Laundry room

After we'd gotten over the pain of finishing the 2nd bathroom, we started sprucing up the laundry room because it was going to be relatively cheap, and most of the world wouldn't see our rudimentary DIY skills.   Though every time I do a DIY post I feel like it should be called "things to avoid doing in your DIY project."

My scary laundry room before:

 

Cement floor, insulation hanging from the ceiling and insulation exposed in the wall, big water heater.

 

Then, We extended the tile from the bathroom and got ourselves a tankless water heater (LOVE it! Very efficient and way more space.) Notice the trim is off the door.  Contractor (who we are NEVER hiring again) talked me into a 26 inch pocket door.  Any guesses as to how wide a standard washer and dryer are?  27 inches.  Yeah, that's more than 26 inches.  Thank God he didn't talk me into the 24 inch door or not even taking off the trim would have gotten the new ones in.

 

 

Then we added drywall to everything but a small bit by the furnace, painted a seafoam green color and added white trim...

 

Added new washer and dryer

I was happy with this for a few months, but then I wanted to do even more.  The previous owners left the original drop ceiling from the first finishing of the basement out in the shed.  I figured I could put it over the insulation over my head, but not all the way to the window or covering all the pipes and such that come down in that area of the room, but at least I would have a nicer laundry part of the room.

I figured out the project from this Youtube guy....  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Drop+Ceiling+Installation&Form=VQFRVP#view=detail&mid=CFE2F6DB9677DF8E39C7CFE2F6DB9677DF8E39C7  Who also showed me drywall installation.

First, I had to figure out how low to put the ceiling.  What I did right is to make sure it was not any lower than the door trim (which by now had been put back on).  I also (tried to) level it.  What I did wrong is that I didn't think about the additional inch or so the metal brackets would stick up.  So it was a REALLY tight fit to get the tiles under my furnace ducts (see very first picture). After I'd attached this into the studs (easy to find since I'm not the greatest at mudding drywall and some of the studs were visible from the top of the drywall), I was left with only 3 walls.  Because I was not going all the way to the window (wanted all the natural light I could get and there are a bunch of pipes and stuff sticking every which way that we'll need access to soon), I had to figure out how to effectively make a 4th wall to stick my edging strip to.  My solution was to take some nice 1x 4 pine boards from the shed, cut them down, and "make" a wall.  I cut them about 15 inches long (my ceiling is dropped 12 inches from the joists above)  and then held them down so the bottom was at 12 inches and put one nail in, then measured, then used 2 long screws to attach them to the joists and then attached my L edging to it...

 

Then I bought this  wire suspension kit online from Home Depot and patiently waited for it to be delivered.... I ordered 2 but only needed 1 for my 7 1/2 foot by 8 1/2 foot area.

 

So, then what you need to do, I cannot stress this enough because I probably wasted an hour because I didn't do it... get a piece of graph paper and map out your space with obstructions.  First,  I forgot about the fact I can't put the wire hanging screws (more about this in a moment)  couldn't be attached to the heat duct, so one of my long bars needed to be attached in between the intake and outtake ducts.  Second, I then decided to start at the wall above the door for full tiles and ended up with a stupid looking 2 inch strip at the other end.  Had I thought it out I would have evened out the two ends more. Yes, it would have been more cutting of tiles, but would have worked out better.  Also I lucked out in my light placement in that I could move my fixture to the middle of a tile from where it was because when I put it up, I was really close to an intersection of my beams.

 

Also, the kit I bought from HD was way more heavy duty than I needed, but it was only $4, so I'm fine with it.  But a) the wire was really thick and a little harder to deal with than maybe 4 or 8 guage wire (12 was in the kit) the wire was really long (for my foot drop, I got away with cutting the wires in 1/2 with a wire cutter).

