Garage ceiling ideas? (drywall, plywood, etc?)

[Ryan]

I recently had a new 24x34 garage built. I will use it as a shop and for parking two cars in the winter. I'd like to have some kind of ceiling in it, to reflect light down, and to keep heat in during the winter.

Finished, painted drywall would look the best, but be difficult to put up. I'd have to rent a jack, and I constantly be worried about the jack damaging my newly painted floor. But I'm not worried about it getting dented (as I've read here before) because my ceilings are about 10.5 feet high.

But what are the other alternatives? Plywood? (OSB more likely). I will be putting insulation in the 'attic', too. Not sure if it will be bats or blown-in yet.

Also am thinking about what I should put on the walls... that will probably be drywall, I think.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-Ryan

[Greg O]

I don't think anything else will be much easier than sheetrock. Sure OSB or plywood my be lighter, but not enough to make a difference. Plus sheetrock is 1/2 the price and takes paint better than anything else. Sheet rock the ceiling then walls. Put up a vapor barrier first. Greg

[A.I.]

I drywalled my ceiling using a drywall lift that I rented from the BORG. Piece of cake, the lift makes it very easy to put overhead sheets up, and does not damage the floor. Painted white, works very well.

[Fred McClellan]

Dunno what it's called, but we just sheeted the ceiling in the garage using a quickie-built platform-thing.

A 4'x4' plywood scrap, a length of PVC tube, a length of closet rod, and some scrap borgstuff.

Drilled a socket in a lump of borgstuff with a Forstner, to fit the PVC. Screwed the borgstuff to the center of the scrap ply so it formed a stringer down the middle of the ply.

Slid the closet rod into the PVC and cut it the same length.

Held the platform up against the rafters and let the rod drop to the floor, then cross-drilled a small hole for a pin (ok, an old cylinder head bolt), and a couple of more holes an inch farther down the rod 'just in case'.

Not too much of a fuss to use, and once loaded and lifted, it allowed one of us to 'steer' the sheet goods and the other one to run the nailer.

Did the whole ceiling in a day, including all the dodge-work around stuff like the garage door opener supports, main I-beam, etc.

Cost was zilch 'cuz the scrap stuff was going out the door anyway. Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com

[Mike S.]

I'd use OSB, prime and paint it with a high gloss paint. A pretty cheap option and it will reflect a lot of light.

[Greg O]

Cheap?? OSB is 2-3 times the price of sheet rock! Greg

[Jeff Wisnia]

The last time I sheetrocked a ceiling I just whacked together two T shaped "crutches" out of a couple of pieces of strapping and let my helpers (SWMBO and our 15 year old son) use them to push up on the sheetrock in the right places while I stood on a ladder and spun in the screws. Piece of cake for a DIY one off job, but I wouldn't suggest using that system to make a living with.

You might want to consider "painting" the finished job with "textured ceiling finish" which you can apply with a paint roller. It covers taping sins beautifully. The stuff I used was a dry powder, to be mixed with water. You can slap it on with a stiff paintbrush in places you can't get to with a roller.

Jeff

Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can smile when things are going wrong, you've thought of someone to blame it on."

Ryan wrote:

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[Guglielmo Portas]

Sounds like you could go with just about anything. How about a nice affordable whitewashed beadboard look panel? Pretty cheap at a megastore.

[Mark & Juanita]

I did something a little different in my shop. I got the 1/4" vinyl- coated hardboard and used it as both wall covering and ceiling covering. My primary motivation for going this route vs. drywall is the fact that removal is easy if one ever wishes to access behind any wall, any time. I went with the white vinyl vs. OSB for several reasons: 1. OSB out- gasses horribly for a long time after insulation. 2. OSB sucks up primer and paint by the bucket, 3. The white vinyl is already white, so, although it does cost more (mine cost $14 per sheet), I did not have to either prime or paint it, so in addition to saving on paint, I saved tons of time.

I just finished installing all of the walls and 2/3 of the ceiling, so I don't have a long history with the stuff to state how it will hold up, but this is a shop, I see no significant downsides to this choice, and the white walls made a bazillion percent difference in the looks and lighting level. Now comes the rest of the reconfiguration project, got the wood rack re-installed yesterday and the large dimension lumber replaced in the rack. I am going to build compartmented storage on the top shelf for scrap wood storage and also for some other storage (such as extra flourescent lightbulbs).

