Textured ceiling removal and repair in Vancouver

Assume yes until a qualified person tells you otherwise in writing. Asbestos was used in ceiling texture and in drywall joint compound in Canada into the late 1980s, and it cannot be identified by looking at it, feeling it or knowing the year the house went up.

Under BC occupational health and safety rules a qualified person has to identify hazardous materials before renovation or demolition work disturbs them. That duty is not attached to a building age, whatever you may read on other contractors' websites. WorkSafeBC has documented asbestos in buildings considerably newer than 1990, partly because materials sat in warehouses and on shelves for years after they stopped being made.

So the honest answer is that the ceiling's age narrows the odds and settles nothing. Testing settles it, it is not expensive relative to the job, and it is the step that protects your household rather than a piece of paperwork.

No, and any drywall contractor who offers to is telling you something worth paying attention to.

In British Columbia, asbestos abatement work is licensed, and the definition of that work is broader than most people expect. It includes collecting a sample. So a drywaller scraping a bit off your ceiling to send to a lab is doing licensed work without a licence, and doing it without the containment that goes with it, in your house.

We do not hold that licence and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we do is tell you plainly that testing comes first, point you toward a qualified person who can sample it properly, and stand down until you have a written result. Then we get on with the part that is actually ours.

A licensed asbestos abatement contractor removes the material under containment. That is not us, and it is not a step anyone can skip or work around.

Once they are finished and the space is cleared, we come back and do the drywall. Depending on what the abatement left behind, that is skimming and finishing the exposed ceiling, or boarding a fresh ceiling and taping it out. Either way you get a flat, primed, paint-ready ceiling at the end.

Plenty of people are surprised that a positive result is not the end of the project. It adds cost and it adds a couple of weeks. It does not stop you having the smooth ceiling you wanted.

On a ceiling with no asbestos concern, yes, and boarding over is genuinely a good option. On an untested ceiling that might contain asbestos, no, and this is the question we get asked most often as a way around testing.

Covering asbestos-containing material has a name in the regulations. It is enclosure, and it is regulated work in the same family as removal, because you are still disturbing the material to fix something over it and you are leaving a hazard in the building for whoever opens that ceiling next. Screwing new board through old texture drives dust into the room while you do it. It is not a loophole, it is the same job with the paperwork missing.

Once a ceiling is cleared, boarding over is worth a serious look. It creates far less dust than scraping, it usually goes faster, and it gives a properly flat surface. The trade-offs are losing a small amount of ceiling height and having to reset light fixtures and any trim.

Scraped and finished smooth generally runs $6 to $10 per square foot in Vancouver. Scrape only, with someone else finishing, is $3 to $6. Boarding over instead of scraping lands around $3.50 to $6.

Those figures assume there is no asbestos concern, or that you have a documented negative result. Testing and, if needed, abatement are separate costs paid to different companies, and we would rather you knew that at the quote stage than found out later.

Vancouver runs roughly 20 to 25 percent above the Canadian average on this work, so a national cost calculator will under-quote you. Also note ceilings are priced on ceiling area, which is close to floor area, so a 400 square foot living room ceiling is about 400 square feet of work.

Usually not well, and it is worth understanding why before someone quotes you for it.

Skimming works by filling. To bury a heavy popcorn texture you need a coat thick enough to swallow the peaks, and joint compound applied that thick on a ceiling shrinks and cracks as it dries, and can sag under its own weight before it sets. You end up with a ceiling that looks flat for a season and then maps out with hairline cracking, which is far more annoying than the texture was.

Light stipple and orange peel are a different story and skim well. For anything with real depth, scraping or boarding over gives a result that lasts. If someone offers to skim a heavy popcorn ceiling in one pass, ask them what happens in year two.

Very, and there is no version of this job that is tidy. Anyone telling you otherwise has not done it. Scraping a ceiling puts material across every horizontal surface in the room.

What we do about it: the room gets emptied or everything left in it gets covered, floors are protected, doorways are sealed off from the rest of the house, and sanding dust is vacuumed rather than swept into the air. Debris and offcuts go with us, and disposal is in the quoted price. Gypsum is banned from the garbage across Metro Vancouver and the residential drop-off program excludes contractors, so it has to go to a facility that takes commercial gypsum.

Practical advice: do ceilings before you do flooring, and before you paint anything. People get this order wrong constantly and end up paying for finishes twice.

For one room, usually yes, if that room can be sealed off and you can live around it. For a whole floor of ceilings, it is unpleasant and most people choose not to.

The honest considerations are dust in shared air, noise, and the fact that a ceiling gets scraped, skimmed, dried, sanded and primed over several days rather than in an afternoon. Furniture has to be out or thoroughly covered for the duration, not just on the working day.

If the ceiling is being removed under an abatement contractor because a test came back positive, occupancy is their call and their rules, not ours.

Because it was fast and it hid things. Spray texture covers taping imperfections that would show on a flat ceiling, so a builder could finish to a lower standard and still hand over something acceptable. On a ceiling, which catches light across its entire surface all day, that was a meaningful saving.

It was standard on a lot of Vancouver housing stock through the 1960s to the 1980s, including the Vancouver Special, so if you own one of those there is a good chance every ceiling in the house has it. It also had a genuine acoustic benefit in the heavier textures, which is why it turned up in hallways and stairwells.

The reason people remove it now is mostly light and cleaning. Texture holds dust, cannot be wiped, and reads as dated. It is also awkward around modern pot lights, which throw light across the ceiling at exactly the angle that makes texture obvious.

Flat and paint-ready, yes. Perfect under every possible light, that depends on the ceiling and we would rather set the expectation now.

Ceilings are the least forgiving surface in a house because light rakes across them at a shallow angle all day. A wall gets looked at straight on. If your ceiling has pot lights washing along it, or a big window throwing low winter sun across it, small variations that would be invisible on a wall can read.

Two things help. A Level 5 skim coat over the whole ceiling, which adds roughly $1.50 to $3.00 per square foot, and using a flat ceiling paint rather than anything with sheen. In an average room with ordinary lighting, a standard finish and flat paint is money well spent and Level 5 is not. We will tell you which room you are in.

For removing texture from a ceiling inside your own house and finishing it smooth, no.

Two situations change that. In a multi-unit residential building, the City of Vancouver lists drywall repairs to fire separations as work needing a building permit, and a ceiling between two suites is likely a fire separation. And if the ceiling work is part of a bigger project that involves framing, insulation or vapour barrier, such as finishing a basement, the project needs a permit.

Asbestos is a separate track from permits. If material has to be removed, that runs through WorkSafeBC notification and a licensed abatement contractor rather than through the City. We will tell you which of these we think applies before we quote.

Yes, and strata work is a normal part of what we do. Get the paperwork started early because it is the slowest part.

Your strata will likely need to approve the work in writing before it begins, particularly where a ceiling between suites is involved, and that realistically takes four to eight weeks. Buildings usually want the service elevator booked ahead, common areas protected, and work kept to weekday hours. Some ask for a certificate of insurance.

One thing specific to older buildings: if a ceiling needs testing, the strata may already hold a hazardous materials survey for the building. Ask the property manager before you pay for your own. It is a common and unnecessary duplicate cost.