How to get a landlord to remove popcorn ceilings with asbestos
Dealing with old popcorn ceilings raises health concerns about asbestos exposure, especially for people who work from home and have pets. Renters often wonder if they have legal ground to ask management for removal, while others weigh the massive mess of scraping against the cost of covering it up with new wallboard.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1sleeping in the living room
- 2taking ill-fitted wardrobe doors off the ceiling
- 3encapsulating or painting over the popcorn ceiling with a heavy duty primer
- 4using an air purifier and humidifier
- 5getting contractor bids to scrape and re-skin or cover with new wallboard
- 6consulting realtors about the cost payback for home improvements
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My question is: do I have any ground to stand on to ask management to take these popcorn ceilings out? I really love this job and would love to keep doing it but I am worried about possible health implications as I do a lot of work from home and have pets.”source ↗
“Any suggestions on which one to use? Is putting up new wallboard worth the extra $500 between the first two bids?”source ↗
“Scraping popcorn is one of those jobs that sounds way easier than it actually is, especially if that stuff has been painted over before. The mess alone makes me lean toward just covering it up with new wallboard for the extra 500.”source ↗