Does anyone have any good advice on how to frame in a ceiling in a basement? I’m relatively new to the renovation business and I’m working with a friend on finishing his 2300sf basement. It has 10ft ceilings and we’re going to lower them in most areas as well as put in some sofits for effect. The finish material will be drywall in most areas and some accoustic tiles in a home-theatre section. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Replies
Why not do the whole thing a drop ceiling with acoustical tiles. I just finished one the other day, was kind of ify about it being a residential project but I also installed sofits it's a nice touch. One piece of advice though, if you think you have to install 2X4's to support the grid, carriage bolt them up and along side the joists the full 8, 10 or 12 feet rather than cutting 500 16 inch pieces and placing them perpendicular like cats. It saves a lot of time and is a heck of a lot faster.
Pay special attention with all the soffits. For a suspended ceiling to look good, parallel, level and straight is the ticket. Set yourself a control line on the floor, square off of it, spray clear coating so it lasts and build away, always keeping an eye on that line.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I'd drop the drywall portion of the ceiling with steel joists ...
try to frame every basement I can with steel walls ...
and put in as much drop ceiling tile as I can to access everything ...
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Nice work with the arches.....I was going to ask if you used plywood to frame them out...then I got to the third pic.
You ever see the ads in FHB for the "insta-arch".....or something to that effect.....I`m dying to try them.J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
I was gonna use one of those ...
forget which one .. I see 2 regularily advertised ...
called around and found my local 84 lumber could get them ...
after I called the manufacturer ... got all the info ... sizes ... model numbers .. etc ...
Then told the 84 lumber guy exactly whcih code to punch into his computer!
Worked out to about $100 per arch .... but I was gonna order an arch 2' tall by 4 ' long and cut it in half ... so I could make the 4' part spread across 7' ....
so really $50/arch side ... now times 2 because my arches were a foot wide ...
back to $100/arch side ... plus $40 delivery .. to 84 ... the me do the actual pick up ...
Started to get pricy pretty quick ...
The clincher to site made came when the HO said he wasn't "exactly sure" of the dimensions he wanted ..... maybe 13 or 14 tall ..... maybe 24 or 26 wide ....
So lumber it was!
I've used ply and 2x blocking before ...
had a coupla extra 2x12's laying around ....
Decided it's 2x12's for the rest of my life! Real easy to cut... real easy to install.
No more fighting and bending ply ....
Where I wanted 3 across for extra drywall support .... I clamped all six ... three on each side..... together after the rough cut and just beltsanded them to perfection ....
Lotsa glue ... coupla screws low ... coupla into the ceiling ....
Done!
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
SCHWEET!J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
those tiles must have set ya back some. they look good though.
Did you guys see the price of steel? My wholesaler raised his
prices by 70%.
Wow. Mine announced an 8% increase effective 1 March. But I just bought some 25ga today and 2 5/8" track was $1.93 / 10ft. So its still real reasonable here."The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
Mine is $2.25 for 8 foot. Have you ever used 20ga? Is it any more difficult to screw the wall board to it?
No and I would have to assume yes, but there's different types of screws. If you get a pilot tip - they chew through light gauge steel pretty easily."The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
I use the 20's in basements. They make fora stiffer wall with only 1 side drywalled. Just push a little harder on the gun, the sharp point screws will drive thru.
You could do a suspended drywall ceiling. Use metal studs for walls and soffits as suggested.
Dave
Denver-
Instead of wasting the time and money using metal stud, go to a commercial drywall supplier and get some Rigid-X. It's basically a heavy version of ACT grid with no finish. You hang it just link regular grid, and screw the drywall to it (it's got flanges that are about 1 1/4" wide). You don't need to worry about braces, etc., as you would with stud, and you'l only lose about 1 1/2" of space above the grid for piping, wiring, etc.
Bob
Hi Denver.
Many suggest using steel studs for your soffit work; which is really not a bad idea cause metal work is inherently straight; whereas wood is not.
Having said that, I like to use wood and I borrowed a technique that Mike Guertin uses....rip 1/2 inch or 5/8 plywood to a width equal to your soffit's intended height. Attach with drywall screws,a 2X2 or 2x4 length wise to the bottom edge of the ply. depending on how you intend to run your soffit ( whether running soffit parrelell or perpendicular to ceiling joists) you either attach another 2x2 or 2X4 first to the joists via a chalk line and then attach the plywood panel to this 2x "nailer."....or...you attach the nailer directly to the top edge of the plywood first and then attach the unit to the joists...just depends on your layout.
After attching the first panel unit, make up another panel and "hang it parrel to the first one. After attaching both panels, rip another piece of plywood to a width that will connect the 2 hanginging panels together which will form a 3 sided box.
The plywood lets you screw on the drywall any way you want. This type of soffit goes up fast and works well on soffits up to approx 30 inches wide. I've used this technique on soffits as wide as 6ft, but I added a few cross supports in places when going this wide. It's also easy to attach suspended ceiling wall angle grid or simply attach ceiling trim to it as well since there is a continuous wood "backer" to nail to.
As for suspended ceilings... I consider marking the floor and /or using the floor for my control layouts as a waste of time. It's OK to initially factor in the floor in determining where it is best to establish a control line, but once figured, you should use the ceiling for your actual layout. With your wall angle in place, stretch stringlines ( clamp them to the wall angle) in place and use this as your "control" line. For example, lets say your grid pattern is a 2X2 pattern and you calculate that your end panels will work out to be 20 inches ( due to your room configuration) Measure out 20 inches along one side wall and attach your string. Strech out your string and square it with a framing square ( or use a 3-4-5 method...whatever you are comfortable with doing)and attach the other end to the other side wall. Now when cutting your main tees, measure from the end walls to the string. If your end wall was square, every main tee measurement would be an even 20 inches from wall to string. But your wall may not be in same plane...or there may be wall "jut-outs" or columns and such. Anyway, by measuring each time to the string, you can accurately find your key grid position for each individual main tee run.... and then cut your main tees to length accordingly. All cross tees should be aligned with this string when snapped into this first position. If not, then one or more of your main tees are misaligned due to an errant measurement. The stringline helps to safeguard against making measuring mistakes. It also glaringly points out your mistakes so that you can notice them right away and fix them. You can't accumulate too many errors in a grid layout pattern before soon the whole sheebang is badly out of whack...stringlines give you the needed control.
When installing susupended ceilings, I use several stringlines...both to locate my "x and y" axis control lines, and also to help judge my ceiling height. stringlines are very important any time you are trying to align anything; whether it be a wall or a ceiling.
Davo
Edited 2/17/2004 2:46:29 AM ET by Davo
Good explanation on ceiling grid Davo, especialy the use of string lines.
I use a product called Jet Line for pulling . It is a orange really thin nylon line. Because it is so light. it stretches a lot and has almost zero sag over long pulls. If you pull it beneath the wall mold, it also serves as a height registration line.
Dave
Thanks very much for the instructions......As I go through this process your comments are very helpful. I'll let you know how it goes.