We remodeled our house about four years ago. The general contractor and two of his helpers removed all the popcorn. They did exactly as sstrams describes above. The GC used a bug sprayer with plain water, and the other two guys scraped and it looked fast and easy.

They weren't worried about the mess, because the house was pretty mush a shell when they did it, floors, paint, etc. was all done later.

Here is a short video of them working...

[1drv.ms]

---

Aries
~Sign of the Rams