Popcorn Ceiling Removal in Markham, ON
Popcorn, stucco and stipple ceilings taken down to smooth, sealed and painted, with a lab sample first when required.
Markham Popcorn Removal serves homeowners in Thornhill, Unionville, Milliken Mills and Markham Village who want one crew for the sample, the scrape, the skim and the paint. You get a ceiling that reads as one flat plane in afternoon light, and a lab report on any ceiling that went up before 1990.
✓ Lab report before the scraper
✓ Rooms sealed in poly, filtration running
Ceiling Removal and Finishing Services in Markham
Most of the textured ceilings we remove sit in homes built between the 1960s and the 1980s: the red-brick detached houses of Milliken Mills, the Royal Orchard streets in Thornhill, the older subdivisions around Unionville. Builders sprayed texture because it hid taped joints and screw heads without sanding. When the texture comes off, those joints show, so the finishing matters as much as the scraping. Each service below has its own page with what the job involves and what moves the price.
Popcorn Ceiling Removal
What sets the price of a popcorn ceiling removal in Markham: square footage, paint on the texture, ceiling height, repairs and the lab sample. No numbers until we have measured.
Stucco Ceiling Removal
Sprayed stucco misted and scraped off wet inside a sealed room, then skimmed to a Level 5 finish, sealed and painted. The method every Markham quote should describe.
Stipple Ceiling Removal
Brushed and rolled stipple, painted or bare, sanded at the high points and floated flat with layered skim coats. Plaster-safe methods for older Unionville homes.
Textured Ceiling Smoothing
Swirl, knockdown, orange peel and painted-over texture smoothed without scraping, for the 1990s and 2000s homes of Middlefield and South Unionville.
Ceiling Repair & Skim Coating
Winter corner cracks, failed tape, water stains and ceilings another crew scraped and left raw, repaired and skimmed smooth.
Ceiling Painting
Drywall sealer and two coats of flat ceiling paint on a smooth or textured ceiling, with pot-light openings cut before the skim for your Licensed Electrical Contractor.
What We Settle Before We Quote
Is there asbestos in the ceiling?
Health Canada uses 1990 as the screening year for asbestos in textured ceiling finishes and drywall compound. The competitor pages you will find for Markham put that year anywhere from 1978 to 1986, and none of them cites a source. If your ceiling predates 1990, we cut a small sample from a closet or above a door, bag it, and send it to a lab accredited for bulk asbestos analysis. You keep a copy of the report.
What happens if the sample is positive?
Ontario Regulation (343) 947-5029 counts any material with 0.5 percent asbestos or more by dry weight as asbestos-containing, and it classes the removal of more than one square metre of friable material as Type 3 work. A whole ceiling is more than one square metre. We are not a Type 3 abatement contractor, so a positive sample goes to a licensed abatement firm, and we return after clearance to repair, skim and paint. You hear this at the quote, with both paths on paper.
How a Ceiling Job Runs in Markham
Measure and sample
We measure each ceiling, check whether the texture has been painted, and bag a sample from any pre-1990 ceiling. You receive the lab report and a written quote, itemized by ceiling.
Seal and scrape
We poly the floors, walls, cabinets and doorways, and wrap or move the furniture. We mist the texture in sections and scrape it off wet onto the poly with a filtration unit running. Painted texture gets floated instead.
Skim, seal, paint
We re-tape failed joints, set popped screws, apply two skim coats, and sand with dust extraction. Then drywall sealer and two coats of flat ceiling paint. We pull the poly, vacuum, wipe, and rehang your fixtures.
Every Neighbourhood in Markham
We work the whole city, from the 1970s streets of Milliken Mills and Thornhill to the newer communities north of 16th Avenue, with Richmond Hill and Stouffville.
Scrape-Only Quotes and What They Leave You
The cheapest number you will hear covers the scrape and nothing else. Under the texture sits drywall taped to a Level 3 finish, the grade the Gypsum Association specifies for surfaces that will receive heavy texture. Once the texture comes off you can see every joint, every screw dimple, and every patch from a plumber who was here in 1994. That ceiling still needs a finisher and a painter, so you end up paying three bills and managing three calendars. Our quote covers the finished ceiling: scrape, two skim coats, sealer and two coats of paint. If you want the scrape alone because your own drywaller will finish it, say so and we will price the scrape on its own and write down what your drywaller inherits.
What a Written Quote Covers
We quote after a visit, never over the phone, because a popcorn ceiling removal in Markham depends on things a photo cannot show: whether the texture has been painted, how high the ceilings are, how many fixtures come down, and whether a sample goes to the lab. The quote lists every ceiling on its own line with the scope for each: sample, containment, scrape or float, skim coats, sealer, paint, cleanup. You can add or defer rooms and see what each one changes. The number on the quote is the number on the invoice unless you add a room, and you walk the ceilings with us before the balance is due.
Popcorn Ceiling Removal Questions from Markham
Is a popcorn ceiling the same thing as a stucco ceiling?
In Ontario, yes. Homeowners on local forums ask about "stucco ceilings" and reviewers of the same jobs write "popcorn." Both mean the sprayed acoustic texture. Stipple is the hand-applied cousin, put on with a brush or roller. We remove or flatten all of them, and every one that predates 1990 gets a lab sample first.
Do you test for asbestos before removing a popcorn ceiling in Markham?
Yes, on every ceiling finished before 1990, which is the screening year Health Canada uses for textured finishes and drywall compound. We bag the sample at the quote visit and send it to an accredited lab. Nothing gets scraped until the report is back, and you keep a copy.
How long does a whole-house removal take?
A Markham two-storey with texture on every ceiling takes about a week of working days: a day to seal and scrape each floor, two days of skim coats and sanding, then sealer and two coats of paint. We give you the sequence and the finish date in writing before we start.
Can we live in the house while you work?
Yes. We seal and finish one floor or one group of rooms at a time, and the rest of the house stays open. Bedrooms are the usual first stage so you sleep in finished rooms while the main floor is under poly.
Do you work in condos at Yonge and Highway 7 or Downtown Markham?
Yes. Whether a ceiling finish counts as part of your unit or as a common element depends on your building's declaration, so we ask you to confirm with property management first. We book the service elevator, protect the hallway, keep to the building's work hours, and provide a certificate of insurance on request.
