Ceiling in a Basement Shop

[Shovel Man]

Last year I put a ceiling in my shop. Just wanted to share how it's working out. In a word, Great! With a clearance of 97" I really wanted to give up nothing so I could still stand up a sheet of ply. Lights were already in the joist space so I just moved a few outlets etc. Screwed 2 1/2 x 1/4 strips to the bottom of the joists. Got cheap fiberglass ceiling tiles, they can be bent in half and spring back. Cut them to fit between the joists and snapped them into place. I still have access to the space above.

A little extra effort on the strips really gives it a finished look. Started with clear aspen 1 x 3, rounded the edges and sanded. resawed and planed to 1/4". Painted, sanded, painted, installed with screws.

There are still unsightly joints between ceiling tiles but it's a shop.

[toolmiser]

I did something similar to that, but I used a bunch of white faced particle board that was given to me. It made it a lot brighter.

[Alan S]

Do they block some of the sound? Your approach sounds good.

I had been thinking of nailing strips to the sides of the joists at the bottom edge, to hold strips of drywall or something. But I suppose giving up 1/4" under the joists isn't a big problem.

[Shovel Man]

If I wasn't clear, the fiberglass tiles I used have bright white plastic faces. Not what you'd put in a library but it's a shop.

Yes it does block some sound, especially the high frequencies.

If you really don't what to give up that 1/4" you could do the same thing with metal. If you don't cover the bottom of the joists it's going to look ..... not so good.

I cut the 24 x 48 tiles into 24 x 14, wasting only 1/8 of each tile. Cutting into 48 x 14 would have wasted almost half.

[theeviltwinn]

Nice idea but if I closed off the joist spaces in my shop I'd lose half my storage.

Twinn