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Information about installing a tin ceiling.
By Franklyn Gallup of woodfloorist.com
Very often I end up doing a job to help move things along so that I can finally install or refinish a wood floor. I like these little side jobs as if gives my a break from looking at wood floors. It also is sometimes a good challenge. One of my customers was restoring an old home and wanted to have a real tin ceiling to bring the kitchen back to the original nine foot ceiling. A tin ceiling fit into the time period of the home so I offered to tsckle this project. The first task was to remove the remuddled drop ceiling that had been installed. I also needed to demo the rest of the kitchen which included removing Z-brick which is fake brick that was very popular in the 70's. The remuddled ceiling consisted of 2x6's fastened around the perimeter of the kitchen. with five inch long common nails. A little over build if you ask me. Then there were 2x6's running across the kitchen every 12 inches and fastened to the perimeter board again with 5 inch long spikes. These 2x6's were beautiful Douglas fir which ended up being used for other repairs around the house. It took me three days to undo these boards. I ended up having to cut the boards just to get leverage to remove them. After I finished the removal of the boards there was another problem. The original lath and plaster ceiling was held up by 2x4's that ran the entire length of the kitchen. The electricians refused to walk on this for fear of breaking through so someone came in and installed bracing. with the roof rafters to make it stronger. After the electrical was updated and I had installed the bead board on the walls I started on installing the tin ceiling. This was real tin that was made the same way it was made 100 years ago. The 16 by 16 inch panels locked together very much like acoustical tile locks together. Two sides of each panel were female and two sides were male which locked together.. The male edges had a lip that could be screwed with drywall type screws to the old lath and plaster.. I soon found that the edges were not flat. The instructions that came with the tin ceiling warned me not to drive them tight together as the tin would force themselves out of square which was impossible to correct. The walls were also not square which meant that I need to cut the first edge with tin shears for adjust for the wall. I had lines everywhere trying to figure out where to install the first tile so that there would be a small sliver at the edge. It took me about two hours to get the first tile in place. After that is got easier. I built an eight inch space between the panels which was something I wasn't used to with wood floors. I was used to making everything as tight as possible. I had purchased two different tin snips to cut the panels and this helped a lot. I was very careful not to cut myself as the cut edges were extremely sharp. This caution made the work go slow but it was very rewarding to learn this new skill. Cutting around the boxes for the ceiling lights and ceiling fan was a little tricky. I didn't have a lot of extra tiles to work with so it was important not to make any wrong cuts. Many of these cuts had to be re-cut larger several times. Too small a hole was better than too big a hole.. The gaps between the tiles drove me crazy for a while but they were necessary for the installation to be done. The painter about a month later filled the gaps with caulking. He did an awesome job and this made the ceiling look like I thought it should look. I would love to tackle another tin ceiling again someday.are easy to work with. |
AmericanTinCeilings
A new tin ceiling I installed
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
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Great information, Franklyn.
The finished product is beautiful and will recieve good comments for years.
Thank you for sharing.
Frederick
I had never heard of tin ceilings, thanks for this enlightening article. Your writing style is awesome and I was able to follow the process for the most part, though I still don't get why they need the gaps especially if it's going to get caulked up aftewards. Go figure!
 | | nick Jan 16, 2010 15:02 | |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Nick, a tin ceiling is made out of the same type of metal in many automobiles only thinner. The pattern is pressed into the tin much like a notary stamp presses a raised seal into a legal document. Then the edges are folded to make the edges so they fold together. It is this folding process that makes the metal bunch up on the corners. Because the tin is so thin it will buckle if you try to drive it tight. By building the eighth inch space in it allows for you to keep the pattern from going out of square, because you can use up the eighth inch space to bring it back into alignment.
I have seen a revival of these tin ceilings for the last few years. They are very pretty, unlike my boring white plaster ceiling. I checked out your website and would you know it, I am in the process of getting carpeting ripped out and wood floors put in. I am a widow and not very handy with tools of any kind so it's costing me a lot of money. Too bad you are quite a ways in the west coast.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Yes that is too bad as things are really slllloooooooow out here in any of the construction industries. I am listening to commercials where major flooring companies are offering 12 months with no payments or interest on top of 60% off. I can't begin to compete with someone practically giving flooring away.
Great information. Love the tin ceiling; it looks great.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks. It was a little challenging but very rewarding.
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