DIY Ceiling repair/replace question.

Long story short. The seam on my family room ceiling is splitting due to a toilet leak from upstairs. Because of said leak, I need to replace the whole ceiling section where the seam meets or can I just tear the old one off and put a new one on? Plus the worst thing to add is the popcorn effect for that seam once fixed. Not sure what direction to take with the ceiling since has the damn popcorn crap on it. Makes me wonder if it’s better to tear it all down or just scrape the popcorn crap off. It’s a large family/great room. 15X25

When I estimate for those damages I usually put in a for a drywall patch and scrape and retexture of the whole ceiling.

If the drywall isn't sagging you should be able to re-tape but matching the texture will be difficult.  A very good drywall guy might be able to blend it well but you will almost always see it. 

Ceiling is not sagging. Just split tape along the seam of the ceiling. The split about 7ft long. 

If the seam is falling apart check to make sure the drywall is not soggy. If it is dry you should be able to just retape it and repopcorn. They do sell popcorn repair kits at HD/ Lowe's. I have never tried it but would think if you got it close and repainted the whole ceiling the patch might not be so noticable. The worst thing with these things is that it is too small to get a pro out and DIY is tough as you need experience to do it well. Chances are if you do it yourself you will be the only one that ever notices it.

I've seen popcorn patches done well and poorly. My brother in law knew a guy who did that sort of work professionally and had them come re-do a bunch of ceilings in a house they bought with popcorn peeling off in patches, they blended in the repairs and it looked really good. At my house one can clearly see where it was done badly. My reccomendation would be to get a pro to do a small blend, or re-do the whole room so at least it's consistent.

Given my loathing for popcorn ceilings I'd say this is an ideal opportunity to tear it down and redo with slick finish.

Textured ceilings only came around when contractors realized that they were faster (and thus cheaper) than actually finishing them properly.  The one house I had built I actually had to pay an extra $1,200 for them to be smooth when the area "standard" was texture.  It made for a nice selling feature later.

I never just fix the tape, i locate the toilet by measuring and will cut out the drywall under it. Sometimes I find mold, sometimes I don’t, but i can’t leave that to chance as a professional someone is trusting their home to.  It’s just as easy to patch a 2x2 square as it is to retape a seam.  You can get a popcorn gun at harbor freight and try your hand at texture matching.  I hate popcorn texture and prefer ones made with brushes, luckily around here there it was never popular 

I had a similar issue with my 125 year old house, don't know if it was moisture, the house moving around or the horse hair/plater construction but it just wouldn't hold paint (even BIN) and kept splitting.  I went for one foot square staple on tiles.  In the 1950s they were pressed cardboard, now they are thin plastic and move with the house. Each one foot square is pressed into four tiles, many options available and very paintable.

914Driver said:

I had a similar issue with my 125 year old house, don't know if it was moisture, the house moving around or the horse hair/plater construction but it just wouldn't hold paint (even BIN) and kept splitting.  I went for one foot square staple on tiles.  In the 1950s they were pressed cardboard, now they are thin plastic and move with the house. Each one foot square is pressed into four tiles, many options available and very paintable.

That looks freekin' palatial....not to mention the one foot tall crown molding!!!  

Patrick said:

I never just fix the tape, i locate the toilet by measuring and will cut out the drywall under it. Sometimes I find mold, sometimes I don’t, but i can’t leave that to chance as a professional someone is trusting their home to.  It’s just as easy to patch a 2x2 square as it is to retape a seam.  You can get a popcorn gun at harbor freight and try your hand at texture matching.  I hate popcorn texture and prefer ones made with brushes, luckily around here there it was never popular 

+1 

I should have mentioned this especially if you have any indication it was anything other than a very short term leak.  Also if it was a "dirty" water overflow you should remoce the drywall.  As he said you are going to be retexuring anyway. 

All I can say is that if you diy dont buy that popcorn texture in a can from Home Depot. It sucks and will not match at all. 

I had the same problem years ago with my upstairs AC freezing and leaking. After I tried to fix it myself I ended up with a E36 M3ty looking repair and ended up calling a popcorn removal guy and having him remove the pop corn and fix it. 

In reply to Sine_Qua_Non :

I did all my own Sheetrock work, I’m really slow at age 70 so my fiancé wanted her boys to do it.  

Yuk!!!! They did everything wrong and wouldn’t  take correction or even allow me to demonstrate the proper way to do it. When I finished a section properly during their lunch period it was like I insulted their sister.  

Now I’ve got a ceiling that looks like child did it and I can’t tear it down to start over. 

Ugh!