Did you wet it first with some solvent or just start scraping?

The house is brand new. I probably should've mentioned that. The finished spackling looked great the day I looked at it. The walls and all corners were sharp and ready for paint. I sent the realtor a text telling her to let the contractor know I wanted SMOOTH ceilings and walls, none of the texture crap.

As luck would have it, she did not relay the message for a day and a half and they sprayed the ceilings and walls with this crap the prior day (literally hours after I checked on the progress). It would've cost me to have it all redone at the time AND add to my already delayed closing date. I kinda had to bite the bullet or the wife would've killed me.

Do I need to do prep work on the ceilings before going with 1/4" sheetrock or can I just screw it on, spackle, and go about my life?