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what to do with ceiling in finished basement

3 years ago

We purchased a home with a finished basement that included a very worn and unevenly hung drop ceiling. We have decided to give it a facelift. Unfortunately the drop ceiling was hiding massive tangles of wire, from various projects (we think) over the years - running power to the in-room light fixtures, power to the added man cave in the next room over, power to the massive detached garage. A few pics below give an idea of what we are working with. We are considering three options. 1) put in a mew drop ceiling system 2) remove existing drywall above all the wires, and get the wiring up between the floor joists so we can hang new Sheetrock. 3) add 2” framing beneath existing ceiling to add new drywall.

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Comments (5)

cat_ky
3 years ago
Go with a dropped ceiling. Make sure the wires are good and are safe, first. You need to have access to all those wires, in case of future problems, so a drop ceiling is a lot more practical, and less expensive than having to tear down the ceiling when you need to access.
fnmroberts
3 years ago
I don’t know your building codes but where I reside those would be judged a fire hazard. Have them inspected for your family’s safety and corrected if so advised. Depending on how recently you purchased the previous owner or home inspector may have some responsibility.
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The post above yours tells you why. The drop ceiling isn't for leaks only; it's for access. Your major systems run from basement to the upper floors. We have been in the ceiling of our basement two story home two dozen times in the past year alone. Rewiring, running telephone, cable tv, stereo to other rooms, the door bell issue I posted above, accessing a duct making noise, all sorts of things, even fishing wires from the basement to the second floor for ethernet or or other jacks for the bedrooms. Having a drop ceiling on every floor would be the most practical way of fixing anything, but most people don't want that. Not because it isn't practical, but because they don't like the way it looks. It's all fine and dandy to drywall until you have to do *anything* in the ceiling of the basement, and then you have a huge mess trying to find what you need to access, and repairing the hole. We had a problems with the ejector pump from our sump and it ran through the ceiling. Imagine the problems drywall would have caused. We were able to pop up the tile and replace a loose connection in miutes with no sign of repair. Most people I know simply don't make the changes they need in their home if it means cutting the drywall, even those who swore they'd never need to. If you have a drop done professionally, it can look really great. Besides, no one is going to be fooled that is isn't the basement! Good luck with whatever you decide to do :-)
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I feel like I shouldn't be giving advice since I'm just beginning the basement "journey" myself but I like your point about how you don't have to access pipes in other parts of your house, so why shouldn't the basement be the same! We've had to access pipes in part of our dining room and kitchen but our house is 100 years old. It was a pain but not terribly expensive when it came to the opening up or re-drywalling or patching after (forgot what they technically did). I'd say the biggest pain comes down to having to re-paint the entire ceiling to make paint match! Especially if it's a big basement ceiling! However again... if you have a good plumber/electrician do the work and think ahead about anything you might want later (assuming you're talking newly-added plumbing/electrical), it seems you have a pretty good chance of not having to access it for many many years to come (?). I was just adding to my ever-building list of questions to research: what would it look like (would it even be possible) to drywall the majority of the living space in our basement - which will have an open kitchen - but then put some sort of access panels in the ceiling (drop ceiling or whatever it's called) in the kitchen portion? Same with bathroom? But again, maybe not necessary! Plus I really want to sound-insulate between floors as much as possible in case we need to rent out the basement because we have 3 loud boys!! : - /
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We also have had to reconfigure our basement due to the same issues you are facing. We have cleaned up all the ceilings and in between the joists, took out all the old wiring that wasn’t to code, took out all the old pipes that go no where, removed all the pipe insulation and will wrap it in sound proofing wrap, and we have an HVAC company coming in to thin the ducts to 3” so that they will go between the joists , run agains walls, they will be wider but thinner . We also changed out the sewer pipe since it was the original which was rusting and smelly, wont have to be done again. We will put Safe and sound in the joists and then use a 3/8” drywall with pot lights on the ceiling.
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worthy
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
That tangle of unsupported wiring and open junction box(es) is against all electrical Codes and dangerous.

It's an unpleasant job. But I'd remove the drywall, which will likely expose more hazardous electrical shortcuts, and have the wiring done correctly. (On a new build, my electrical contractor was fined $1,000 for running one 3/10 cable the way yours is--$500 for the first inspection, another $500 when it wasn't corrected on re-inspection.)

After that, you can decide on a dropped ceiling or new drywall.
Izzy Mn
3 years ago
Kind of looks like what my parents had. After 50 years of my dad's diy electrical work in the basement rooms (including a bedroom) my mom hired a electrician to redo what dad did. Took about three days for one guy to do it all. Some stuff was done with extension cords. They did keep a lot of the metal conduit electrical wires used to be run through and just ran the stuff through them when they could.

Was there a suspended ceiling covering a drywall ceiling? That would make ceilings really low.
3onthetree
3 years ago
As it is, your suspended ceiling is 6'-8"ish. Minimum habitable space height is 7'-0" (6'-4" under beams). Remove the drywall and put it into the joist spaces, no furring, new drywall tight to joists. All the non-metallic cabling needed support anyway, not just draped onto the suspended ceiling, it looks like with firetaped drywall then adding a suspended ceiling that this may have been the original garage or something like that.

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