System 1 Acoustic Ceiling Removal

Repeat customer. Great job at a fair price.

We had previously used System One to have our acoustical ceilings scraped and painted. We were so satisfied with the quality of their work that we decided to have them paint most of the interior of our home, including cabinets, and repair and resurface lighting areas in the kitchen and bath where we had old fixtures removed. Richard was very accommodating to us, as we had many questions about types of paints on various surfaces, etc.

We had hesitated having this done previously because of the absolute mess we had seen when others in our neighborhood had had this procedure. We did have to move loose items, etc., but they made every effort to keep our home as clean as possible. Richard (the owner) was very responsive to all our concerns, and the workers were friendly and efficient. We were extremely happy with the finished product, to the point where we had them do the painting on the inside of our home which was scheduled for a couple of months after the ceilings.

Painting was good. Patch was good. Texture was too light and did not blend well at all with existing orange peel. Needed to be heavier and shows noticeably. Price was high.

We had System 1 remove the acoustic plaster ceilings from our house and repaint a few of the bedrooms. The "popcorn" ceilings always bothered my husband, but I never really cared or thought twice about them. I finally agreed to have them removed and had several companies come out to give us estimates. Richard from System 1 had come out in 2016 for an estimate, but I put the project on the back burner because I couldn't see spending so much money on a "cosmetic" improvements. When my husband brought up the subject of having the popcorn removed for the 100th time, I had several other companies come out and also requested that Richard come out to give us a current estimate. Richard is very personable, laid back and knowledgeable. He offered us a reasonable price for the job, compared to the other overinflated estimates that I received from similar companies who also tried to convince me that I had to paint EVERY room that had the popcorn removed, or that I had to completely move out of my house, or that I needed to redo the floors, baseboards, etc. It was a joke and was very irritating being pressured in my own home. Richard listened to what I wanted, gave his expert advise and proposed a price on what I wanted, not what he thought I should have done to raise the expense of the project. The System 1 team worked with us to make this project as easy as possible, we didn't have to completely move out of our house, just clear things away that might fall or get in the way like chairs, toys, lamps, etc. I was impressed with how little cleanup was needed on my part once they completed the job for I thought my house was going to be a giant white cloud of dust. They had sealed off each room and everything we left inside that room (closets, beds, dressers, bookcases, etc.) to trap in all the mess which was incredible that it actually worked. I am a NEAT FREAK and am being honest, I was truly impressed how clean my house was after everything was completed. We had all the work completed yesterday and our rooms look like we moved out of our 1950's house and into a brand new modern home. My husband was right, we should have done this years ago and I couldn't be happier. Thank you Richard and team!

Went well.

Richard was very informative during the estimate & explained in detail all the work that would be done. The price was good for the amount of work that had to be completed. They removed the acoustic while being very efficient & clean. When it came to painting the ceilings they did an amazing job! Would highly recommend to anyone that asks.

The entire house was done. They were fast and clean. Taping and prep was excellent coupled with their system of removal and paint application. The result was a smooth finish.

Rich and his staff are top notch, very professional and very clean. Rich even helped me out when I was in a bind, I needed to have my kitchen walls patched up and he was able to send one of his crew the next day. My ceilings look great as well as the paint job. Jose was the lead for the crew for the painting and he was great at communicating with me regarding details of the job and also gave recommendations when I asked for them. Would highly recommend Rich for any ceiling or painting services!

Richard and his crew performed an awesome job. Very clean and the ceiling looks beautiful. The whole job was very professionally handled. A little expensive but since this a once-in-lifetime job, so may as well get it done from the best, which is, Richard. Highly recommended.

The crew from System One took care of everything. They first removed all the popcorn from the ceilings and made repairs as needed. They returned in two days to paint the ceilings and walls. Each step took about one day and was handled in a very professional manner and efficiently. The crew took care to protect all our furnishings and personal items, especially my wood floors, but still did so very quickly. Their work helped increase the value of our home, and we were able to sell our place after only one open house after receiving multiple offers. The crew had impeccable manners and arrived on time and cleaned up everything before they left. I highly recommend them.

