Are you finishing your basement and having problems with deciding how to finish the ceilings? Here are a couple of DIY basement ceiling options we used to finish off our basement ceilings. These options went up quickly, were fairly easy to do, and we’re not any more expensive than traditional ceiling materials.
I recently had a brief conversation with an old friend and she told me they were remodeling their basement. That brought back memories of when we were finishing our basement and some of the main hurdles we faced. One of those areas was how to finish the ceilings throughout the basement. We came up with a couple of options that looked good and was easy to do. Let us share them with you.
Basement Ceiling Issues To Deal With
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When finishing or remodeling any room it’s not uncommon to run into problems. Basements are no exception. Here are a couple of the most common issues you can expect when installing a basement ceiling.
Low Ceilings
Basement ceilings can be challenging for a couple of reasons. The first is many basement ceilings can be lower than a normal ceiling. This causes issues with using a ceiling system that uses a frame system (drop ceilings). Even losing as little as an inch or two can really start to make an area feel small. Installing your ceiling material directly to the floor joists give you the most space, but can cause problems with the second issues.
Interference With Your Mechanicals (Utilities)
The mechanicals in your house are vital to a warm, comfortable home, but can be a real headache to work around when installing a ceiling. You’ll more than likely have to deal with one or all of them in the course of a remodel. You have the HVAC ductwork, water lines, sewer lines, gas lines, communications wiring (cable, dish, internet, phone, etc…) and electrical wiring. Some of these can be tucked up between the floor joists and are out of the way, but several cannot. This makes them the biggest problems.
Practical Basement Ceils Options
For basement areas where you have adequate ceiling heights, a drop ceiling can be a good option. The best part is they provide access to any mechanicals they may be hiding for future maintenance. I have to admit I’ve never installed a drop ceiling, but keeping the grids level and properly spaced could be a little challenging. It looks like a good place for lots of patients.
Drywall ceilings are probably one of my least favorite choices for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the hanging and finishing of the drywall. Drywall is heavy and the finishing can be a challenge. Especially working overhead. A DIY’er can do it, but again patients here will go a long way too! The second reason is if you are dealing with any mechanicals that may have to be accessed in the future, it will make that job much more difficult. Finding and fixing the issue will be harder and then you’ll have to refinish the drywall again.
In our family living area, we chose to go with 4′ x 8′ sheets of 1/4” beadboard. We covered the seams with 1” x 2” trim boards for a cleaner look. The beadboard is much lighter than drywall and it goes up fairly quickly. In the main living area, the need for future access to any mechanicals is minimal, but we can easily remove the trim boards around one of the beadboard panels and drop it down for access. To cover ductwork, or water and drain pipes, all you have to do is build a simple frame around them. Then cover them and trim the edges. We thought it offered the best option for easy installation and still maintain access to the mechanicals. For this project, we invested in a pneumatic finish nailer for installing tongue and groove boards on the walls. It worked great for putting up the beadboard and trim too. We’ve used it on many other projects too. Check out this pneumatic finish nailer link for current pricing.
For the room that is full of pipes, wires, and all things mechanical, we ended up using the option of painting the entire ceiling black. You paint everything! It blends everything together and it looks great! It gets into all the nooks and crannies, but the downside is there is a lot of paint overspray. If you go this route we highly recommend putting up lots of plastic sheeting and masking off all areas you don’t want to be painted. It’s best to do this part of the project first, so any missed areas getting overspray will be covered later. Be sure to wear a respirator with the proper filters for the type of paint your using. For other safety concerns while doing home projects we hope you’d consider reading our article on home project PPE.
This idea is actually a workaround that can be used with any type of ceiling like the beadboard or drywall. We installed smaller access panels for a couple of our mechanicals. These panels provided quick easy access to valves for outdoor water faucets. This type of access is important in case of emergencies. They may not be ideal for in the middle of a main living area, but for out of the way places they work great.
Another thing to consider before installing your favorite ceiling option is soundproofing. Before putting up the beadboard sheets we installed 3″ fiberglass insulation. We intended this area to be a fun place for our kids to entertain their friends. With that in mind, we thought the extra cost of the insulation would be worth it. And it was!
To wrap things up, we hope some of our basement ceiling options are helpful. Whether you choose one of our options, or if they give you some insight on things to consider, we hope it helps you in selecting what to use.
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