Being first-time home owners, my wife and I are constantly taking on new projects and running up against new challenges. From scraping popcorn ceilings, to patching holes in the walls, to gutting our 70s kitchen; we’ve been able to do a lot of the work on our house ourselves. Along the way we’re learning new skills and the money we’re investing is increasing the value of our house.

Even though neither of us had any home improvement skills when we moved in to our first place 2½ years ago, we are both fortunate to have professional tradesmen as fathers that have been there to answer our questions and come help with some of our crazy projects. We have neighbors that have loaned us tools and cheered on our progress. We also have friends that have been there when we needed extra hands and who we’ve been able to help with their own home improvement projects. This network of family, neighbors and friends really makes it easy for us to be do-it-yourselfers. For a while now, I’ve wanted to create the same type of community online. A place where people can ask questions, get encouragement, and share their DIY success stories.

Enter Ning. Ning is a web application that allows anyone to build and customize your their very own social network. I first signed up with Ning back in 2005 when they were still beta testing. At the time, Ning only allowed you to create quirky hot-or-not, craigslist, & flickr knockoff sites. I never found a use for my own custom hot-or-not site, so I kinda forgot Ning for a while. Since then, the Ning platform has changed dramatically. A Ning-created site can be customized to share music, movies and photos. Each user can create a customized profile page, write blog posts, and participate in the forums and groups in the network. In short, it’s the perfect tool for a community of weekend warriors to share their experiences and expertise.

But what should I call this social network for do-it-yourselfers? The requirements were simple. It had to be short, DIY/community related, and have an available domain name. After a lot of trial and error on the last requirement, I decided on DIYalogue. I’ll probably write more elsewhere on the development of the logo, but I think it turned out pretty sharp.

So whether you’re a first-time homeowner, a seasoned DIY veteran, or even just a fan of home improvement shows, head over to DIYalogue.com and join us!

After Dan Cederholm made his argument yesterday that CSS “Hacks” should really be called CSS Patches, I decided it was time for me to explain how to make a Drywall Hack…er, Patch! Unlike in pseudo repair jobs done to css to account for browser inconsistencies, this process actually involves making a physical patch for an honest-to-goodness hole in a brick-and-mortar (well, drywall actually) wall.

Exhibit A:

Yes, that’s a hole…in the wall of our upstairs bathroom. Although I’m tempted to say “I’ve always wanted to punch a hole in a wall”, and that “I did it for the sake of this tutorial”, I have to admit that the hole was there when my wife and I moved in. It was actually hidden below 3 layers of wallpaper that we removed, and patched with a business card for a car dealership. No joke…I guess that’s how you know you’ve moved to SC. Being the son of a master carpenter and the son-in-law of a tile mason, I’m not one to resort to shoddy home-improvement techniques so I thought I’d write up a tutorial on how to properly patch a medium-sized hole in a section of drywall. There are many methods to repairing drywall but the technique that I’m going to cover here is often referred to as a California Patch and can be used to repair a hole between studs that is too large to glaze over with drywall putty.

Before we begin, you will need a piece of drywall that is at least 4-5 inches wider and taller than your hole. Often times, if you go to a home-improvement store, they will have broken pieces of drywall that they will give you or sell at an exremely discounted price. I was able to buy a half-sheet (because I know there will be more patches to make before our home improvement is done here) for only $1.02! You will also need the items pictured above:

• Keyhole Saw
• Utility Knife
• Metal Ruler (or T Square)
• Pencil
• Spackling Paste
• Putty Knife

Step 1

With a keyhole saw, cut away any crumbled or damaged drywall around the hole. Try to make your new, larger hole as rectangular as possible.

Step 2

Measure the width and height of the new hole. Draw a rectangle of the same dimensions on the spare piece of drywall and cut it out, leaving about 1 inch around the rectangle. To make a clean cut, score it repeatedly with the utility knife using a metal ruler as a guide.

Step 3

Hold up the patch to your hole to visually check to see if the penciled rectangle is about the same size as the hole. It’s a good idea to measure it again just to be sure.

