A friend wants some help cleaning up a room. The room today has, I think they are called, acoustic tiles on the ceiling. It seems like at every seem there are furring strips running along the ceiling. There is also a large 1/4 round running along the wall to ceiling joint. Many of the tiles are broken and they are all very brown. He just wants the cheapest ceiling to clean up the room. I suggested just putting 3/8″ drywall over the tiles and bringing someone in to tape and paint. He wants the cheapest solution. The other thought was to use that 1/8″ thick, white masonry sheets they have at HD for $9/sheet. Could I just glue that to the tile and use the plastic trimming pieces between the sheets? There isn’t much ceiling height so a hung ceiling is out. What cheap solution do you suggest?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Learn how to plan, fabricate, and install a chute to conveniently send your dirty clothes from an upstairs bathroom or hallway to your laundry room below.
Featured Video
Video: Build a Fireplace, Brick by BrickHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
My experience with ceiling tiles was that they are stapled along the tongue to some type of furring strip. And they give way after a while.
So I would not plan on the tiles to hold anything.
Yeah, I once saw a ceiling give way where there was plaster, acoustic tile (I'm thinking two layers) and a suspended ceiling. I don't recall what separated from what, but it made a heck of a noise when it fell.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
The noise we got was from the resident getting hit on the heat while he was sleeping. And it was in Polish.This was a housing co-op in Texas.
Any idea what is under the tiles? If it is plaster, you might just yank the tiles and furing strips and patch the nail holes.
jt8
"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Seriously...I've seen a house where they pulled out the ceiling, painted the joists and ductowrk black, installed black track lighting with fancy heads, put in an inexpensive oak floor and hung art on the walls. Room had a great gallery feel and cost the owner almost nothing.
Not sure what kind of fire/code/safety issues this brings up...
Chris
painted the joists and ductowrk black.
Pop did similar to the basement when I was a kid, in some rooms but put 3/4x3/4 moulding on the edges of the joists and hung 1/2" sienna stained PartBd in between. Not too bad a look.
Also have seen the 'painted black joist' ceiling treatment in Pier One import stores also. and strip clubs? <G>
3/8" drywall would sag.
Probably the simplest would be some sort of paneling, though the cheap stuff will also tend to sag.
If he has the furring strips every 12" he could leave the accoustic ceiling and shoot panelling up, most any kind of panelling would not sag at 12"oc.
I would use the 3/8 plywood "plybead" that looks like beadboard. Grid it off with lattice to cover the end joints and every other side joint to give 8' squares or even down to 4' squares if the room was small. Would shoot it up with liberally applied (not just perimeter) 15 or 16 ga fin nails making sure I hit the furring strips.
NOT without making sure that what is there is sound.Like i said, most of the time when I see something like this it is covering bad stuff. Adding another layer of weight to something barely holding it can be disastorous.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Would not argue with that. I usually see poorly attached tiles and pretty well attached 1x4 strapping. Given that scenario I think my suggestion is ok. If the whole mess is held up with good intentions then all bets are off.
Bob
Wouldn't hurt to run some screws through the existing ceiling and strapping, into the joists.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
but he said the furring is OVER the seams - exposed. That implies that the tiles were so poorly attached that they needed to be restructured.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Somehow I missed that, thought he was talking about the normal furring strips/strapping under (actually over) the tiles. Sounds like time to remove down to original strapping and or ceiling. If it were only an occasinal lose tile due to a failed staple I would remove the lower strips and check the integrity of what's above. He did say there was a ceiling height issue so maybe it is time to go to bottom of joists.
Yeah, I took it to simply mean that the strapping could be seen through gaps in the tile. I can't imagine anyone would go to the trouble of placing strapping over (below) the tile to hold it up, vs just driving an ocasional nail or screw through the tile.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
Thanks for all your help guys. I did mean that the tile was held in place to furring strips that you couldn't see (above the tile). In other rooms there are panel based ceilings and they have just the trim furring between the panels added after. But in the room I want to do something with there is furring attached to the joists and then tiles attached to the furring.
beware - if i'm not mistaken some of those acoustic tiles may contain aesbestos.
it's worth looking into as they are very crumbly and dusty.
try to remove them intact instead of ripping them out.
in 1960s, maybe even late 50s, they were installed in basements stapled onto furring strips that were nailed to the floor joists.
I usually fasten my cieling materials to the cieling joists...;)Cheapest cieling material I know of ios sheet rock, but i would not fasten it to what is there now. The majority of the time when I see tiles on cielings, it is there to hi=de previous damage to begin with, and the furring strips indicate that the fastening failed and the seams needed to be covered up.So hiding one sin with another and another and another...leads to eventually the cieling falling in on somebody.now if he's just a slumloard, spraying a good coat or three of chjeap paint will fix this right up...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
replacement tiles are easy to install and purchase at the big box stores very cheap.
replace with like tiles using the same furring scheme, fixed up as required.
cheap and no art required.
But, as was mentioned, there's a good chance that the tiles contain asbestos. They should not be removed until that issue is settled.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison