Alternative to finishing a drywall ceiling?

[Tawn]

My garage has drywall that has been taped and mudded but not "finished". The walls I have already begun covering with cork tiles but I don't know what I am going to do with the ceiling. The ceiling has two ceiling fans and 8 surface mounted 4' fluorescent light fixtures on it.

I have NO desire to sand-mud-sand it to a smooth, paintable surface and was hoping someone had an idea of an alternative. I am even toying with the idea of using tin ceiling tiles.

Anybody got a good idea they wouldn't mind sharing?

Thanks,
Tawn

 

[rasit]

I have nothing to suggest for the ceiling, there are endless possibilities and I'm sure others will chime in, but I am liking that shovelhead!!

 

[Jimmy_B]

I used taping mud to create a stucco kind of look in my basement. Saved a lot of time over trying to make it smooth.

 

[Tawn]

Jimmy B, Can you elaborate on how you did it?

 

[Kevin54]

Here is a pic of my wifes building. My drywall guy rolled it on. It looks like woodgrain. When I asked him how he did it, he showed me a roller that he used that has the texture on it. He thinned down some compound and went at it. Hopefully this shows up.

 

[porschedude996TT]

Pop-Corn LOL

 

[just1more]

Tawn,
Could be a good time to learn how to tape and mud properly... you should not have to do any sanding between coats of mud. If you are sanding between, you are applying too much mud, or not applying it evenly. Excesive sanding takes time, wastes material, and worst, will "fuzz" the drywall paper.

Run the joint in three passes..first pass-center/applying the mud, then a pass on each side of center, using pressure to the outside edge of the knife (flex the blade with wrist pressure) The idea is to get a feathered edge on the drywall paper.

After this coat is dry, run the taping knife (like a scraper) over the previous coat to knock any small "goobers" of before the next coat.
It really is not that hard to do.

 

[Jimmy_B]

Jimmy B, Can you elaborate on how you did it?

I used a cement trowel. Gobbed it on and smeared it around in sweeping arcs. It doesn't take too long to get a 'technique' to give you the look.

 

[Alchymist]

Buy 2 wallpaper brushes - cut one in two about 3/8 of the way from one end. These are your "trowels. Apply drywall compound with a trowel, doing an area about 2-3 ft square at a time. Put it on about 1/16 thick.

Now take the full size brush and starting about 3 inches from a wall, stick the brush parallel to the wall and using one end as a pivot, swing the brush 180 degrees, holding it at an angle like a trowel. Move down 1/2 the brush length and repeat, overlapping the sweep. Step and repeat.

Use the smaller cutoff brushes to create a border along walls and fixtures by dragging in a straight line. The designs can be as plain or as simple as desired.

 

[DekeT]

As Just1 said light coats applied correctly will require very little if any sanding at all.

 

[premierplayer]

Vinyl soffit, I've seen several threads here about using it.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Kevin54, that ceiling looks sweet.

 

[bigbubba]

Buy 2 wallpaper brushes - cut one in two about 3/8 of the way from one end. These are your "trowels. Apply drywall compound with a trowel, doing an area about 2-3 ft square at a time. Put it on about 1/16 thick.

Now take the full size brush and starting about 3 inches from a wall, stick the brush parallel to the wall and using one end as a pivot, swing the brush 180 degrees, holding it at an angle like a trowel. Move down 1/2 the brush length and repeat, overlapping the sweep. Step and repeat.

Use the smaller cutoff brushes to create a border along walls and fixtures by dragging in a straight line. The designs can be as plain or as simple as desired.[/QUOT

This is what we did to my uncles ceiling.Looks great and was alot faster than smoothing it all out!

 

[Kevin54]

My parents house had the fan pattern on their ceiling and the guy used a notched trowel to give the pattern.

 

[kert]

This is a garage right? I think I'd knock of any high spots and paint it flat white and be done with it. I hate texture though.

 

[shannonw]

Take a damp/sponge, hit the high spots down, wet sponge is much easier than sanding....paint it, or hopper and knock down trowel or just stomp brush it! My ceiling is like that, it hides all the drywall/taping,etc imperfections..as it was meant to

http://drywall101.com/articles/texturegroups/rosebud.php

 

[Alchymist]

My parents house had the fan pattern on their ceiling and the guy used a notched trowel to give the pattern.

Some do use a notched trowel, I personally don't like the square edges and v peaks it leaves. Using the wallpaper brushes gives it a more oil painting look. I have seen a few where tinted compound was applied in various colors to give a mural effect. Lot of work there though.

 

[shopnut]

When the textured finish of our drywall patio ceiling started to flake off, I used vinyl soffit material to cover it up. Because it is so lightweight, I was able to screw it directly to the existing drywall. It worked so well in my workshop, I figured why not use it on the patio too.



Follow this link to see my collective information on using the vinyl soffit material:
ASYLUM Thread Reply#1014

Here's the way the shop looks with it:

 

[LennyTheLizard]

As Just1 said light coats applied correctly will require very little if any sanding at all.

I've been hanging drywall for a long time, but not so much on the finishing aspect. I recently found this website though, and it made a lot of the concepts become more clear.

www.drywallschool.com

This guy has some really good pointers / pictures for how to do it right. It's a lot easier to check out his method with pictures. The other key besides light coats is don't try to rush it. Just follow one step at a time.

 

[Kevin54]

Over at my Dentist office, they did the traditional stomping then knocked it down with a trowel. I like the looks of it. Our house has the traditional stomping done except for the Family Room, and it is popcorned. I absolutely hate the popcorn. But the guy I hired to stomp it to match the other came highly recommended. Huge mistake there. I came home from work and he had it stomped. It would have been better if I hired the town drunk to do it. He had the stomps overlapped, had some here, had some there, large areas he missed totally. I told him it was totally unacceptable, so he said he would come back the next day to finish and repair it. A bigger mistake yet. I fired him, kept my money and ran him off of the property. Well, when he thinned the compound he thinned it with paint. So it was going to be a huge job stripping it off. Then I had some medical problems pop up, so to hide the atrocious looks of the ceiling, I had it popcorned. Someday, I'll pull the complete ceiling down, add some new drywall, and just have a smooth ceiling

 

[ddawg16]

The thinned down mud...roll it on method is a great way to go...easy....cheap....and easy to repair.

But I would use a semi-gloss paint....reflects light a bit better and the rough texture breaks up the light to defuse it better. I used High gloss exterior on my garage ceiling....I like it.

 

[shannonw]

man, i like shopnuts idea, i might have to borrow that vinyl idea for similiar fl patio and the garage when i go to repaint it.

 

[wssix99]

Here's a tin ceiling made entirely of license plates:

 

[Kevin54]

One thing to remember with a textured ceiling.....someday it will have to be repaired for some reason and matched. The repair always shows up on texture. On smooth it doesn't

 

[camarotoolman]

Vinyl (above) is good cause you can just wash it down with a wet cloth and no repainting in the futue.