I’ve been hired by my parents to remodel their master bedroom and en suite. I already started one thread on the current phase of the project, which is converting the vaulted ceiling into a barrel vault.
I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not being smart about it. It seems to be going quite slowly. So here’s the plan:
– The profile that Dad wants is a compound arch, like a faux ellipse. The ceiling will have a 125″ radius with a sharp 14.5″ radius on either end.
– I will attach 2x2s along every truss, right over the existing drywall.
– To these cleats, I’ll attach ‘rafters’ fabricated from two pieces of OSB, with 2x material in between for nailing material.
– The 14.5″ radius will have plenty of horizontal blocking, and will be covered with two layers of 1/4″ drywall.
So far, I’ve got the cleats up on the ceiling and have all the rafters fabricated. Each rafter extends from the peak to the ridge (terminology?), so my profile is simply reflected. It all sounds simple, but I’ve been struggling.
Because my profile isn’t a simple radius, I decided to make a template to cut my OSB instead of using two trammels, which felt tedious and clumsy. At first, I tried using a router and a top-bearing bit to trace my template, but I ended up jigsawing out all my OSB. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize right away how thin and flexible my template was, and that led to some wasted effort until I made sure to keep it rigid.
My procedure ended up like this:
– jigsaw out both OSB sides (28 pieces)
– cut up 2x4s into smaller blocks, attach to one OSB side
– jigsaw out the 2×4
– add other OSB side
– jigsaw from the other side to compensate for the flex in the jigsaw blade
For sixteen rafters, that took a loooong time. And I completely screwed up four of them, which I had to re-make.
Unfortunately, my profile was such that the OSB is *really thin* in the middle, and quite a number of my pieces broke apart at the first touch. This made them a lot harder to use. The completed rafters are stiffer, but still pretty wobbly, which I predict will make them a PITA to install.
Am I just being clumsy about this, or is my method flawed?
Replies
I would have done bent lamination, but I'm not a carpenter. A little wood gives incredible strength, rigidity, uniformity.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I don't think I grasp how you are building your barrel vault. I build them like I am framing a curved wall. Cut curved plates out of 3/4" ply with a jigsaw and double them up.
I use studs/rafters every 6" or so. For curved nailers, I use strips of masonite.
Here is a pic of a curved wall to give you an idea...same thing can be done for a ceiling:
I'll have pics at the end of the day.
I'd frame the whole thing (or managable sections) on the ground, roll it over onto a panel lift or two and hoist it into place. just frame it an inch or two short and build an extra couple of curved plates out of ply for cleating to the walls.
Oh wow. Yeah. That would be a good idea.
I'm just lazy, thats all. ;o)
There was one guy who mounted one of those great big satelite dishes nobody uses anymore upside down on a ceiling and drywalled it.
Gord
What's the masonite in the pics needed for?I must be missing something but couldn't you just nail into the plywood plates.Pretty cool though.
The masonite provided a continuous nailing surface for the tongue & groove beaded board paneling...avoided split ends. It would not be needed for drywall.
I think I get you here. If so, this is something I do out of 1 1/8" plywood, (plenty strong). The stuff makes for good fastening with sheetrock, or other substrate if you're going with plaster. I set the gussets with stringlines and block, as in pressure blocking joists.
I must be bored this evening. I fooled around with the cad program a bit and drew up how I do this. I'll include a pic of a barrel vault that I did this way a while back, (finished, I couldn't find a framing pic of it). The difficult part of your ellipse is going to be trying to do that 14.5" radius in 1/4" sheetrock. I'm not sure that's doable, even soaking wet.
We already bent up the 1/4" drywall. No problem at all.Uh, I'll take some pics tomorrow. By the time I was done today, I just wanted to go home.