Should I Buy a Home with Popcorn Ceilings?

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Jan. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Features of homes can be tricky when it comes to resale values.  What was once expected and a selling feature in years to follow can make a home more difficult to sell.  Having well defined spaces for the kitchen, dining room and living room used to be a benefit.  Over the past decade, people like the idea of open architecture.

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Today's topic is popcorn ceilings.  What was once the standard, now is looked at with a very different eye.  Some of this is because of concerns involving asbestos, other concerns is simply aesthetic.  If you are looking at a house and it has popcorn ceilings, should you avoid it?

Maybe

In Coeur d' Alene, we live close to a community that has experienced firsthand the devastation of asbestos poisoning.  In the small town of Libby, MT there have been over 400 deaths attributed to asbestos poisoning and 1,750 illnesses related to asbestos.  This is in a town of about 3,000 people now.

Popcorn ceilings may or may not have asbestos.  It depends on when it was installed and what kind of paint was used.  Because there is a risk, and because the costs of poisoning are so high, getting a sample tested to ensure there is no asbestos before purchasing a new home is not a bad idea.  The simple lab tests can be done for approx $50 and can give you and your family the peace of mind you deserve.  Asbestos in ceiling paint was banned in 1977.  If the home was built after 1977 - you should be safe.

If left alone, asbestos isn't dangerous.  It is if it is disturbed, which is why Libby has such high rates.  They are where an asbestos manufacturer had a production facility, which contaminated the whole town, more or less.

When buying a home, you always want to look at the long-term impacts.  Financially (is this place going up or down in value?), educationally (will my kids get a good education in this school system?), health (are there any elements that make this home unsafe to live in?), and socially (am I close enough to friends/ can I have people over comfortably?)

Popcorn ceilings may be a simple nuisance, or it could be a health trap.  Before you buy, you need to know what you are dealing with.  This testing may cost you an extra $40 - but isn't it worth $40 to know you are getting ready to move into an asbestos trap?

If it is a nuisance, then it is simply a matter of getting some soap and water in a sprayer along with a scraper, masks and some willpower.  You may have some touch-up work to do after the job is done, but you should be able to complete most popcorn ceiling removal projects in a weekend.

You will want to wet the ceiling with a sprayer and then get a scraping tool that you push from the floor so you aren't having to go up and down a ladder all day with plaster falling all over you.  Once it dries, you will have some fill in work to do, most likely.  This one project alone can make your home feel more modern and increase your sales value without costing much money.  Popcorn ceilings are not popular at the moment, so getting rid of them if you are selling or testing them if you are buying is always a good idea.  If you are selling, and you are going to remove the popcorn ceiling, you want to check it in the lab first too, because if it is asbestos-laden, you want a professional who deals with asbestos to do the work for you as they will have the tools and the safest removal methods available.

Shay Garvey http://realestatecda.com/contact is a Realtor who is a member of the Coeur d' Alene Realtor association and an agent with Prudential Spokane.  He has more information on his website realestatecda.com - Please contact him at (208) 714-4199 for more information about his services.