De-goobering a ceiling

I am (finally!) down to the last room in This Old House for remodelling. The original ceiling is sheetrock, but it has had 1 foot-square acoustical tile put up with liquid-nails type adhesive.

The acoustical tile has GOT to go. Problem is, the tile rips out and leaves the gobs of adhesive stuck to the old sheetrock.

The VERY LAST thing I want to do is tear down the old sheetrock, because the attic above was treated for a bat infestation with DDT years ago. Not to mention 100 years of spiders and mouse turds...

So, my question is what are the odds that I can scrape off the glue goobers? I realize I'll likely tear the paper on the sheetrock (and yes, it's sheetrock, from a remodelling in the 50's) but if I can get it reasonably clean, I plan to skim-coat the works with plaster and then seal and paint.

Or, Plan B, if I can get the original sheetrock reasonably clean, I'll screw up another layer of fresh rock to give me a paintable surface.

I'm thinking if I take an ice spud (like a hoe, only the blade is in the same plane as the handle) and put a bit of an edge on it, I may be able to scrape the goobers off.

Anybody tried something like this, or have a better idea?

I like plan B. It will probably be quicker to put up a new layer of sheetrock than to skim coat the old and it will also look nicer, unless you are really skilled in plastering.

If you're going to screw on a new layer, you don't have to be careful in taking out the glue blobs. Just cut them out.

Hmmmm. Good point. Just score around 'em with a utility knife and peel 'em off.

By golly, that just might work!

I skim-coated the walls (over NEW sheetrock!) in the Master Bedroom. SWMBO wanted the "antique" look, so the rougher the better. Actually looks pretty good, and that's sort of what I had in mind for that ceiling. It'll likely get a coat of texture paint anyway.

Still, I like the "slice and dice" idea better. Less work.

Well I have been in the contracting business for a long time and unless you come up with a system I haven't seen, put 3/8's Sheetrock over the existing. By the time you try and scrape the old adhesive off you will do enough damage that it will be faster and give you a better finish to overlay the old. Use some Sheetrock adhesive, good thick dabs about every square foot, to help fill the voids the old adhesive will cause. I also think you are planning right by using screws instead of nails into the ceiling joists. This is a common practice in our area to fix old cracked plaster ceiling. Good luck, Sheetrock is always fun. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

MarkV

Hmmmm, again...

The main reason I didn't want to just pull the tile down and put up new rock over the old was the voids you mentioned.

Gluing up new rock and then screwing it might be an option tho. As long as it's reasonably flat and won't warp, I'm a happy guy.

Thanks for the idea!

Are you removing the tile because you don't like the look, or just because it needs repair/replacement?

You might be able to run some lath over the old ceiling (DW or plaster), and attach new drywall to that. If you are going this way, you would probably want to jump up to 1/2 drywall to help keep it from sagging.

Steve

Update:

Went with scraping the goobers off and skimcoating. It's a small room, with a low ceiling (knee walls and a gable end) so it wasn't too bad, labor-wise.

After the skimcoat dried, I sealed it by rolling on a good coat of KILZ latex, and then sprayed it with texture paint thickened with more KILZ latex. Looks GOOD!

But then, as ugly as it was when I started, most anything would have been an improvement...