Need advice - what to do about an uneven ceiling

[longlivepunk]

Hey GJ guys and gals.

I've been working on refurbishing my garage for the last couple of years, and to be honest if I had known how bad everything was back then I would have just torn it down and built new. Unfortunately I don't have a time machine and have invested a fair bit of money and a hell of a lot of time into my little ****-shack (the guys who built this thing should definitely have worked in retail, not construction) so there's no going back now.

Rant over; on to my question: The beams for the roof in my Man Pit-of-despair (Mine is definitely not a "cave") are rough--hewn wood of somewhat uneven sizes, spacing, and (as it turns out) level! (See awful MS Paint drawing below) basically, if you hold a nice straight bit of lumber or a level up to the bottom of these beams there will be gaps of up to a half-inch under some of them!

View media item 53522
The issue is that I'm working on insulating and heating this place, and I'm not sure how I would enclose the ceiling (was planning on drywalling) and have it look decent if these are uneven. My garage is old so the roof is not actually trusses, it's stick-framed and right now I'm in the process of re-doing all of the supports in the roof to make it sturdy, so I was thinking I could possibly go rent 4 tele-posts and try to level them that way and then they would be held in place by the bracing. Only issue is that it seems to me like that would be more weight on the roof rather than extra support for the roof if it's trying to keep these stupid beams from sagging. Any other thoughts on what I should do here? I'm really hoping to be warm this winter!

Edit: I should also mention that sadly money is definitely a factor. Looking for a CHEAP solution.

 

[rlitman]

If you have a tablesaw, you could rip shims to fill in the gaps.

 

[Thorold]

Two words - resiliant channel. This is what saved our similar ceiling in our 1900ish home. You lose about 3/4" of height in the process.

 

[Shiftless]

Or, you could sister in new joists making the new joists straight and level. If your new joists extended over the top plate of the walls, you would end up with a stronger and straighter ceiling.

Sorry, but you'll have to buy a lot of lumber if you go this route.

I think rlitman has the best idea for the most economical fix. Shims cut from scrap lumber would run you close to zero money. Be careful with that table saw though.

 

[Zeke]

Shims work but there may be what they call a crook, or a bow in the vertical (longer dimension) to the wood. You then would have to cut shims at different thicknesses for the length of the lumber.

Fastest way to do this is to sister 2 x 3's (or 2 x 4's) to the side of the existing like Shiftless says. Use strings or a laser to determine the lowest point of the ties or joists, whatever you have there. You have to do this more or less to use the hat channel shown in post #3 anyway.

If there is one particular joist bowing down in the center and that makes the whole of the rest of the joists high, consider snapping a line along the bottom side and ripping some off to get a higher plane relative to the rest. A power planer is an ideal tool for this.

If overall weight is a particular problem, you will have to beef up the joists with bigger sisters than what is there. Or you could use light weight steel studs fastened to the edge of the existing and brought down to level.

 

[longlivepunk]

Shims work but there may be what they call a crook, or a bow in the vertical (longer dimension) to the wood.

Thanks guys! Since I've been taking out some supports to work on the roof structure I'm thinking there is probably a bit of sag in the beams right now. Leaning towards renting tele-posts and a couple beams, getting them as level as I can and re-building the rest of the roof structure, then fixing any issues that are left with shims. I'd like to lose as little ceiling height as possible since I will be putting a mill in there eventually as well.

Again, thanks for the help and if anyone out there has a better suggestion I'm all ears.

 

[larry_g]

If you have a laser that you can use to establish a level plane within the building you can map the high and low points of of the bottom of the rafters. Doing this will show you the amount of offset each rafter has. Once you know that you will see that most of them will likely be on the same plane and a few will need adjusting. Once you know the who the outliers are you can either raise or shim them as necessary. You should find that better than 50% of them can be used as is.

I would also go into this with the idea that you want a FLAT ceiling and not necessary level.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[K13]

Have you checked to see if they are sagging or just not installed at the same height? That would be the determining factor for me as to how to correct. If they are just different heights shims will be the fastest and cheapest way to go.

 

[sixty4]

I once had an old wavy ceiling drove me nuts (house older than dirt). I ended up sheet rocking and having it skim coated. Still looks great today.

 

[sleepjeep]

You could run 2x4 (laid flat) perpendicular to the existing joists and shim as needed. This then would allow you to to have even spacing between your new "joists" as you could place them on 24" on center. Then apply your dry wall using these joists. Float and tape as usual.

 

[AnthonyJ124]

I did the perpendicular 2x4 and shim recommendation and used a 6' level to get the ceiling plane "good enough" on a recent basement project. If you can afford the few inches of height, it's probably the easiest of options.

 

[fury9]

They are probably already sagged as far (within reason here) as they're gonna go. I'd nail a 2x4 to the side and call it done. This will keep your height as high as possible. Use a string line and grab a helper

 

[mikester]

I had a similar problem with the kitchen in my 115 year old house. I had 9' ceilings so I ran a whole new frame out of 2x6s along all 4 walls and then put in 2x6s as joists. it was only supporting the drywall. Its been up for 22 years. No issues.