Furring A Ceiling

Torn-Again

Ok myself and my partner love to fight like an old married couple when it comes to this. We do a lot of total renovation work in these 100 year old town houses in Baltimore. Once all demo is complete all that is left is old hard wood and joists. We have to furr out the ceilings to get them nice and level. We argue like crazy on teh best way to attack this. The houses are only 12 feet wide and about 50 feet deep. I will not say any more so as not to sway anyone. Let us know how you would approach this. (This is just for I told you so rights- lol)

Tin Cup

RC-1 strips


Tin Cup

Tom R

Find the lowest point (and go a little lower), - - install both end 'sisters' level, - - string two lines, - - sister all the rest to your lines. Crowns up. Don't ever quite touch the line.

If you want to really get it straight, - - you can just attach the ends first, - - then run a string down the middle and pull them down to it and attach the middles next, - - then the rest of the lengths.

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Torn-Again

Interesting - still not going to sway things

A W Smith

I'm assuming the joists run in the 12 foot direction. if that is the case maybe you want to run your drywall in that direction also but furr out the joists with strapping running in the fifty foot direction. If you have a rotary laser you can lock it to sweep in a plane that will not be level but match the plane of your ceiling. Then set your strapping not with shims but 5/4 spruce sistered alongside the joists. Use your laser target and find your lowest joist and bump everything down to that elevation or plane.


Edit to add. The reason I suggest to lock your level to sweep in a plane is that with some of these old row houses it is not unusual to be out of level a couple inches, Which will create nightmares if you attempt to level a ceiling, and will show like a sore thumb in walls that taper in height.

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Al Smith
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Chris G

Draw a level line around room at lowest point. Attach 2 x 3's to walls on the line. Toenail 2 x 3's 16" oc in opposite direction of joists. Shim and attach to joists with long screws where spans get too big.

Only did it this way once. You lose 2 1/2", but it makes hanging board a breeze because everything is properly on center, and there is lots of surface to nail to around perimeter. You get to frame it in whatever way makes it easiest for you.

Also the perimeter pieces do not touch the floor joists, they are attached to wall studs, so vibration from the floor above is isolated in the corners, so less likely to crack. Or so that's my theory.

rbsremodeling

hat channel or metal studs around the ceiling perimiter

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Tin Cup

don't overthink it. the RC strips allow sort of a floating drywall ceiling. 1" or 2". if you haven't used or seen them. go get one from your drywall supplier and you'll get it.

Tin Cup

Tom M

Ive done metal channel, 5/4" x 3 and Ive sistered. I still like the wood furring since I can tack the whole ceiling with a finish gun then string diagonal, tap the boards down to straight plane level, shim and screw in place. Metal has benifits too but you will need a magnetic level or 2 too help.

Railman

I think I used the channel that "Tin Cup" is talking about, & also think it's the easiest way to float the ceiling. It's incredibly easy, & very inexpensive. I used on my finish bas/home theater along with r13 fiberglass for sound isolation. We can barely hear any noise upstairs even when the amps are way up on our Onkyo 7.1 sytem. Many apartment projects use it for sound isolation also. My 2x10 x 15' span ceiling had the typical ups, & downs, but ended up very flat.
The stuff I used is only 1/2 ht x about 2 1/2" wide, w/ 1 1/2" DW fastening strip. I always heard of it being called a Z channel, but that's not the correct name.
Cheap, easy to use, & works well!

Joe

Torn-Again

Thamks for all the info. Can't want to show my partner this on Monday. This is always suck a pain in the ass with these old houses and with space being such a factor it is important to minimize waste. I don't know what an rc strip is but I will look into it. Funny thing is is we use some part of all these suggestions except for the rc strips. Good to know neither of us is really wrong. Thanks