Thoughts on a wood ceiling

I have old, stained ceiling tiles throughout my house, so I came to the conclusion that a wood ceiling would work out great. I was going to use some tongue and groove planks, then ran into an article where a guy stripped some 1/4" plywood and spaced them on the ceiling. But instead of spacing them, I was going to run my router along the edge to give it some dimension. What are your thought on this? Thanks

Using a router will cause the plywood to show the unsightly inner layers, and would not appeal to most. Just my honest opinion.

Ceilings should have a fire rating like drywall. I think 3/4" wood will give you simular rating but you need the t&g to make that continuous and to keep them from bending or warping.

There are a lot of bead board products I have used to do similar things ready made and not that expensive. If you go to the big building centers and look at their T&G pine flooring most of it has a bead finish on the other side you don’t use for flooring.

Are you wanting to go over the stained tiles with this. I would recommend ripping down what is there and seeing what you have below before doing anything.

As Bud pointed out everything needs to be inspected before you go with a new finished product, plumbing, wiring, framing. It's always a good idea to put the needs in the mix with the wants.

I hadn't though about rhe layers and the t&g flooring. I am a new home owner so bare with me here. You have to get anything you want to diy to your house inspected first?

What you have to do, want to do, should do and end up doing are 4 different things. There is lots of help here and part of that is telling you when you need permits and inspection or expert help.
Mostly the areas of concern is wiring plumbing and structure as well as Hvac. For the most part we try to figure out your skil level and your ability to understand and try not to put you over your head in a job. For me, I am always watching for people getting started on the wrong job and then they have to work around that finished stuff to fix other things.
I would suggest you go thru the house and lists the things that should be done, need to be done and want to be done.
Post the list here with photos of any concerns and get some ideas where to start or the order to work in.

Thanks. About to lay down laminate flooring. House was smoked in years ago and ceiling tiles are stained yellow from it. I had panelling that was hiding sheet rock, that has been ripped out, patched, and painted. I need to do something with ceilings desperately.

If you decide to cover the ceiling, I would first paint it with a coat of stain blocker paint. It will help remove the smoke smell, and who knows, you might just like it without covering it.

Personally I go for drywall, you can rent a lift that puts it up and holds it making the big sheets really easy,and save wood for really high ceilings as a feature but not every room.
Now back to the house. Condition of the foundation?
Floors, reasonably level or true?
Type and size of fuse or breaker box? Type of wiring?
Condition and materials used for plumbing?
Condition of roof?
Attic or floor above?. Is the ceiling reasonably flat?
Or we can just deal with the ceiling.

Rewired a couple years ago by pros. Roof also a couple years old. Foundation good. I do have a problem with my bay window area, but i need to show pic of that. Need new hvac. Attic good. All windows are new, new siding all around. Bathroom needs to be done, new tub/shower and vanity.

So removing tile ceiling, you would have to deal with insulation?

No, i think there may be dry wall above it with fir stripping for the tiles

I wonder why someone would do that, there may be some surprizes up there.

It was built by my wife's grandfather. Behind the wall panelling was untouched sheetrock. Weird

nealtw said:

I wonder why someone would do that, there may be some surprizes up there.

Click to expand...

Maybe some hidden money...yeah right lol

If they had money to put in the house, a better ceiling would have been where they put it. A house is a hole the ground where you dump your money.:beer:

If you do go with a wood ceiling use toung and grove also you want to finish it before installing. I have though out my house and it looks great.

It wasn’t uncommon around here in the 60s to use furring strips and then ad those tiles to a ceiling to give it that “modern” look most likely you will find plaster or wallpaper over plaster. If the house was smoked in I wouldn’t even try and get the smell out of those tiles, they soak it up like a sponge. I would rip it down in a heat beat. If the furring strips are up there leave them and maybe re-screw them if they are not tight and put up drywall or whatever you want to them after doing any other work in the ceilings you need to do.

It was also really common to put up a layer of drywall unfinished to smooth out the walls and then a layer of cheap thin wood grain paneling over it. Drywall was so cheap it made the paneling seem to be not so flimsy when it had something solid behind it.

I did about 25 sheets of drywall on my ceilings last year and the stupidest thing I did was not buy or rent a lift. Harbor Freight makes one that works and you can sell it for half price on line when you are done. Or just look around on line I see them for sale often people doing the same thing. If you have a few strong friends (I didn’t) you can use DIY props to hold the sheets up.