Stupid question? (carpentry)

[al]

Is installing tongue and groove boards a job for a novice?

I'm considering installing 6" t&g cedar boards on the ceiling of a porch and carport myself. On a scale of 1-10, with "1" being virtually no experience or knowledge of carpentry skills, I would be a "1". Or maybe a "0". On the plus side, I'm fairly methodical on things I undertake and am well coordinated working with my hands.

If this could be practical for a novice to attempt to undertake, are there any tips or suggestions that any of you would care to offer?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Joe]

You are probably the best judge of your own capabilities so look over the books at your library and read up on the nuances of tongue and groove. If you find a book you like, check the displays at a box store for the same or similar to buy. Odds are you'll see it's all pretty much common sense stuff and your project will go forward quite well. HTH

Joe

[Goedjn]

It's a god-awful job for one novice, it's not that bad for two. Soft rubber mallets are your friend, as is a scrap peice of T&G that you slide into the one you're pounding in place, so you don't damage the groove.

[Chris Lewis]

According to Edwin Pawlowski :

I'd rate it a 3 also.

Tips:

1) Have help. Even a kid. Your arms will hurt after a few hours.

2) Do whatever surface treatment you're going to on _before_ installing it (eg: prime/paint or stain). This also forces you to inspect the boards, do any repair or sanding you want.

You may still want to do a coat after installation, but do the majority before putting it up. "Tip off" the paint before letting it dry, so it doesn't screw up the T&G.

Rollers are faster for bulk coverage, but tipping it off with a brush will knock down the globs.

3) Measure carefully, and precut batches to length. Speeds things up tremendously.

4) For a large job of this nature, I'd suggest renting an air nailer. Nailing large ceilings from the underside gets real old real quick, and the air nailer makes smaller holes for where you have to face-nail it. Even if you don't want to air nail the whole thing, the air nail is real good at getting the thing to stay put long enough to come back at it with hand-driven nails or screws.

[longshot]

in short pieces its relatively easy. with 16 footers its a mutha by yourself or even with a helper like a wife who doesn't even own her hammer

[Anne]

I actually bought a small compressor and nail gun when I was putting up moldings (baseboard and window/door frames in the bedrooms) - after I put the first baseboard in with hammer & finishing nails & had tons of dents I had to fill where I'd missed! OK, so my hand-eye coordination isn't great. I think I more than made up for the money (maybe a couple hundred for the 2) with the time I saved on that project - in the nailing and even more in the patching. It's definitely "consumer grade, but I love having it so I can pull it out for smaller jobs that I wouldn't rent it for. The compressor doesn't have much air capacity, but really, I'm driving a few nails a minute, not a hundred. (Mine is shaped like a suitcase with plastic shell, extending handle, and wheels to make it easy to move around - I was torn between that and a more professional-looking one with more air capacity, and decided that for the above reason I didn't need the capacity, & would use it more if it was easy to get up from the basement/in from the workshop when I needed it.)

Anyway, I hope it goes well for the original poster - when more pressing jobs have been dealt with, I have to replace the ceiling on my front porch and so I'm paying attention to the responses in this thread!

Anne

[Harry K]

I am with the others. I is not a 'hard' job to lay T&G but it does require knowledge. Books just don't give it all. Same as with dry- wall. You can read all you want (I did) but 10 minutes watching a professional will show "how" to do it. Try catching a pro laying flooring somewhere.

I would recommend you do a sorta 'dry-run' by taking one of your longer stips nailing it down on a floor somewhere and then installing anther piece to it. That will give you pretty much the total process. Yes, it will cost you two pieces of T&G.

Now picture doing it upside down. Definiely not a 1 person job.

Harry K