Everything went VERY well. Richard, the salesman, spent a great deal of time with me BEFORE the work began to ensure I understood everything and to ensure I knew what prep-work I needed to do before hand. Richard also recommended an electrician and I followed his recommendation. The work was done by 4 teams over a week or so - electrician, ceiling scrapers, ceiling plasters and finally painting. Everyone of the teams were on-time and very courtious. Every team cleaned up as promised. The finished product was as promised and I was absolutely satisfied with the workmanship. Finally, the popcorn ceiling of the 1960's are gone and my living room looks great with the new recessed lights and smooth ceilings. I should have done this years ago!

Owner was hours late to consultation but called.  He proved to have a very frenetic schedule that seems to be constantly changing.  He kept blaming not being in-sync with his calendar while remote.  The  work date changed so many times, I lost track.  Out of the blue, he asked if he could start one day early or his crew would not make any money as a job finished early.  I agreed, but this ended up causing issues with other trades people working on the house.  He sent scores of text messages during this process.  I had no idea as to when the last day of work was to be performed so I didn't have my checkbook with me on what became the last day, I don't live at the house being worked on.  He told me, in a text, that if I didn't pay immediately he would not be able to make payroll and raised a fuss!  Not good, but as of today, 05/23/2016, the payment hasn't been processed through my bank so I hope his crew got paid?  They removed approximately 1,400 square feet of acoustic material that was over lath and plaster.  They applied a coating of new plaster over the scraping.  The finished plaster is about a B and could have been better.  During the sales process, he kept telling me how wonderful the finished product would be but, it's a B.  After all the run around and slight quality issues, I decided not to have them come back and paint.  I likely would not use them again, there are other choices out there.

Excellent! I have a 2bd/2.5ba 1,228 sq. ft. townhouse that had popcorn ceilings almost everywhere! Scheduling the free estimate was a breeze. I had to cancel and reschedule once due to sickness and System 1 was very accommodating. Richard (the owner) came out for the estimate and I knew from the first 5 minutes of conversation that I was going to move forward with his company. (I had already received quotes from 2 other companies and System 1 was by far the best in customer relations and price.) Richard was extremely thorough in our walk-thru and explained the entire process from beginning to end. He took his time going over texture options, showing me photos of his work, and even gave me a great electrician referral for installing recessed lighting (which I had done the day before System 1 came in to remove the popcorn ceilings.) I booked System 1 on the spot. About a week later, 2 of Richard's guys came out and in 7 hours my townhouse was popcorn free! (I opted to have my own painter prime and paint the ceilings. After System 1's one day of labor, the ceilings were dry and ready for paint in 3 days.) Easy breezy. Thank you, Richard. I love my new ceilings!

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I do not know where to begin by expressing what a wonderful job System One did. I had removed some old wallpaper from my kitchen walls and discovered that the walls did not have the same wall texture as the rest of the house. After meeting with Richard McKinnon I was very impressed with his professionalism as well as the cost to get the job done. He explained in detail what steps needed to be done as well as what should be done before the walls could be painted. I had fully intended to do the painting myself but asked Richard for an estimate for painting as well. I hired his company to do both jobs. His crew of one arrived on time to do the texture portion. He masked all areas to protect the cabinets and other areas of the house. Amazing job! A few days later the painting was done and the same care was used in protecting my home. The work was neat, clean and done in such an efficient manner. I give System One an A+ rating!

