Customer Reviews

Homax 6100 Ceiling Texture Scraper

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've scraped the popcorn ceilings off all the ceiling in my house. I bought this when I started, thinking it would help. I've since switched over to a 10" taping knife instead.

Sure you *can* attach a plastic bag to it while you're scraping, but it won't catch everything and the weight of the bag as it fills up will hinder effective scraping of the ceiling, increasing the liklihood of gouging. Bottom line: Scraping popcorn ceilings is messy business - put down painter's plastic and go at it.

Far better IMO is to simply use a 10" or 12" taping knife (like a putty knife, except lots wider). I still use a 2" and 4" taping knife for getting around light fixtures easily.

Although the ability to attach a handle and avoid climbing up and down a ladder may seem appealing at first, it reduces the control of the scraper and increases the liklihood of gouging the ceiling. Better to use a bench of some sort to reach those typical 8 or 9' ceilings. Also, the bag attachment make it impossible to scrape parallel to the edges of the room (to avoid getting under the joint tape).

Two 20'x20' rooms, and two 12' hallways and a 8'x8' vestibule of popcorn ceilings in a 1769 Colonial later....WE ARE POPCORN FREE! Thanks to this ingenious scraper which we would not have found except for a tiny picture on the label of the bottle of blue liquid used to spray before scraping.
At first we were scraping with a wide scraper but the mess was unbelievable and had to stop. The wet stuff was getting into the floor boards, etc. This tool saved the day...and made the job quicker and shorter. I did the research there is nothing comparable that I know.

I bought this tool a few days ago to remove the popcorn from the ceiling in my hallway with hopes of later doing about 1000sq.ft+. living area. Needless to say, based on the star rating, I was really disappointed. Here are the problems:

1. Without keeping a "proper" angle you'll either scratch the ceiling or get stuck (since the edge of the tool must be kept flat against the ceiling and this is impossible to see with the bag in the way).
2. Must use a short ladder to see what's going on and using a handle means you lose control (it's much harder to scrape and it would constantly rotate on the handle no matter how tightly I secured it).
3. Once you go over about 5-10sq ft of popcorn (and mine was pretty light) the bag weights at least a pound or so which makes it that much harder to control the scraper.
4. Most of the popcorn is caught but some is not, so you should still protect the floors/walls and will need to vacuum everything up.
5. Due to the way the "frame" holds the bag in place it's impossible to reach corners and I've actually left black marks on my freshly plastered walls because of the black plastic that holds the bag in place.

Bottom line: I bought this thing expecting it to speed up the job but instead I ended up spending more time futzing around with this tool. I had to finish the job with a putty knife (much faster, with more control and it left a much cleaner ceiling). It was a bit more messy but there was plenty of mess anyway and I got tired of standing on the ladder for an hour looking at the ceiling.

Save your time and money.

This makes removing popcorn ceiings much easier on the shoulders and arms. You do have to empty the trash bag frequently as the wet popcorn gets heavy. We decided to tweek the tool, however. I found that the sharp corners tended to gouge the ceiling. We used a grinder to round off the corners and no longer had that problem. Perhaps the manufacturer should hear this suggestion.

This tool allowed me to scrape 300 sq. ft. ceiling in just over an hour. You will still need a putty knife (at least 4") to get the edges and corners since the frame for the bag extends beyond the scraper edge. After the edges and corners are done, you can get the rest of the work done while standing on the floor. I found doing this (obviously with an extension pole) gave me a lot more leverage and enabled me to take off 10'-12' rows at a time with virtually no effort. Anyone who says this product doesn't work simply doesn't have enough sense to use it correctly. While this catches a lot of what comes down, it won't catch all of it so covering your walls and floors is a must. Unlike a putty or taping knife like some here recommend, you won't be coated in a thick veneer of popcorn ceiling with this tool. Lastly, I paid $15.00 for this tool at Lowe's so check there first.

FOLLOW-UP: While I recommend this tool overall, people under about 5' 9" will have trouble using it except from a ladder on just 8' ceilings.

A great idea but defiinetly not designed for those who do this for a living. I started to scrape the ceiling with a floor scraper I purchased a Home Depot. It has a blade similar to a tapers knife, but a little sturdier. What a mess, and way too heavy! I ran across the Homax scraper in Lowes and decided to give it a try. I sprayed a 6' x 6' section with water with a garden sprayer. I attached a 13 gal. trash bag to the holder with the clips included and went to work.

I was supprised how easily it scraped off texture and how well the texture fell into the bag. The 13 gal. bag I used was way to large to use with this tool. As it fills, it tends to swing too much causing you to slow `till the bag stops swinging. A plastic bag for a bathroom waste basket will be a better choice.

As far as the design is concerned, after finishing one section the tool progressivly bent at the point where the handle meets the blade. The metal really needs to be of a heavier gauge to prevent this.

The frame that holds the bag could have been designed with a slightly larger opening to catch more of the texture but even still, the ammount that fell on the floor was still minimal. The frame is designed to give-way as you cut-in by the walls. This is noted by the lack of extra spot welds where it attaches to the blade unit. The only drawback to this is that the frame needs to be made of better spring steel as the bag frame bends back from pressing into the walls and eventually doesn't return to the original position. The scraping blade could be a bit wider also, but no big deal.

Overall, this is a nice tool for the do-it-yourselfer but not for the contractor. It's just too weak to hold up to everyday use. It took me an hour to scrape a 10x10 area, a reasonable length of time, but I had to keep bending the tool back into position. Clean up was still at a minimum.

I think a home owner will be reasonably satisfied with The Homax Scraper and with a couple of modifications, a contractor can make efficient use by not having to climb up and down ladders for an entire job.

Bought product on recommendation of a plastering professional. Product didn't work, I was actually bending the handle trying to scrape the popcorn off of my ceiling. It took me about 6 hours to scrape an average sized bedroom and I ended up scraping the ceiling to the original sheet rock. I couldn't just scrape the popcorn. I ended up using a simple hand scraper which was much more effective.

We bought two of these to make this incredibly messy job go faster. The bag is a great idea and the clasps which hold the bag on work great. The bag catches a lot of hte debris and makes cleanup a 'little' more bearable. However; the bag gets really heavy quickly and can cause you to gouge the ceiling. The corners of the scraper are REALLY sharp and will also cause a lot of damage to your ceiling. Thankfully I read this in a previous review of this item and it was recommended that we round the corners of the scraper before damaging the ceiling. We did this and it worked great!

This product saved me hours of cleaning the nasty popcorn ceilings in my house. Popcorn ceilings had to be the worst crime on home decor since the avacado kitchens. I have been removing the popcorn ceilings in my house one room at a time for the last 10 years. I just found out about the texture scraper earlier this year and tried it for the first time last month. It saved time and cleanup with the bag attachment. This product is well worth the money for the savings.

Worked Great!!! Finished two rooms in just a little over two hours. Very little mess! Our only suggestion is to change the bag frequently, it can get heavy when full and bend the scraper a little.