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

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
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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
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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.
hda

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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).
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I did not see any vinyl coated hardboard at Menards. All they had was regular hardboard. The 1/4 stuff was around $5 per 4x8 sheet.
Does your ceiling show any sagging at all? Does the vinyl give it any more strength? If not, and your 1/4 stuff works ok, I might just get the regular 1/4 hardboard, paint it and put it up.
-Ryan
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It WILL sag! Greg
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says...

If you are talking about the 1/4 hardboard, I'm not sure how, being fastened down on 24" centers, there is going to be much sag possible unless it ever gets wet. There is moderate bowing that may occur, but this is pretty minimal as well.
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@yahoo.com says...

... snip

... snip

Initially got mine from Home Depot, but got the majority of it from McEwan Lumber in Tucson. I think Lowes also has this.

My ceiling is a trussed ceiling and did not show any signs of sagging either before or after installation. I'm not sure how old the shop building is, I'm guessing at better than 10 years old (it was here when I moved in 4 years ago).

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replying to Mark & Juanita, betterthanbob wrote: Hi. were your trusses 16" or 24"? Is it sagging at all?
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I helped clean out a garage. Ceiling was thick asbestos sheets. No sag.
Greg
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On 04/02/2016 04:18 AM, gregz wrote:

The OP was looking for a material they could purchase.
Do they sell thick asbestos sheets anywhere in the US or are you just a stoopid shet?
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replying to Mark & Juanita, Wylie Coyote wrote: so, 13 yrs later, how has the ceiling held up? Did you nail it or use adhesive?
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On 20 Sep 2003 16:02:36 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Ryan) wrote:

<SNIP>
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
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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.
--
Mike S.
snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net
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Cheap?? OSB is 2-3 times the price of sheet rock! Greg
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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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Sounds like you could go with just about anything. How about a nice affordable whitewashed beadboard look panel? Pretty cheap at a megastore.
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A friend of mine strapped the ceiling,painted it white then put 2x8 sheets of 1 inch white styrofoam.Looks great and light as a feather
Guglielmo Portas wrote:

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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

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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
"
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