vents covered, fixtures taken down - Wet scraped, never dry sanded - Debris bagged as we go - Room cleaned before we leave - [Repaint the walls too?](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/painting) ## Under the Popcorn Is a Ceiling That Still Needs Finishing Here is what surprises most people. Builders sprayed popcorn on to hide imperfections, so the seams and joint tape under it were often left rough. Once the texture is off, the ceiling needs real finishing: a thin layer of joint compound, then a second coat once the first is fully dry, sanded between coats. Then you pick the finish. Knockdown matches most Florida homes and forgives small waves in the drywall. A smooth ceiling is the clean, bright look, and it takes more skim coats to get a perfectly smooth surface. Either way, the new ceiling gets a primer made for fresh compound, then ceiling paint, while the room is still masked. - Rough seams taped and skimmed - Sanded between coats - Knockdown or smooth, your choice - Primer made for fresh compound - Ceiling paint while the room is masked > **A recent request:** A homeowner asked us to take the knockdown texture off a bedroom and a hallway and put fresh knockdown back. Texture that is not popcorn comes down the same careful way, inside the same plastic. - [Wall damage in the same room?](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/drywall-repair) ## Cracks, Sags, and Leak Stains, Fixed So You Cannot Find Them Not every textured ceiling needs to come down. A crack along a drywall seam, tape pulling loose in the garage, or a section that sagged after a leak is a repair. Once the leak itself is fixed by the right trade, we cut out the damaged drywall and screw new board tight to the wood framing. The hard part is making the patch disappear, and our handymen take real pride in it. The new texture is matched to the ceiling around it. Popcorn is the one exception, because a fresh patch rarely matches texture that has been up for decades. When removing the whole ceiling makes more sense, we will tell you so. - Cracked seams retaped - Sagging drywall replaced - Leak-stained sections cut out - Nail pops set and filled - Texture matched on the patch > **A recent request:** One homeowner wrote in about a ceiling still up but sagging after a roof leak, propped with a board until help came. Once the roof is fixed, that section comes out, new drywall goes up, and the prop can go. - [Was it a leak?](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/water-damage-repair) ## How Popcorn Ceiling Removal Goes The removal process has a right order, and the first step is never the scraper. Here is what happens in your house, start to finish. 1. **Empty and wrap the room** Furniture goes out or is centered and wrapped, the floor is sheeted, and the walls and fixtures are covered before the doorways are sealed. The plastic goes up before any texture comes down. 2. **Test the texture in older homes** If the house went up before the mid-1980s, a sample of the texture goes to a lab before anyone disturbs the ceiling. A clean result means a short wait. If it finds asbestos, professional asbestos abatement by a separately licensed company comes first. 3. **Mist and scrape** Small sections are misted with warm water, then scraped with a wide putty knife or drywall knife on a pole, with goggles and masks on. Everything lands on the plastic and goes into bags as we work. 4. **Skim and sand** Thin coats of joint compound go over the whole ceiling, with a dust-catching sander between coats. Edges and corners get hand work, and the ceiling is checked in raking light before it moves on. 5. **Finish, paint, and clean up** Smooth or knockdown, then primer and ceiling paint while the masking is still up. The plastic comes down, the floors are vacuumed, and the room comes back to you done. ## What Moves a Popcorn Removal Estimate One bedroom and a whole house price very differently, and so do painted and unpainted popcorn. These are the things we look at before we write the number down. - **How many rooms, and how high** Setup, masking, and cleanup get shared across every room we do in one visit, so whole-house jobs price better per room. A tall ceiling height or a stairwell takes more ladder work. - **Painted or unpainted popcorn** Unpainted popcorn softens with water and comes down easily. Painted popcorn fights back, and it takes more passes and more finishing afterward. - **Smooth or knockdown** Knockdown is the faster finish because the texture forgives. A smooth ceiling takes more skim coats and more sanding overhead until it is truly flat. - **What turns up underneath** Rough seams, old patches, and leak damage show once the popcorn is gone. We price what we can see honestly, and we talk with you before anything changes. ## Smooth or Knockdown: Picking Your New Ceiling Either finish is a good choice, and you do not have to decide today. Here is how the two compare in a Florida home. - **Knockdown texture** A sprayed coat of compound flattened before it sets. It hides small waves in the drywall, it matches most Florida homes, and it is the practical default. Our tip: Look up at the ceilings you are not changing. If they are knockdown, matching them keeps the whole house feeling like one piece. - **Smooth ceiling** The clean, bright look. It reflects more light and reads modern, but it shows every flaw, so