How to Remodel Cottage Cheese Ceilings

Open a plastic tarp and lay it on the floor to protect it. If needed, use multiple tarps and secure the seams together tightly using duct tape. Cut additional 4-foot-wide strips of the tarp using scissors and tape it up along the base of the walls using painter's tape.

Place a stepladder near the edge of the room and apply painter's tape around the upper edge of all walls where they meet the ceiling. Leave a 1/4-inch gap between the tape and the ceiling. Place the edge of more tarps up to the tape on the walls and secure it with more painter's tape. The room should now be completely encased in tarps.

Unroll resin paper onto the floor until you reach the end of the room and cut it off with a utility knife. Place additional overlapping sections of paper on the floor and secure the seams with painter's tape. This paper makes the floor less slippery to work on.

Fill a garden sprayer with water and put on safety glasses. Spray the water onto the ceiling to soak it, working on approximately a 4-by-4-foot section at a time.

Climb the ladder and scrape the texture off using a wide putty knife.

Repeat the process of spraying small sections of the ceiling with water and scraping until all the cottage cheese texture is removed.

Pull off all the tape and roll up the tarps. Throw the material into the trash.

Wait until the ceiling is completely dry to the touch, which typically requires 24 hours. Examine any areas that are not smooth and fill them with joint compound applied with a putty knife. Allow the compound to dry thoroughly and sand it smooth with a fine-grit sandpaper attached to a sanding pole.

Pour a primer designed for wall board into a paint tray and apply it to the ceiling using a paint roller with an extension handle. Allow the primer to dry completely.

Pour paint into a clean paint tray and apply it to the ceiling using a clean paint roller.