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We received bids from three companies that we found on Angie's List and elected to go with System 1 due to their price and overall presentation. Our home is a two story with approximately 1700 sq. feet. They did all the ceilings except the kitchen and baths, which did not have acoustic ceilings. They also did the ceilings inside our closets. Our stairway has a cathedral ceiling which they did with no problem.
At the time of the bid, owner Richard McKinnon came to our home and walked us through the process and showed us photos of what would happen. He brought in samples of the various types of texture they can do (cloud, orange peel, knock down, etc.) He also walked us through the house, giving us a detailed list of what WE would need to do to get ready for the ceiling work.  System 1 moves all the heavy furniture, but you need to move or pack away all knick knacks and move smaller items to the perimeter of the walls, extending out no more than about 18" so the crews have room for their scaffolds. You can also put things in the kitchen/baths/garage where no work will take place.  In closets where they will work you need to move everything off the top shelves but you do not need to move your hanging clothes. It was also recommended that we pack away our computers and cover our big screen TV with blankets or towels (which we did).   The preparation took us quite a while, so allow yourself plenty of time to do these items before the day the crew arrives to work. It takes longer than you think it will.
The crew arrived as scheduled and proceeded to move furniture and essentially double wrap the inside of our home in plastic sheeting. They use tape to hang the plastic near the top of your walls, where they intersect with your ceilings. Richard had warned us during his visit that we might experience paint peeling in a few areas when they removed the tape holding the plastic. This turned out to be an understatement, as there are very few places that DON'T have peeling paint. We were warned, but it was still quite disconcerting. We were planning to repaint the interior of our home anyway, but I'm sure all this peeling paint will result in higher painting bids because of the amount of sanding and prep work the painters will have to do. We now have to move the painting up on our priority list because the walls look pretty shabby the way they are. Maybe your situation will be different, but just go into it knowing what to expect.
The crew did an excellent job putting down heavy duty paper "runners" on our wood flooring and also on the front walkway. They also put plastic sheeting down on our driveway before parking their work van there. We had relatively new pavers out front so we were happy to see the care they took to protect everything.
You need to leave your home on the day work is being performed since there is nowhere to sit that isn't draped in plastic.  You will be able to sleep in your home that night after they finish work, but it will be very humid and smell like wet plaster. We opted to stay in a nearby hotel that night and returned the next morning to open all the windows and doors to let it air out and dry.
The crew did a good job cleaning up after themselves at the conclusion of the first day.  They did our whole home in one day and then the plaster needs to dry thoroughly before a different crew comes back to paint a few days later. In our case, the painters came back a week after the ceiling removal/retexture.   As agreed, we paid System One $2650 following the first day of work, and then we paid an additional $1300 after the painting was completed.  The painting is optional. If you want to do the painting yourself or hire another painter, they are fine with that. 
The only other slight glitch we experienced was regarding two existing ceiling fans. We were under the impression that the company would take them both down, remove the acoustic material and then put them back up.  They did this with one fan but the crew didn't remove the other fan, and worked around the perimeter of it instead. We were planning to replace this one with a new fan but we were left with a circle of the old "popcorn" ceiling around where it had been.  They said they only take down certain types of fans.  So we had to take down that fan ourselves after the removal work had been done and do the scraping of that area ourselves before the painters arrived a week later.  I would recommend having Richard check out your ceiling fans at the time of the bid and clarify which ones will be removed and which will not be so you know what to expect.
Overall, we are very happy with the new, modernized look of our ceilings. They look SO much better than the old popcorn ceilings. Despite the couple of minor glitches we encountered we are glad we had the work done and would recommend this company to friends.

 Our two story house has 6 bedrooms,  good sized foyer with stairwell and arched ceilings leading upstairs. Living, family & dinning rooms, a lot of acoustic ceilings and odd shaped ceilings.  Richard's crew arrived at 6:30 AM, moved the furniture, taped sheets of plastic to the top of the walls, covered stairs, furniture, floors, windows, appliances, doorways, everything with sheets and sheets of plastic they taped down.

We left for a hotel but came back to check progress. Four guys were working full speed, it was a full days work removing, cleaning, patching and making repairs as they found them. At the end of the day all the plastic and mess was removed with no trace left behind. The workers were back the next day at 6:30 AM, once again they covered everything with plastic then finished the upstairs' rooms and made an attic entry cover including making and installing a metal rim to keep the cover in place. So much nicer than the empty rusty metal box that was there for 20 years.

At the end of the second day's work everything was removed and cleaned Spic & Span. The ceiling though unpainted looked better already. No bits of dust clinging to the acoustic stuff.  I was worried the house would be loud and there would be an echo affect without the acoustic ceilings, but it does not.

A few days later once the ceilings were completely dry the painters arrived at 6:30 AM. They too covered all furniture, walls, appliances, stairs, floors, windows, doorways, everything with yards and yards of plastic they taped it all down. They were done by 3:30, everything cleaned up not a mess in sight. They did a great job, I will hire them again for future painting needs, excellent and through. I have already recommended them to a neighbor.

 I wasn't sure about the shade of white or the light cloud finish for the ceilings they recommended, but Richard reassured me the color and finish would be beautiful and he was right. The ceilings are gorgeous!  Smooth but not too smooth, the color is perfect, there are no lumps or lines, no tape marks, it looks like a brand new ceiling. We are very happy with our choice and with Richard and his crew.

Everyone was helpful, professional, clean and did great work, I highly recommend System One Interiors and Richard McKinnon. He is running this company with experts and good people who do the work right and with pride. Richard is an honest trustworthy person who won't let you down.

