Stipple Ceiling Removal in Markham, ON

Drywall finisher pole-sanding a ceiling flat, as in stipple ceiling removal in Markham

Stipple ceiling removal in Markham takes the brushed or rolled texture off a ceiling, or floats it flat when it has been painted, and leaves a smooth, sealed, painted surface. It is for owners of 1970s and 1980s homes in Milliken Mills and Royal Orchard, and of older Unionville houses with plaster under the stipple. You get a flat ceiling without the scraping damage that a painted texture causes when someone attacks it with a blade.

What Stipple Ceiling Removal Involves

Stipple is drywall compound dabbed on with a brush, a roller or a crow's-foot pad, and it bonds to the ceiling in a way sprayed stucco does not. Bare stipple comes off wet the way stucco does: mist, wait, scrape onto the poly. Painted stipple will not soften, so we knock down the high points with a sander on dust extraction, then float the whole ceiling with layered skim coats until the dabs disappear. The job ends with sealer, two coats of flat paint, and a room handed back vacuumed and wiped.

When You Need Floating Rather Than Scraping

Run a scraper across a corner in a closet. If the texture crumbles off wet, it can be scraped. If the blade skates over a hard skin, the stipple has been painted, and scraping it would gouge the drywall paper and leave more repair than the floating would have. Oil-based paint is the worst case, the one condition where a taping professional has to take over.

Stipple over plaster, common in older Unionville homes, gets floated with plaster-compatible compound and is never scraped.

No City Permit for the Work

The City of Markham lists painting and decorating, and maintenance and repairs, among the housing projects that need no building permit, and a ceiling finish falls under both. The things that do need paper are the asbestos sample on any ceiling from before 1990 and the ESA notification if your Licensed Electrical Contractor adds pot lights while the ceiling is open. We handle the sample and cut the openings; the ceiling painting page explains how the electrician fits in.

What Affects the Price

Floating costs more per foot than scraping because the compound goes on in three or four passes rather than two, each with drying time. Plaster ceilings cost more again for the compatible materials and the care. Ceiling height, fixtures and furniture add time as on any job. If the stipple turns out to be bare, the job moves to the stucco ceiling removal price, and we tell you which you have at the quote visit. Lighter machine textures are covered on the textured ceiling smoothing page.

Stipple Ceiling Removal FAQs

  • Can painted stipple be scraped if the paint is latex?

    Sometimes a thin coat of latex softens enough to scrape, and we test a corner to find out. Thick or oil-based paint will not, so we float instead. You find out which at the quote visit, with the price for each written down.

  • Does stipple need the asbestos sample too?

    Yes, if it went up before 1990. Health Canada's screening covers drywall compound and textured finishes, and stipple is both. The sample goes to an accredited lab before any sanding starts.

  • Will the ceiling be lower afterwards?

    No. Floating adds a few millimetres of compound over the texture, less than the stipple itself stood proud of the drywall. The ceiling reads as flat and the crown moulding sits where it did.

  • What if the stipple is over plaster and lath?

    We float it with plaster-compatible compound and do not scrape. Heritage homes on Main Street Unionville and in the Thornhill John Street district are the usual case, and we check at the quote.

Stipple Floated Flat, Then Painted

We test a corner at the quote visit and tell you whether your ceiling scrapes or floats.