Parenting

Drop ceiling questions

Talk to me about doing a drop ceiling with accoustic tile. We're finishing the basement and we need something easy to put up and less expensive. Dry wall is cheap, but a huge pain to do for celings. Has anyone installed ceiling tiles? How difficult is it?

I prefer the look of dry wall, but I'll compromise with DH if we can find something that looks decent.

And while we're talking of DIY, what about subflooring? How expensive is it and how difficult to install? We're learning as we go.
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Re: Drop ceiling questions

  • imageGhostMonkey:
    Hanging the grid can be tricky, but not impossible. Make sure you have room to lose clearance so you have enough room to put the tiles in. I believe 3" in the minimum drop height, but if you are going to have lights plan on 6". You can get less expensive stuff, but it will look like cheap. You are looking at a minimum of .50 a square foot for the tile for decent you are going to up that price substantially. Probably closer to 1.50/sq. ft., plus the grid, wire to hang the grid, and the eye lag bolts to secure the wire to the current ceiling.nbsp;


    The thing is we're selling the house next summer. We're not doing a flip or anything, but we don't want to invest in something super expensive. DH works from home and we need to move his office. Otherwise we wouldn't touch it.

    I think we have enough clearance. I'm just afraid that it might be just as tricky as dry wall and will look like crap unless we buy super pricey tiles. Dilemmas...
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  • I prefer the look too, but I've read that you shouldn't do it in a basement because you may need to access pipes down the road.
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  • My DH and I put in a drop ceiling when we finished the basement.  There is a bit of a learning curve but once you do one area you should be golden.  We started in a bedroom and it took us three hours for the first room but then each subsequent room was a lot faster.  

    My advice is to use the contractor grade framework because they snap together instead of just laying hooked pieces into a slot.  It's a lot more sturdy and doesn't fall apart when shifting things around.  Also to keep things straight, put the tiles in each time you get a row of framework completed.  It helps keep things square.  Trust me, you really want to do that, no matter how well you think you measure.  

    Really, it's not too difficult once you get it started.   

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  • imageSmittyPants:
    I prefer the look too, but I've read that you shouldn't do it in a basement because you may need to access pipes down the road.

    Yeah, pipe access is really an advantage of a drop ceiling.

    ETA: I'm not really sure how installing a drop ceiling is easier than finishing it with drywall and a texture spray.  You can also attach ceiling tiles directly to the ceiling instead of suspending them, but again, I don't think that would be any easier than a texture.

  • imageGhostMonkey:

    imageSmittyPants:
    I prefer the look too, but I've read that you shouldn't do it in a basement because you may need to access pipes down the road.

    Take the tile out. Bam. Access to pipes. 

     



    Funny thing you mention access to pipes...my dad framed around our pipes and drywalled a bulk head. They hang really low on one side so we would have lost a lot of clearance if we did a ceiling at the same height. I mean at least a foot. He also made an access panel on one side.

    But my DH and my dad still think we can do a drop ceiling with the rest of the bedroom ceiling. I don't know if it will look right, but it will be DH's office. He even put in an ethernet cable jack. He's excited to have a space away from us.
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  • imagecautionwillburneyes:
    My DH and I put in a drop ceiling when we finished the basement. nbsp;There is a bit of a learning curve but once you do one area you should be golden. nbsp;We started in a bedroom and it took us three hours for the first room but then each subsequent room was a lot faster. nbsp;My advice is to use the contractor grade framework because they snap together instead of just laying hooked pieces into a slot. nbsp;It's a lot more sturdy and doesn't fall apart when shifting things around. nbsp;Also to keep things straight, put the tiles in each time you get a row of framework completed. nbsp;It helps keep things square. nbsp;Trust me, you really want to do that, no matter how well you think you measure. nbsp;Really, it's not too difficult once you get it started. nbsp;nbsp;


    3 hours? That would be awesome. The bathroom drywall ceiling took forever for such a small room. Thank you for the tips!
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