Comments on: Experimenting with Ads (and Legitimate Asbestos Writings!)

By: Arnor

Arnor — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, Google seems to have some recommendations for you… =P

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Could you stain it like you would a concrete floor? I might be a bit darker than you’re after but it could be pretty cool.

By: Courtney Nielsen

Courtney Nielsen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently scraping 2000 square feet of popcorn from my ceiling. After talking to several home improvement people, i’ve decided to bypass asbestos testing and wear a good asbestos-rated respirator, shut off each room under construction with plastic, and work in a hurry. I put a HEPA filter in my shop vac, and run a large HEPA filter after scraping all the cheese off.

At 6′ 7″, i accidentally scrape my ceiling and get this crap all over me all the time–every time i put on my shirt, stretch, etc. My home is split-level, so one of the ceilings is at eye level from the dining room. If it was as bad as some say it is, all the more reason to get rid of it. I think there’s more hype than truth tho. If “just one fiber” can cause disease, it wouldn’t be used at all (from what i’ve heard its still used in many everyday items), and it wouldn’t even be legal to have on the ceiling, period.

I did some concrete painting in myold place in SF. If you are patching, use a patch compound rated for concrete, and prime first with a primer made for concrete as well. After that, any indoor paint should work fine. Use a roller that matches the concrete texture.

Thanks for your blog.

By: Josh B.

Josh B. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t know what your aesthetic is, but I would argue for simply removing the popcorn and painting it as-is (spray-on, not roll-on). I love the texture of my exposed concrete ceiling, although it is from the 1920′s, so it has some truly awesome board-form texture.

Oh, and paint it white/off-white, at least for starters. The difference in the quality of light will be huge over a darker color.

By: JBagley

JBagley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You gota tell us how much you make with that ad after a couple of weeks! It will be very interesting to know.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m reading your blog from Utah, and of the 4 links in your google ad, the first was for Washington-State condos (check), the 2nd advertised condos “in the heart of Buckhead” (wherever that is) and the last two were for Las Vegas and Chicago condominiums.

Is that as geo-specific as they get?

Incidentally, when I clicked to add a reply, they changed to 4 ads about asbestos labs and environmental testing. So at least they’re covering all their bases!

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Mike, I’m feel like I’m missing an important part of this story! How did you get the popcorn stuff down?

Anyway, I’m glad to see other people sayinng it is acceptable to test adsence on a blog. I have always been afraid that readers would think I am trying to rip them off some how if I were to do it.

By: Ben Lowery

Ben Lowery — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mike, do you know about The Popcorn Forum, a site dedicated to removing popcorn ceilings? Lots of good info over there, but I'm not sure how much for concrete slab ceilings. Good luck!

By: Don

Don — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

okay so wanting to know more about the subject, I clicked on an add. I once didn’t buy a home because it contained aspestos and had an underground storage tank (notice I mispelled asbestos that should increase your hits since others will too …). They won’t mind though because then I clicked on their google add as I wanted to know more about fibro myalgea (see my logic on spelling here?). Once I had that knowledge I figured I’d come back and see what number I am in commenting as it appears I would be nine, so I’ll probably be about 12 the way people seem to respond to you. Question, how are you eliminating spam here? Does spam contain asbestos? It might you know?

By: Grayson De Ritis

Grayson De Ritis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Glad to hear it, Mike! Keep us updated on how it goes and what method(s) you end up having success with. Best of luck.

By: Christian

Christian — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Courtney’s post is causing asbestos ads to be generated. But why oh why the ad – is the $30K in DreamHost referals not cutting it for you anymore? :P

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brad: Interesting idea. I’ll ask!

Courtney, Josh, and Ben: Thanks for the tips.

Sam: I haven’t taken the popcorn down, but apparently you can pay a contractor several hundred bucks to just wet the stuff down and it comes right off. Messy, but not too hard. I’m more concerned with what do to afterwards and how long it takes.

By: PanMan

PanMan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If the ad’s are an experiment, then what are you experimenting with? Or is the term experiment just used to see if you, too, can get rich-quick, as seen in many ads? :)

By: Kevin Burton

Kevin Burton — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I clicked on all the ads for you…. and even read the sites that they linked to!

Next time you see me you owe me a beer or two!! :)

Kevin

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

PanMan: It’s mainly an experiment to gauge the value of Google Ads, in this context. They are *fairly* unobtrusive, so I would say that there exists a certain price at which I would consider keeping them around. For instance, if that ad pulled in like 1000 or 2000 bucks a month, I might keep it. But if it pulled in a few hundred, it’s out like trout.