I have some tongue-and-groove boards that my sister wants to use for her kitchen/living room ceiling. The boards are 3" wide, 3/4" thick. Her current ceiling is sheetrock with that 'popcorn' paint on it. It has cracks in it. She's tried to repair them but they keep coming back. Does anyone know if you can simply install these boards over the sheetrock or does the sheetrock need to come down first?? Thanks.
This may not be how Norm Abrams would do it, but I would leave the sheetrock. Find the ceiling joist and put in new drywall screws to hold the old sheetrock solidly to them. This also gives you a marker to fasten the boards to the joists.
I would add wood strips 90 degrees to the existing ceiling joist, nail or screw them very tightly, place them on 16 inch centers. Nailing new t & g wood to a surface as 'spoungy' as drywall would be a craftmans nightmare. Leave the drywall in place as an insulation.
I saw Ron Hazelton from "House Calls" remove a popcorn ceiling last week. It looked easy, but required a lot of prep work. Had to tape plastic along the edges of the ceiling and cover the floor of the preferably empty room. Then he used a garden sprayer to spray plain water on the ceiling and the popcorn stuff came right off with a putty knife. He probably made it look easy. Wonder if he has a web site? If so, it might be some more information about that project. Can't help you with the tongue-and-groove. But here's another question: What kind of paint would you use to paint the tongue-and-groove? I have some that I need to paint which hasn't been painted since probably the 60's. Would you use an eggshell finish or a semi-gloss on the top coat? I don't think flat would look right...
All you have to do is spray the popcorn with water and it comes right off with a putty knife. You can't scrape too hard or you'll take the sheetrock paper off with it. It is extremely messy, but easier than installing the T&G, not that that's too hard, though.
I agree with MOOPUPS,.... just install strapping over the existing sheetrock; then install the t&g boards to that. Quick and easy job.
I have an air nailer so that's not a problem. Thanks for all the advice, I guess we'll just go right over the sheetrock. I'm not looking forward to it - I hate working on ceilings. Give me walls any day.
It seems to be fairly labor intensive, but the finished product will be worth the effort. I've seen it in many !00yr+ old houses, & it seems to have held up real well.
Do you have rafters or trusses? If you have trusses you may want to consider the extra weight. When I built my houses I was informed by the truss manufacturer that there was a maximum wt. limit that could be placed on the bottom chord of the truss. I don't know the maximum wt. because when I informed the truss manufacturer that I was planning on using 1/2" drywall he said that would be OK.
Drill a 1/2 or 3/4 inch hole at each end of the ceiling crack, then fill the crack and the holes with caulking, then repaint the popcorn ceiling. Ok, I admit that this is the lazy man's way. cheers,
We have beadboard ceilings in our 100+year old farmhouse and they are very attractive...we put ours over the old cracked wood ceilings with a nail gun. Alot more character than drywall...but alot of overhead painting later!!! DEE