Step 4

The secret to the California patch is in the fact that drywall has thick paper on both sides. Laying a metal ruler along the line that represents a side of the hole, score across the entire patch, but do not cut all the way through. Once you’ve scored about halfway through the drywall, snap it off like a Kit-Kat bar and peel the gypsum away from the back layer of paper. Repeat the process all the way around the patch as shown above.

Step 5

Place the patch over the hole (with the excess-paper-side out) and gently press the drywall “key” into the hole. Do not jam the patch into the hole because we have to pull it back out again in a second. If it doesn’t fit into the whole, trim away at hole with the keyhole saw or utility knife until it does. Once it does fit nicely, pencil around the excess paper and then remove the patch from the wall again.

Step 6

Using a utility knife, score the wall along the lines you created in the previous step. Then, Peel away the paper around the hole. What we’re doing here, is evening out the two surfaces by making it one layer of paper thick instead of two.

Step 7

Using a putty knife, apply spackling paste around the hole and on the patch. Try not to get it too thick where the paper will lie against the wall, but apply a thin layer so that the paper will stick.

Step 8

Re-insert the patch into the wall, SLOWLY, just until it feels even with the rest of the wall. At this point, you probably want to give it a few hours to dry so it’s a little more solid to putty over. Once it is, apply a thin layer of spackling paste over the entire patch. Allow this to dry, sand and repeat until the wall is smooth.

That’s it. Once you prime and paint, nobody will ever know the hole was even there. If this was helpful, or if you have any additional tips, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Update - 1/27/2007: If you are doing this type of patch on a ceiling or anywhere that might need more support, put a scrap piece of wood into the hole as shown in the quick diagram I made below. Use drywall screws to fasten the wood to the existing drywall before putting your patch in and when you’re done, put a couple more screws through the patch and into the wood backer to be sure it doesn’t fall on your head before it dries. I used this method when I removed some old can lights in a hallway and it worked great.

Good Luck! - Jason

Popcorn belongs in a movie theatre bucket drenched in butter, not on a ceiling. Cottage Cheese? Well let’s just say it’s something I never want to see in large quantities when I look up. Whoever came up with the idea of spray-on textured ceilings was a lazy contractor…and the marketing guru that decided to pass the product off for its acoustic properties was a creative genius. Unless you have a large empty room with hard floors, there is no need for an “acoustic” ceiling…and in that case you should just buy a rug and some soft furniture and get over it. Somehow though, this bumpy, crumbly, nasty substance was applied to every ceiling in the house we just bought. All my wife and I can figure is that people must have thought this stuff was really groovy in the 70s to want to apply it to a bathroom and a kitchen. I can just imagine how much cooking steam and pee vapors have been absorbed into those curds. MMMmmm…

As you can probably guess by now, Ames and I would eradicate the entire world of popcorn ceilings if we could. For now though, we’re just planning on tackling the entire house. We only moved in about two weeks ago, but we’ve already cleared the curds from the office, guest bedroom and our master bedroom. Through our experiences so far, and the little bit of preparatory research we did before getting started, I think we’ve got a pretty good method established for removing the corn.

Note: Asbestos was used in some sprayed coatings for ceilings from 1935-1978 and can cause Mesothelioma & Asbestosis. It’s a good idea to have a sample tested by an NVLAP approved testing center before getting started.

Materials Needed:

• Contractors/Masking Paper
• Pump Sprayer
• Sanding Respirator Masks
• Safety Goggles
• Wall Scraper or Trowel
• Joint Compound or Drywall Patch
• Putty Knife
• Pole Sander and Sanding Screen
• Ladder

Getting Started

Remove all furniture from the room and lay down the Contractors/Masking Paper being sure to overlap each strip by 4-5 inches. This will allow for easier cleanup later. Turn off the breaker to the room and remove all ceiling light and fan fixtures.

Getting Messy

Using a pump sprayer, wet a 5-6 foot square section of popcorn being careful not to get too much water on the walls. Wait a couple minutes before getting started to allow the water to soak into the textured ceiling. Using a wall scraper or trowel (non-serated side), start scraping off the texture. It should come off in sheets, although on a ceiling where the there is a lot of patching and joint compound, this will not be quite as easy. In our guest bedroom (which we tackled last weekend), the ceiling under the popcorn was literally covered in joint compound, tape, and drywall patches…which can make this part of the job a nightmare. Done with that section already? Time to wet another section, and start the process again…and again, until it’s done. Once most of the texture had been scraped down to the joint compound and wallboard, you’ll want to use a pole sander to knock down the rough spots in the ceiling. Be sure to sand the entire surface, getting it as smooth as possible. In my opinion, this is the hardest and messiest part of the whole process…unless you have a nightmare ceiling like our guest bedroom. In that case, it parallels the scraping process. Once you’re done sanding (and the dust has settled), you’ll want to come back with joint compound and a putty knife to fill in any gouges, rough spots, and nail holes that might have opened up during the scraping and sanding. Let those patches dry for at least 30 minutes, and then give them a light sanding again with the pole sander to ensure that you have a smooth surface to paint later. That’s it! Isn’t it beautiful?…oh wait…cleanup. As you can see, when you’re done, you basically have your entire ceiling…on the floor. The Contractors Paper is a real time saver at this point if you’ve done it right. You just roll it up tight and put it in a garbage bag. We found that about 3 tight rolls will fit in a standard garbage bag. Here’s what the same corner of the master bedroom looked like after a couple coats of paint on the ceiling and the walls. Ahh…smooth ceilings. Perhaps it isn’t worth the effort for some, but as much as Amy and I hate popcorn ceilings, it was worth it.

Update: There is a LOT of information to be learned from the comments on this post, and while reading all of the comments would be great…it is a lot of reading. To help those of you coming to this resource for the first time, I’ve marked some of the more helpful comments with a little thumbs up symbol. It brightens my day to hear that I’ve helped someone remove another popcorn ceiling from the earth, but it makes me even happier to see those people passing on their tips and tricks to future visitors. This post wouldn’t be the same without your information. Thanks to all of you and best of luck! -Jason

Update #2 10/5/2006 - The comment response to this blog post has been simply amazing! With all of the contributions here, this simple webpage has become the single most exhaustive resource for popcorn ceiling removal. While it has been fun seeing a sense of community develop, comments on a blog are not the best medium for conversation and discussion. For that reason, I’ve setup a whole website dedicated to this subject: popcornforum.com.

I’ve started to go through the existing comments here, copying and pasting the questions and answers into the forum. I’ve put that task on hold for now though so that I can open the doors to the new site and get some real interaction going on. If you have any questions about popcorn ceiling removal, tips to share, stories to tell, please do this in the forum rather than here on the website. My goal is to eventually close the comments on this post and direct all interaction to the forum site. I hope that all you weekend warriors and DIYers out there find this new forum helpful and informative. Thank You! -Jason

Update #3 1/11/2007 - It’s been almost a year and a half since I posted this simple tutorial and its continued growth in popularity continues to amaze me. My wife and I aren’t home improvement gurus, we’re just regular first-time home owners who wanted to get rid of our popcorn. People keep thanking me for writing these instructions, but really, it’s all of you who deserve thanks. It’s the 200 (yes, 200) comments, tips, and stories that make this single page such a valuable resource to every potential popcorn scraper. As I’ve said before though, the comment list of a blog entry isn’t a very practical medium for dialog. So, as of today, comments are closed. If you have any wisdom, breakthroughs, or questions, please don’t let this keep you from sharing. The popcorn forum is open for guest posting, so you don’t even need to create a login. Just visit the category that best fits and click on “new topic” to start a discussion. Or, better yet, add a reply to an existing topic. With about 160 unique visitors per day to this one page, I really believe there are enough of you out there to make the popcorn forum into a great contextual community. Thanks for reading! - Jason

Update #4 11/5/2007 - The popcorn forum that I set up last year is still running smoothly and I plan to keep it going, but I’ve set up something brand new: Diyalogue.

