Biggest mistake I made, regarding my house, was not knocking the popcorn ceiling down before I moved in. It would have been so simple when the house was empty. Get rid of it. It's ugly, no matter what anyone says, it's just ugly and you will regret leaving it. Have the ceiling skim coated after it's gone.

I agree, on it being a mistake to not removing the popcorn ceiling before moving in. We bought a year ago had a kitchen pass thru opened put new granite countertops, flooring and painted. The costs were adding up so we decided not to remove the popcorn, now I have some “cracking” in places that looks like the paint is pealing. Mostly around new can lights installed, not sure if it’s from the original paint pealing from the stress from cutting and installing the can lights or something else. ACE hardware sells popcorn repair in a spray can, I’m going to attack that after company leaves. So after making a short story long, in hindsight I would’ve remove the popcorn and replaced it with a “knockdown” painted ceiling.

We rent a home here once a month each year. The home has tile floors and a flat ceiling. The echo drives us crazy. We spend all day having to repeat things to each other. Listening to the TV is almost impossible with the echo. Keep the popcorn ceiling.

If it’s in decent shape, keep it. Ceilings are not a deal breaker if the rest of the house looks great!

How much time do you spend looking at your ceiling?
 

When I saw this article, I had to look up to see what type of ceiling we had. It's popcorn.

One of our houses is for sale. It has a popcorn ceiling. Every other couple who goes through talks about it being "dated" in spite of the fact that every appliance is still being sold, the cabinets are nearly identical to some sold by Lowes, the carpet texture and colors are still in stores, etc. There are people chained to fads.

Our best offer came from a couple who loved the house just the way it is.

So there's your risk. Spend the money to remove the popcorn, and some buyer may wish you had popcorn for the noise reduction.

Popcorn ceiling is not desirable and devalues a home when sold. Popcorn ceiling texture with asbestos was banned in 1977 so when was your house built? If before then you need to test for asbestos. Asbestos removal and permitting costs more.

I am not buying the worry that removing popcorn causes a big echo or noise problem, I removed it from a large duplex and replaced the carpet floors throughout with wood and it was not a noise problem. The house I have now is all wood and tile floors and sheetrock walls and ceilings and no noise problem.

A few years ago for a remodel I had a popcorn ceilings covered with thin white board (like panelling in 4 x 8 sheets) and then finished. I can't tell you exactly how they did it as I was not there for the work but it came out very very good.
Suggest talking to a reputable contractor who has done this work.

Yes, we had the popcorn removed. It looked so much nicer. We enjoyed it just for ourselves, but when we sold the house, it looked up to date, not "something we need to fix, and that'll cost money."

When our house was manufactured in 2012 we needed the dining room light moved. It was covered under warranty . I asked the contractor who was sent to patch the ceiling about the textured ceilings and walls. He said that the reason was to hide all the imperfections (consequence of manufacturing the houses in 75 days). He mentioned without them you would see waves.

I worked in construction for over 30 years, and, in my opinion, the construction quality of the houses in The Villages is very high as compared to the norm. I moved here from a much more expensive house in Fairfax, Virginia, where the drywall was way more "wavy" than the houses here. It may be less expensive to provide textured walls and ceilings, but they could provide smooth ceilings if they wanted to. I think that people in the North tend to prefer smooth ceilings more than people in the South. It is an architectural preference.

:agree:
Based on my fairly extensive experience with new home and existing home construction up north,
I feel the build quality of homes in TV is extremely good!
Quality control is key...some builders have it, and some don’t!

I bought a patio villa and took all the popcorn down. I wanted sleek ceilings but could not find anyone here to do it ,all they wanted was to put knock down. I ended up doing it myself and looks so nice and clean. I also put laminate bamboo floors in. In a villa I would do it again.

If I was looking to buy a home popcorn ceiling would be a big negative. Jyst saying.

We did a complete remodel ourselves on our home which included removing walls and popcorn ceilings. We had a couple months before moving in so we didn’t have to live in the mess. We dry scraped the ceilings which still left a slight texture then painted. It came out fantastic very clean and sleek looking. I’m not buying the acoustic issue either. Our house is a totally open floor plan with wood floors...no echo here.

Popcorn dates a house and turns off younger buyers. That said I also dry scraped my ceilings, removed 3 walls and installed 950 feet of oak engineered flooring. Our furniture is suede and micro fiber, no problem with sound. Len

We did. Love the fresh new look. 2 day process with one night out of house.