 

First you attach these things that have a screw bottom and a head with a hole for the wire to go through.  You will hang your long, sturdier beams perpendicular to the joist.  Measure from the wall out how far you figured your first tile needs to be from the drawing on your graph paper.  Then mark every 2 feet along the joist you pick.  It doesn't matter which joist you pick.  The package said I needed an adapter for my drill.  However, I absolutely did not.  I put my screw head in the chucked drill part (no screw head or bit) and put that sucker in the joist.  One thing you can learn from my mistake-Do not put the screw in too tight, you really barely need it in there for it to work and it's a pain to try to release the chuck 2 feet above your head.  Just get it in just enough to stay in so you can release it easily after you get it in the joist.

 

Also, the packaging says every 4 feet.   You do not need to do them any closer than this.  Less is more here- you'll find this out when you are trying to maneuver the tiles into your grid around obsticles and have to maneuver them around your wires that you hung.  I did 2 feet or so from the ends of my wall (I was putting it along the 7 1/2 foot wide end of the wall).  I also did not do all of them on the same joist and I found this helpful when trying to maneuver the tiles up into the grid. You will hook the one end on to the screw head and then bend the wire at 90 degrees at your ceiling depth (12 inches in my case) so you can ease the wire into one of the many circles on your beam.

 

A note about cutting your long, sturdy beams.  On the beams you will see rectangular slots where the cross beams will go in and you'll see circles for the wire holes.  Make your starting point against the wall a rectangular slot.   If all your starting points are rectangular slots, your joist wires will line up with a proper circle and your slots will line up for the next part of the installation.  Also, you'll see in the video I linked to that you cut them with sheet metal snippers (which I do have) and cut the top away from the wall at a small angle to prevent scratches.  My other tip would be to use heavy gloves.  I ended up with 2 Dora bandaids as a result of fairly deep cuts form the metal I'd cut.  You'll cut the long beam the same length as your wall that your L bracket is along that is perpendicular to the direction of your ceiling joists.  Once you have them cut, attach to your wires and bend and twist both ends.

 

 

 

 

 

After the longer beams are put in you'll do the shorter beams.  As Shannon in the video explains, 2 beams go in each slot, so make sure that they are facing the right way, that is that the smooth sides slide against each other and catch on to the longer beam.  This part is a little tricky esp with only one person and I recommend doing your smaller beams so that you are inserting both of them at the same time. So work along one joist and then the next. Shannon explains in the video how to do the end parts, basicly you are cutting them off the same way as your main beams and resting the ends on the L wall corners.

 

Once your metal grid is in place it should start feeling a little sturdier.  My recommendation is to cut and place the tiles around the edge first as the larger tiles will be easier. Do not place the tiles in yet for the light.  I used my handy dandy drywall ruler/straight cutter from the drywall part of this project to use a utility knife to cut the tiles. I started on the bigger ones so that if I made a mistake, I could possibly redeem them in one of the smaller holes.  Insert the tiles into the grid except for where the light goes.

 

You'll notice before I had a plain light bulb hanging down.  Which means with a one foot drop ceiling, my ceiling would cover my old light fixture.  I decided to get a recessed light which ran about $15 without the bulb.  Inch my light was 5 1/2 inches tall, I needed to get another 7 1/2 inches.  And because I didn't accurately draw out where my light was, I was right on an intersection of grid. AFTER turning off the electrical at the panel to that room, we removed the light fixture.  I took more of the pine 1x4 boards and created a Table top that was 18 inches across (outside edge of joist to outside edge) and 9 inches long on the sides (7 1/2 inches I needed to get my 5 1/2 inch fixture down through the tile as well as 2 inches to screw in to the joist). 

Then I took the template from the box and put a circle in the center of a tile.  Then inserted the light into the tile and with the power off connected the recessed light fixture wires to the wires where the old fixture was and one person nudged it against wood table and the other person put a quick nail in to hold where the table part should go. Then the table part was secured to the joist. The light and tile were put into the ceiling and we screwed in the light to the table we'd made. Then we put in a lightbulb and there you go!

 

Finished (until we do a kitchen remodel and I take the cabinets to organize down here..)

 

Definitely more pleasant next

 

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