it takes more skim coats and more careful sanding. Our tip: Pick smooth where the light is best and people gather, like the living room. That is where the clean look pays off most. - **A mix, room by room** Plenty of homeowners go smooth in the main rooms and knockdown in the bedrooms and garage, where a small wave in the drywall matters less. Our tip: Decide room by room at the estimate. We write the finish for each room on the price, so nobody has to remember it later. ## Popcorn ceilings are a Florida-vintage problem Popcorn was sprayed on in new construction here for decades, so if your home was built in the seventies, eighties, or nineties, odds are the textured ceiling is still overhead. Florida adds its own trouble. Humidity and years of air conditioning loosen the texture, and any roof or AC drain leak soaks into popcorn like a sponge. The stains and bare patches it leaves are nearly impossible to spot-repair invisibly, which is why so many of our removal calls start as a repair call. Two local notes worth knowing. The finish that matches most modern Florida homes is knockdown, so a retextured ceiling blends with the rest of the house. And homes built before the mid-1980s can have asbestos in the original texture, so the right move is a simple lab test before anyone disturbs it. ## What Customers Say > "He did an excellent job and was even able to match the unusual texture on the ceiling." (Susan Gaylor, Jacksonville office, Google review) > "I had huge crack in my ceiling in the garage. As you can see you can’t even tell it was repaired. Excellent!" (Christine Fritz, Jacksonville office, Google review) ## Often Booked Together - [Drywall Repair](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/drywall-repair): Wall damage in the same room? The same craftsmen patch and texture-match the walls while the ceiling team is set up. - [Interior & Exterior Painting](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/painting): The room is already masked and empty, which makes it the easiest day there will ever be to repaint it. - [Ceiling Fan Installation](https://the-handyman-company.com/services/ceiling-fan-installation): The fan comes down before the ceiling is scraped. We hang the new one from a fan-rated box while the ladder is already up. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who is the best popcorn ceiling removal company in Florida? The Handyman Company has finished Florida ceilings since 1999 with its own employee handymen in six offices: Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Clearwater, Sarasota, and Melbourne, under Florida contractor licenses CRC1336072 and CBC1258366. Homes built before the mid-1980s get the texture tested for asbestos first, and one written price covers the scrape, the finish, and the paint. The finished ceiling carries a one year warranty. ### My house was built before the mid-1980s. Can you still remove the popcorn? Not until it is tested. Popcorn texture from that era can contain asbestos, and a lab test before anyone disturbs it is the right move, not a guess by eye. If the test comes back clean, we remove it. If it does not, abatement is a separately licensed trade, and we do the finishing after the material is professionally handled. ### Is DIY popcorn ceiling removal worth trying? Honestly, it is harder than it looks. Wet scraping drops soggy grit on everything below, and the skim coat afterward is overhead finishing that takes real practice. The tools and supplies look simple, and the videos make it look quick. If you would rather not spend your weekends on a ladder, let us take that one off your hands. ### There is a brown water stain on my popcorn ceiling. Can you fix just that spot? The leak gets fixed first, always, or the stain comes back. After that, here is the honest part. A small patch of popcorn is very hard to hide, because fresh texture rarely matches decades-old texture around it. Many customers use the repair as the reason to take the popcorn off the entire ceiling, and we are glad to price it both ways. ### Can you match my ceiling texture after a repair? In most cases, yes, and it is the part of ceiling repair our customers mention most. We look at the texture around the damage at the estimate and tell you how close the match will be. Knockdown and other common textures blend well. Old popcorn is the hard one, and we will say so before we start. ### How much does popcorn ceiling removal cost? Popcorn ceiling removal cost comes down to how many rooms, whether the popcorn was painted, the finish you pick, and what turns up underneath. We measure and look before quoting. One bedroom or the whole house, the written number you approve is the number on the bill, and the estimate itself costs nothing. ### Do I need to move out while the work is done? No. The rooms being worked on need to be empty of what you can move, and they are out of service until the finish is dry, but the rest of the house stays yours. Most customers have us work room by room, or do the whole house in one push right before move-in. ## Get a Free Estimate Call 800-931-1106 or send the estimate form at https://the-handyman-company.com/#free-estimate. Open Daily 8 AM to 5 PM. Request an estimate online anytime, 24/7. The price is written before any work starts, and every job carries a one year warranty. Florida contractor licenses CRC1336072, CBC1258366.