I have a basement finishing project where most of the ceiling is just sheetrock, nice and simple. One end, however, has most of the plumbing along one wall. I’m planning to drop a soffit down about six inches (by 4 feet, by 17 feet) to cover this. Problem is that I would like to keep access to this area. New bathroom going in next year, existing bathroom being redone this fall, existing wire chases to upstairs through this area, etc. I’d rather not have to repair sheetrock each time.
I really don’t care for any of the drop ceilings I’ve seen. Not the tin ones, not the 2×2. About the only one I liked was this one (http://www.woodgrid.com/). I’d like to do something similar, but with limited space above (the soffit will drop as little as possible to avoid the pipes), I need to find a way to be able to get the panels out without lifting them much. Hard to describe, but best I can come up with so far is to build the panels (thinking a similar design to a cabinet door, with 1x around the edge and either mdf or birch ply panel), and 1x “rail” and “stiles” secured to the soffit, but able to remove some of the rails and slide the panels out that way.
Seems like too much work for such a small area and I’d prefer not to have exposed screws. Picky, picky. 🙂 Any other suggestions? Could I work the ceilingmax system around wood frames somehow? Regular drop-ceiling grid (covered in wood), but removable from below somehow?
I’d appreciate any ideas. Thanks!
-Sean
Replies
One idea that I've seen for access to whirlpool/spa tubs. They will tile or granite the surface and the front will be from a cabinet shop. The fronts will be face frames with raised panels spaced out equally on the front. The panel are just smaller raised panel cabinet doors and use the same euro style consealed hinges but they put them on the top. Gravity keeps them closed and know one every knows they are all access panels and not fixed unless someone tells them.
If I follow your post correctly, you could do a boxed soffit then run panels on the side and leave the bottom plastered. Use the kreg jig to make the face frames and do whatever you want for panels.
Edited 7/5/2005 9:54 pm ET by DDay
Hm, nice idea. I've been hung up on the drop ceiling approach. It won't work exactly as you suggest, since I need access from the bottom, not the sides (I know my explanation was a little rough), but something similar could definitely work.Rather than panels above the "face frame" like I was thinking (drop ceiling like), I could go with panels/doors outside of the face frame, like a cabinet door. Concealed hinges on one edge, and some way to secure them on the other. Would rare earth magnets be enough to hold the opposite side of a panel 30"x30" securely against gravity? 2-3 per panel, maybe? Some other kind of latch? I wouldn't even need to hinge all panels, since this will be a rare occurance needing to get in there. If I just hinged maybe half of the panels, and had some way to detach the other panels from above - even regular screws - it could work.Still seems like overkill, but much more workable than anything so far.Thanks,
-Sean
Rare earth mag's should be plenty capable of holding those doors up. I would do a test first but I think they rate much higher than you'll be asking them to perform. I would just use the mag's on all the doors though. If your doing one or two, I would just do them all and have the access if you need it.
I would stay away from screws or anything else that is visible. Good luck.