Diyalogue is, as the logo implies, a social network for do-it-yourselfers. At this site, you can create a public profile, blog about your latest DIY projecs, share project pictures and videos and a whole lot more. I’m hoping this will become a fun and interactive community of weekend warriors and I’m assuming that if you’re here researching popcorn ceiling removal, that you fit that description. So check it out, create and account, upload some pictures, write a blog post, and meet your fellow DIYers.

When Ames and I decided to buy the Civic, we wanted to try to sell our 1997 Camry outright instead of trading it in. The one thing we forgot was how picky people are when looking at used cars. The paint is not in the best condition, but the thing runs good and has less than 100k miles…and it’s a Toyota - so it’ll run forever, right? Anyway, the biggest complaint we’ve had from test drivers is that the gas pedal sticks. Yea, well…we’ve known that but never thought it was worth getting checked out. When you go to press the gas pedal, the initial touch of the pedal sometimes requires a little force, sometimes you almost have to stomp on the gas to get it to go. A while ago, I tried squirting some WD40 wherever the wire was exposed thinking it was a friction issue…but no dice.

Amy and I both ended up Googling for a solution on the same day (after our last potential buyer decided he wasn’t interested) and found that the solution was simple. According to the forums and websites that we found, the problem was that the butterfly valve that allows air into the engine is gunked up by carbon deposits and is getting stuck. Sounds complicated to fix, but it really, REALLY isn’t.

Here’s what you’ll:

• A can of Carburetor Cleaner
• An old Toothbrush
• Some Paper Towels
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Metallic Chewing Gum Wrapper
• Titanium Bike Frame Pipe
• A friend (or spouse) who’s willing to sit in the car with their foot on the gas pedal for about 5 minutes.

If you can park your vehicle so that the passenger side is higher, than the the driver side, great! If not, no worries, you’re just going to make a lot of smoke. I’ll explain later. Turn the car off, open up the hood, and look for the large black flex pipe that runs from your air filter to the top of the engine. There should be a metal wire on a pulley near where this pipe connects. When you press your gas pedal, this pulley turns, opening up the valve that lets air into the engine. This valve is what needs to be cleaned. To remove the hose, you’ll need to loosen up the hose clamp with the screwdriver. Once the clamp is loose enough to move around, pull the pipe off of the throttle body and push it to the side like the picture below. Then, push a wad of paper towels under the opening. This is not a picture of our Camry, but is mechanically very similar.

This is the part where you need someone to get in the car and hold the gas pedal down. DO NOT start the car. You’ll notice that when they press the gas, the circular butterfly valve inside the throttle body will be open like the picture above. With this valve open, you’ll want to attach the little plastic straw to your can of carburetor cleaner (which is about $3 at an auto parts store) and saturate the inside of the throttle body. Be sure to get the entire surface of the valve flap as well. This should loosen up some nice black gunk around where the valve usually touches the walls of the throttle body. Use your toothbrush to scrub the walls and the flap as thoroughly as possible. If you can still feel grit around the edges of the flap, or the groove where the valve touches the walls, keep scrubbing and squirting carburetor cleaner as needed.

When you’re done scrubbing, wipe up as much of the carburetor cleaner as you can. Push the black hose back on to the throttle body, and tighten the hose clamp. Now this is the fun part. Crank you engine and let the car sit running for a few minutes. Depending on how much carburetor cleaner is still in your throttle body, your car exhaust will put off a nice steady flow of white smoke. We must have had quite a bit of cleaner left in ours because it made quite a spectacle. I’m talking voluminous puffy white clouds. I think everyone walking or driving by felt bad for us - like our car was dying or something…but it WILL go away. After about 5 or 6 minutes I ran up to the apartment, grabbed my camera, and took the picture below. This was nothing compared to the opaque gases we were making at first though.

The result: The acceleration on the Camry has never been smoother. Instead of having to stomp on the gas, it responds appropriately to the lightest touch. Ahh…I love do it yourself repairs when they actually work.