[darrell darcy]

[Myxylplyk]

If you plan on spending any time or storing any of the usual finishing fluids in your shop, you should use 5/8 or 3/4 drywall.

5/8 is usual code for a fire barrier between garage and house. It may help contain any fires until help got there. The other materials recommended are all fairly flamable.

just my $.02, Myx

[Mike Hide]

I used foam board with the silvery reflective surface , 4 by 8 sheets available at HD or Lowes light as a feather and gives some small amout of insulation . Cover the seams with duct tape . can easily be handled by one person.....mjh

-- mike hide

"

[ToolMiser]

Isn't foam considered a fire hazzard? I think most places require it to be cover with a non combustable material. Maybe this would pass for an out building?

Just my usual 2 cents.

[Michael Daly]

Speaking of insulation - I wonder why no one has suggested sound insulating ceiling covering. I'd have thought that, given the noise that can be generated in a shop, having something absorbe the noise would be useful.

'Course the dust would collect in most sound tile I've seen...

Mike

[Ryan]

Thanks for the replies. I will probably just go with drywall. I have

24" centers, so I would need to use 5/8" drywall to prevent sag?

What do you think of priming and painting the drywall before I put it up? I'd have to go over it again and paint the seams, and over the screw holes, but I think it would be a lot easier than trying to prime and paint 816 sq feet of ceiling that's 10.5 feet above my head.

I don't suppose paneling will work? That thin stuff that finds itself on a lot of basement walls. It would probably sag?

Thanks,

-Ryan

[Myxylplyk]

You could install strapping to help ease the sagging...

If you plan on using kraft backed fiberglass batts, you should consider installing the insulation *before* you hang the drywall. As for painting first, it's probably not a good idea. You'll need a good bond for the mud and you will not know how far you'll need to feather the joints until it's installed. Also, the paint will probably get marred during install but the lift or some other thing.

Good luck, Myx

[WoodChuck34]

The fact the Drywall isn't flammable has to be a concern.

I finished my basement myself and used drywall on the ceiling. All I used were 8 Eye Bolts and 2 pieces of 2 x 4.

Cut 2 lenghts of 2 x 4's just longer the 4' so you can screw an eye bolt in either and fit the drywall in between, like so:

0 0 | |

---------------------------

---------------------------

Screw the other 4 eye bolts into the rafters where you want to place the drywall. I then used 4 nylon strap (the kind with the rachet tightener) to hoist the drywall into place. Use another 2 x 4 to press it hard against the ceiling.

When I say I did the ceiling myself, I mean I didn't have anyone else in the room.

Chuck

[John W. Wells]

Perhaps not. When I had my drywall hung earlier this year, due to my own ignorance, I had set all my ceiling electrical boxes at 1/2 inch. The contractor said, OK, he'd just use 1/2 inch "ceiling-type" drywall.

The material he installed IS marked "Ceiling"--must be somewhat stiffer. No sag yet, but time will tell.

Like you, my ceiling trusses are on 24" centers (upstairs, but 16" joists downstairs--this is a detached workshop))

Yikes! I'm currently taping and finishing the drywall myself--a first time experience for me, so my mudding is kinda messy. No way would I have painted beforehand!

I'll just unscrew the mesh sander from its telescoping handle and screw on the paint roller. Rolling paint overhead has GOT to be easier than sanding overhead!

Oops--just looked back and noticed you said 10.5' above your HEAD. Guess that's pretty high up.

I would think it would.

--John W. Wells

[Ryan]

If I did go with plywood on the ceiling, how thin could it be without sagging? How about OSB?

I'm leaning more away from drywall, untaped/mudded it would look very ugly, I think?... but mudding/taping/sanding then painting that much area sounds like more work than I want to do. I would like to get cheap, thin plywood, paint it, then put it up with white screws. I could live with the seams.

I will also look at other wall materials, I saw some mentioned in this thread but I have no idea what those things are. The only building store here is a Menards, and they don't have a lot of selection. The new Lowes is supposed to open in November.

Someone mentioned that they just but up foam insulation board. Will consider that too...

Thanks for all the responses.

-Ryan

[C G]

Something to think about is that sheets of drywall are cheap. Plywood is not usually so inexensive. Perhaps you should contact a drywall crew and compare their per foot price to that of installing plywood yourself.