How safe is it to live with an asbestos popcorn ceiling? I wanto to buy a home built in 1976. The pocorn ceiling has never been painted or sealed. How safe will it be to have it painted to serve as a sealant and live with the popcorn ceiling? Also, if we must cut a hole in the celing to hang fan or bump it with the furniure and a dust cloud forms how safe are the breathers of this dust? Please answer soon for I have ot bid this house soon. Thank you in advance.

I own BRD Wall Systems in Green Bay Wi and as far as I know popcorn that was sprayed in doesn't have asbestos in it you could find out by contacting the USG Corp. I have sprayed a lot of this material on ceilings and it is mostly spray mix and styrofoam balls we add some drywall compound to it so it sprays better that's what is in it

The materials used to make popcorn ceilings contained asbestos as a binder (all those deadly fibers). The manufacture of the materials ended in 1978 but the manufacturers were allowed to sell of existing stocks. Of course they made as much as possible leading up to the ban so they were selling this asbestos material far into the 80's.

The ONLY way to find out for sure is to test a sample.

There is no law requiring a homeowner to test for asbestos before removing a popcorn ceiling. HOWEVER if you do test and you do find asbestos, you MUST then either hire an asbestos removal contractor or do it yourself. You cannot hire a 'regular' contractor to do this once you find positive results.

This is a great article on popcorn ceilings and asbestos: ATTACHED PDF