We also had recessed lights installed in six of the rooms and one ceiling light/fan installed in another room. Richard referred us to Dustin an electrician at Southern California Electrical in Chino. Dustin and the other electrician were professionals, friendly  and excellent workers. 

Over two days they installed 22 LED recessed lights two were adjustable, 3 Circuits, 5 Dimmers, 3 Box Expansions, installation of the light/fan with 2 High Load Electrical Boxes, 2 Decora switches and the relocation of a hanging light fixture in the kitchen. The electrical work was done before the ceiling work.   Dustin talked to us every step of the way and explained what would and wouldn't work, helping us make some decisions and saving us some $$ along the way. I highly recommend Dustin, he's an excellent electrician and a good person.  Total cost for work electrical above was $4,670.00.

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We were extremely pleased with the results in every way.  We wish all the services we employ were like System1.
Richard thoroughly knows the challenges of acoustic ceiling removal with old lath and plaster underneath.  His advice was on target  to smooth the ceiling transition between the old and new addition.  He helped us improve the other rooms' ceilings at the same time so the end result is a uniform texture and color throughout the entire house.
His team of two arrived on time, quickly taped and draped the rooms and protected the floors all the way to the front door.   We just needed to do the minimal preparation of removing items from surface tops.  The team worked quickly and efficiently.  They communicated with us on the texture and on the ceiling transition approach. 
We had the same experience with the painting team of two who came a few days later.
The teams cleaned up completely leaving just a set of beautiful ceilings for us to appreciate.

The acoustical ceiling removal crew did an excellent job. They started on time, and completed the task as projected. The painting crew also stared on time and finished as they had anticipated. Painting was  very nicely done. No problems were encountered.

Every aspect of my experience with System 1 was positive.  An appointment was set for Richard to come to my house and give an estimate.  He was punctual, polite, and provided all of the information I needed to make an informed decision about the level of work I would have done.  I had already pulled plaster samples from each room and determined that there was no asbestos, so he was able to make a bid on the spot.  The final bill I received matched the bid exactly.

The first point I should make about this kind of work is that this is NOT a DIY type of job.  There is an extraordinary amount of work that needs to be done, and the proper application of plaster takes years to master.  The team at System 1 that showed up at my house had 17 years of experience each, and it showed.

My house has solid Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors and so I must say that was a concern.  The team showed up at 7:20 sharp, introduced themselves to me, and immediately began moving very quickly.  First of all, they wore soft soled tennis shoes rather than boots, specifically to minimize their impact on the floor.  Within 45 minutes my 2,300 square foot house had plastic covering the floors and walls up to the ceiling.  Absolute economy of motion.  Essentially your house will look like a kill house in a mob movie.  They even run a plastic path out to your driveway, and then park the work van on top of the plastic.  This is to protect the concrete on the outside of your house as well. 

They were too polite to ask me to leave, but it became clear rather quickly that it would be best if I just got out of their way.  Every movement with these guys is practiced, so the job progresses very quickly. They did inform me that they would have to finish one last room on the next day, and I agreed.  This did not add to my final bill in any way.  
 
Removing 1,900 square feet of acoustic ceiling and applying 2,300 square feet of plaster is a big, messy job.  At the end of the job, there wasn?t a single drop of plaster on my wood floor, no scratches of any kind.  The ceiling was absolutely perfectly done.  I have not yet painted or sanded any edges, but the ceiling is finished and very presentable as is.

Also, I framed a new attic access, and asked them to please plaster flush to it.  You can see in the picture that they did an absolutely perfect job of that as well.

Basically System 1 took a huge job that I was quite worried about and gave me beautiful results in a day and a half, charged me exactly what they bid, and used all of the correct materials to complete it.  My ceiling has been up for a month now and I have experienced no cracking or flaking of any kind.  

I would HIGHLY recommend this company.

I just started Angie's List because I was looking for some floor work.  I just happened to read review this company in which I used a couple of years ago.  I laughed at the last negative response (F) given.  This company did me right.  I wish everyone could come over to my house and see how smooth my walls are.  He wasn't the cheapest bid we got but there is a reason for this....quality quality quality. We were impressed by him and his thorough explanation of the process. As far as the owner, he did have a lot to say, but it was for a reason. He told us everything we had to do to prepare for their crew, and he was very knowledgeable and personable.  if anyone uses this company because of this review and doesn't like them, I'll buy you a six pack. 

2 thumbs up for System 1!!!